Dreaming of Chocolate and Grey:
by Christine Wood
Summary: Ana and Christian are not the same, far from it, there is still the Jack and Elena involvement and Christian does still use submissives, Ana too has another relationship, and it won't be a popular one with you diehards. It is not a cheat story either, but it will be a tissue tear jerker or two but I will warn you prior to posting. So a HEA it is then seeing as you lot can't wait..
1. Chapter 1

**_DREAMING OF CHOCOLATE AND GREY:_**

 ** _SOME OF IT IS GOING TO BE HARD READING, SOME OF IT IS GOING TO BE HAIR TEARING, SOME OF IT WILL HAVE YOU QUESTIONING MY SANITY, NO WORRIES, I DO THAT ALL THE TIME..._**

 ** _I DO NOT MIND CRITICISM BUT I WILL NOT BE BULLIED EITHER_**

 ** _IF IT IS NOT FOR YOU DON'T READ IT:_**

 ** _ENJOY IT OR NOT THE CHOICE IS YOURS._**

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This is based like my other stories, around Fifty Shades of Grey. It is not at all like it, I use the character traits to create a similar story. Some places are the same, some names are the same, and others are missing altogether and some do not do follow the same career path, my Ana is a master chocolatier, she is almost 25 when this story begins, just to make Ana's career path work, so she was born 1990 and the current year is 2015. Ana uses her father's name of Lambert. The Steel's (not misspelt) in the story are Ana's maternal grandparents and their family, their surname is D'Acciaio. (Steel in Italian.) They are a large and loud Italian family of bakers. Ana's mother is a model Carla Steel, an actress, a kept woman and disowned by the D'Acciaio's.

Christian is 32. Elliot is 34. Mia is 23, they are all slightly older, but their jobs are the same and Mia is a chef in training and she is in awe of her cooking idol Anastasia D'Acciaio. I am taking a lot of liberties with the fifty story and with the places of fiction I have mixed with the places of fact. It is after all a fan fiction story and I love the bad boy billionaires and their lives and I love the BDSM theme of fifty, and so I wrote this one, it is one I have been thinking about posting for awhile, in fact it was written way before fifty falls, I am just re polishing it.

I still have the grammar issues I always will have, I am dyslexic and yes I'm English, yet still I can't master the written English word, and I am 52 and such I am unable to do any better than I do now, I am improving, but I have a way to go, yes I have been around the block a few times, so don't go sassing me with bad remarks, if you don't like the change in the story, please do not read on.

Ana and Christian are not the same, far from it, there is still the Jack and Elena involvement and Christian does still use submissives, Ana too has another relationship, and it won't be a popular one with you diehards. I am not saying it is a HEA, but it is not a cheat story either, but it will be a tissue tear jerker or two and I will warn you prior to posting if the chapter has triggers, yes there will be some... Now all that said, read it and tell me what you think...

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Dreaming of Chocolate and Grey:

Chapter 1:

Anastasia Rose D'Acciaio-Lambert, explained.

If someone tells you, that you remember your first love forever, they are right, you do. I met mine when I was but a wee young girl in Bonny Scotland; he was the son and grandson of a client of my grandfather. They came to stop on Otter Island one summer, when I was far too young to know who they were. They however liked it so much that first time, that for many years after, it would become their regular once a year, guys only week for golfing. The funny and kind double act of father and son-in-law golf mad duo, were and are, Mr Theo Trevelyan and Mr Carrick Grey. They brought with them Carrick's sons and obviously, Theo's grandsons, Elliot, who was a goofy eleven year old, hyper and talkative nice boy, who made me laugh, he was funny and stupid too and as I said kind of goofy. He called me Wisp, because I was wild and never still, much like 'Willo The Wisp' I was here, there and everywhere. The other son was nine and called Christian, now he was totally different, well he was compared to his brother Elliot anyhow, he was moody and sullen, he hardly spoke, he fought with Elliot all the time and was quite frightening at first. He would fly into rages and break stuff, but only when he was touched. He let me touch him a couple of times when I was the wee two year old and harmless, but as I got older I didn't dare, he would push me away and scream at me.

Our humble beings are well documented, they are all on video film, which my papa took of us, me and the boys and it continued for many, many years, I still have them. They are part of my history with the Trevelyan Greys.

As Christian grew up, his demeanour didn't change much, in fact as he got older he drank and smoked and swore a lot. To me he was the epitome of what a street fighting bad boy American would look like. But and this is the big but, he was amazingly gorgeous, he always has been and that bad boy persona he had as he got older, it intensified, it had the twelve year old me hooked on the nineteen year old Christian Grey, yes I was in love with the much older bad boy, a whole seven years, two months and twenty three days older, is in fact the difference in our ages. The copper haired hard case, who I saw once a year for one week only, was in my life and my dreams for as long as I can remember, he captured my heart and I couldn't wait to see them every year. I think about my following him around all the time and wish sometimes that I had now avoided him like the plague, or fucked off out of his space, as he so eloquently shouted at me as I spied on him, but in his defence, I did do it all the time.

What I should do is get my head out of the clouds and focus on the meeting I'm heading into. I don't really want to sell Otter Island, I love the castle and the golf course, but I can't handle my career and all that Otter Island has going on. I have worked for years with a number of managers, but they all have been useless and or were missing something, but all of them have managed to slowly ruin the exclusive and secret reputation that my grandfather had taken over fifty five years to cultivate and to get the exclusive and ultra secret membership we have here, did I say it's like a secret big boys club?

I am way out of my league even trying to run it like Papa Frank did. I have tried to do it justice, especially since Papa died, and I have tried extra hard in the last two years actually, tried hard to get better people in and still it is failing. My love of the place is nothing compared to my love of my chosen career, and because I am selfish, my need to fulfil my own dreams has I will sorrowfully admit it taken precedence over Otter Island and the estate. The island hideaway it's slowly dying and it is me that is killing the place, me with my dire and selfish need to keep it because it was my families, yet I am failing it miserably by not knowing all I should do to run it as Papa did. I realised I needed to let it go to someone who loves the place as Papa Frank did, and I think today I will be able to do just that, because today, Grey Enterprise Holdings and Leisure are buying the golfing retreat from me.

I take a last look in the mirror and as I skim my hands over my tailored suit, I head in, if he wants the place he will pay for it. I say to the Sassy lassie in the mirror of the restroom. A girl in her gray smart office attire and ridiculously high shoes walks me to a glass door. She is about to open the door when I ask for a moment. She nods and stands behind her desk, she speaks into outer space and tells me to go in when I am ready, will I ever be ready to part with my granny's ancestral home, my first home and my papa's dream?

It's the best place in the whole of Scotland, it is a secret golf course set over many little islands, sure it may not be as famous as St Andrews, but its course is just as good as theirs. What makes it special is the secrecy and select membership it has. It is a well hidden hideaway gem, a gem that is known only to the people who want to golf in peace and quiet, who want to escape from reality for as long as they are guests there. They are cloaked in a veil of secrecy, and that's just one of the many things about this place that I can't seem to fathom out, I surmised that they are members of the secret Masonic Society? Do they get their membership here with a secret handshake and code passed down through the differing Masonic Lodges? Because believe it or not I have never had to advertise, and I never run out of new members, yet none of the members would tell me how it worked?

Otter Island was long ago a hideaway island for the rebellious Clan McKenzie, who were my Granny Mimi's ancestors, they were known Jacobites and were almost wiped out in the Clan uprising against the Sassenach King, in fact, the castle they lived in is now a hotel and built of my Papa Frank, who was a retired millionaire property mogul born in America, to Ellis Island immigrant Italian parents. Long before I was born, he and my grandmother, the canny Scott he married Mimi McKenzie, returned to her ancestral pile when my father was five, unfortunately it was an actual pile of rubble. She lured him away from America, with the intentions of having him rebuild her ancestral castle and because he loved her, he did. He often told me that he loved its location and the peace and quiet it brought to his crazy life, and later on in life it got them well away from my father's crazed fans too. Because of its seclusion and the hard to get onto location, there would never be a fans foot land on the island.

All thanks in the main to its quirky, small, barely connecting island formation it wasn't accessible from the mainland and Otter Island's bulkiness and heavily tree lined frontage, helped to hide those small stepping stone connections, and remain hidden they did. The smaller islands were big enough to have on them vastly differing greens. Papa Frank, he had purchased all the other long abandoned islands, which weren't by that time McKenzie land when they moved into the newly refurbished castle. Three of the outer islands were to become homes to a flock of sheep and a small herd of cows, that the islands one farmer and his son, raised for meat and another farming islander grew vegetables to fed the hotels privileged guests, the island is as self sufficient as it gets. Papa Frank, he too loved and valued his privacy, and because of his refusal to build a bridge to the large Otter Island, there was no road or foot access, it was and still is only accessible by boat, seaplane or helicopter. The outer ones however are connected by small bridges and stone roads, all of them linking the outer links to those on Otter Island. I love my home and it's a very labyrinth like hideaway, a little girl's haven in the sea.

I was not born there though... No, I was born by accident in Hollywood. My father, Franklin Lambert Junior, he with the awesome stage name of Lenny Lamb, was touring America with his band, Of Wolves and Lambs, when he met my mother the fashion model, Carla Steel (real name Carlotta D'Acciaio) they had a wild and passionate hook up in his dressing room once after a concert, a one time hook up that resulted in me happening. From everything I know about her back then and what I know about her now, she was a fame and money hungry bitch, and she was a famous English model, well she was until she fell pregnant with me and her star studded life had to put work on hold, my mother was not happy, but my grandparents, both maternal and paternal, insisted that she had to be a mother first, my father insisted on it too, whilst he continued to be the rock star, groupie screwing, lead singer of a rock and roll band. He said children had to have a stay at home mother, as he'd had with Mimi.

He sounded fantastic from everything his parents told me, I doubt they took much heed of the groupie screwing though. I wish I had known him; I have some great mementos of him, which is better than nothing. He sounded so great on all his albums and the videos I have, he looked like your stereotypical rock and roll star, tattooed, long haired, muscled and sexy I guess? He was a very smart business man, a great song writer, who was canny enough to own all of the bands master tracks and copyrights to the songs he wrote, that was until that was he met Carla and they had sex.

He died because of me. He was there in Hollywood to do a concert at the Bowl, only the day before it happened, I decided to make my appearance. He was driving my mother, her mother and his mother to the hospital to have me and they were in a car accident, he lived for just one short day after the crash, after a failed operation to fix his broken head, he was declared brain dead and his machines were turned off and his organs donated. His death was the fault of that drunk driver who hit them, he was driving his car on their side of the road, so the rock world lost a legend, I lost my father, his parents lost their son and my mother gained a meal ticket, me! She didn't care too much for the baby she birthed, but she loved that he had made me his heir, subject to certain terms conditions and a positive blood match. As I said, he was a great business man my daddy. Now despite the crash, I was born healthy and I was instantly loved by both sets of my grandparents. My mother, wow she was a different case.

After the funeral she and I parted ways, after the DNA confirmed that I was Franklin Lambert Juniors daughter, I was sold to my Papa Frank for a mere million dollars, after she found out much to her dismay that I wouldn't inherit until I was twenty five and his father was the executor of his huge estate and that she got nothing, nothing that is but a thank you and a kiss his ass letter from beyond the grave, along with his iron clad NDA he had her sign before they fucked, yes crass, but it was there in black and white, so she couldn't even do a kiss and tell without losing her shirt. I didn't know this though until I was much older, when she came back for me. That's another story for my tell all autobiography, I think?

She left me with my paternal grandparents Papa Frank and Granny Mimi Lambert, and so as a consequence of the sale, I was thankfully raised by them on Otter Island. Later on when I was twelve, I lived in Soho London and was then cared for by Nonno Santino; my grandfather and Nonna Vita, my grandmother, the D'Acciaio's and Carla's parents, my mad for baking Italian grandparents, who had plenty of visits when I was on the island, they were and are still the biggest part of my life. I was shown so much love and attention from all four of my grandparents and uncles, that I didn't miss her at all. You can't miss what you have never had right, a mother's love?

My confused and different upbringing made people who knew me envious, I might add with no good cause to be so, they were jealous of the places I could be, and the people I could have in my life. I was rich if I wanted to be. I could mix with movie stars if I wanted to. Sing with big named singers and bands if I had half a mind to do so. It was a world that was alien to me and a world that was never really me. My head always thought, 'what is the point in being mega wealthy, if all I am is mega sad?' All the time never knowing if people liked me for me or for the people my parents knew? My mother was wrong, money does not bring you happiness, because if it did, I would be euphoric all the bloody time and I wasn't, not anymore. My life so far said it all, I was at best, blessed or at worst, cursed, and the latter was the more appropriate accolade I had achieved. They say that life's a melting pot of people and experiences; then heck yes I agree, because my life pot is all that and more, so much more.

So, here I am selling the place I was raised in and though I want to keep it, it also holds some painful memories for me too. The man in question, and the one causing most of those horrid memories, is who I am about to go head to head with, I doubt he even remembers me anyway. I however knew him and I loved him and I think I always will, because they say you remember your first and he was the one man who had shared my firsts, all of them, I would agree you do remember your first...

I head in and he and his team are sat at the end of the conference table in his offices here at Grey House in Seattle. They are about to rise from their seats and I nod my head and wave my hands for them to stay put. He scans my body and his eyes don't miss a curve or a line. I keep my head held high and keep him in my eye line, and I say to myself I will not bow down to this man. I will be strong and I will not cry. Yes cry, because seeing him again has all those damned old feelings coming right back and it hits me suddenly and without warning, like a tsunami, and they overwhelm me. I sit down before I fall down. I keep looking at him and hope for some sort of recognition, I mean he came to the island for so many summers, summers I spent with him and still he does not remember me. Great...

"Miss D'Acciaio-Lambert, welcome to GEH. You will see before you the proposed agreement for us to buy Otter Island from you, your asking price is fair and I have agreed to it. I spent many summers there and I was sorry to hear that your grandfather passed away, he made the place special." He remembers us then, great?

"I know, and he looked forward to seeing your grandfather and father every year, they were happy summers." I say, keeping it civil.

"I remember them well, I remember you too. You were a mere child back then." He says with a smile.

"I was two when you and Elliot first came to play golf and you were only a child yourself, nine I believe?"

"I remember, yes I was. That is why I want the island; it was and still is the only place in the world that guarantees my privacy and it was a calming place." Right, what are you remembering, because I don't remember you being very calm? He even screamed like a wailing Banshee in the middle of the damned night.

"You still go each year? I didn't know that. Of course I haven't been there much over the past few years. I have had my own businesses to run. Hence me deciding to sell, I might add hesitantly because it is my ancestral home. I am doing it more harm by not being there and if you have been there recently I am sure you noticed the slip in standards?"

"I had, your grandfather has had managers in running it for many years. His personal touch and care was what was missing. It is still an excellent place to be, in fact I went there early this year for a few days, we all did, and it was just as I remembered it." I wonder, do you remember everything Christian? Like I do?

"I stopped going back when we brought Papa back to America. He never recovered after Granny Mimi died when I was twelve, he was a mess for years, he couldn't cope with me and I was sent to live with my mother's parents, the D'Acciaio's in London. I was just eighteen when he had his stroke and then I had to cope alone with the island for over four years, I was too young at eighteen to understand it all, and the managers I got in thought I came down in the last shower, they learned I didn't, the hard way, I fired their asses and did it again and again." He laughs; which shocks the lady to his side. Her throaty cough and her gravelly laugh, it catches me unawares. I'd thought the fiery, red haired COO of his would be a little more lady like at least?

"I didn't know you were alone and going through all that."

"That and much more, because by then there was the legal stuff with my father to deal with and my dead beat mother too and it was hard doing both my studying and running the island, when Papa Frank died something in me died with him and I lost my love of the place and didn't go back again."

"You should have asked for help."

"I was too strong headed and too stubborn. I thought I could do it all myself. I had to choose, and I did then what I am still choosing to do now, and that is to follow my own career."

"You are a confectioner are you not?" Ha, really Mr Grey? That is like saying you run a scrap yard or a one stop property shop or a travel agency. At the grand age of twenty four, I'm a Master Chocolatier of some worth and those are not my words, but those of the good men and great bakers and chocolatiers who have taught me all they know. I keep it civil, which is hard, was he always such an ass?

"Yes Mr Grey, I make confectionary treats, if that's what you care to call owning the best chocolate shops in the world?"

"I did not mean to offend you Miss D'Acciaio-Lambert." God my name sounds so sexy coming from those lips.

"You didn't, sorry I have had a bad day, coming in on the red eye hasn't helped, and I need to be going as soon as business is done here, I am opening my latest shop in New York tomorrow."

"Business is booming then?"

"It is, The House of D'Acciaio Chocolates, is flourishing and because of the rise in my chocolates popularity, I hope to open more stores here in America too, including one here in Seattle in the spring, if I find the right building that is! Have you got the copy of the documents for me to look over?" He is still staring. He has the moo-eyed girl bring me my copy and I look through the paperwork, inspecting each and every page, I have already had the emailed version and he is sticking to the asking price and all my terms have been met. I look up and I see he is texting. I sigh and sign. It's over and it is the end of an era, Otter Island is no more, and I suddenly wonder will it still be Otter Island or will it be Grey Island or even GEH Island? Who knows?

"So, it was a pleasure seeing you again. I hope you have everything you need from the island?"

"I took what was the family stuff years ago. There is just the oil painting of Papa, Mimi and I, if you do not want to add it to the portraits of the previous McKenzie's, portraits I might add that Papa thought were Mimi's relatives, but I doubt they are, then please let me know and I will have it and the others shipped to London. My head office there will deal with it."

"Have you time to go for a drink Miss D'Acciaio-Lambert?"

"No, I am sorry I don't, as I said I have to be in the air in an hour and head over to New York. We are premiering the new line of chocolates tomorrow and I have to see that the factory is set up correctly to accommodate the new flavours."

"All work and no play Miss D'Acciaio-Lambert..." Hearing my name is now pissing me off.

"...I play, and hard Mr Grey, I just work harder. Please call me Anastasia or Ana; my name is a mouthful. I tend to be D'Acciaio if it's chocolate related, and Lambert if it's not, because I did not and do not want to cash in on my father's name. If you need anything then call head office. I am sure they will put you through to me." Unlike your office, who blanked me when I so desperately needed you! He gets up to shake my hand and as he does he still has that swagger about him, cocky and arrogant almost. I walk towards him, shake his hand and that of his COO Rosalind Bailey; she has been the one dealing with the sale and has been good to me. I head out and he follows me to the elevator.

"Have I offended you Anastasia?"

"No, what could you have possibly done to offend me Christian?"

"I don't know? That's why I was asking you, had I done anything."

"Christian, the last time I saw you I was eighteen and a stupid girl, it was the same night Papa had a stroke, coincidently the same night you and Elliot left without bothering to tell me why."

"We were called back home our mother was in an accident."

"So a goodbye was too much to ask for after what I, what we, what we did that evening?"

"What did we do? If I remember rightly I was drunk from getting there, to going back home. Did we do something terrible?"

"No, no we didn't, but you made it dirty by leaving. So I am going to go before I punch you. Goodbye Christian, I doubt our paths will cross again. I don't think GEH want to acquire either D'Acciaio House of Chocolate, or the Dark Hearts Chocolate Range, or do you?" Why did I do that, why did I have to remind him of what we did? I am angry at myself for slipping.

"No, I am not in the market for your little chocolate empire, I would like to know what I did, you have me puzzled. Did I do or take something from you, I did have a habit of pilfering the odd souvenir or two, whilst drunk, but I was twenty five back then, so I would have thought I was passed that, but again I was drunk, sorry if I took something from you or behaved in an unsavoury manner, I can tend to be an ass when drunk?" The elevator doors swish open.

"Oh you took something precious that evening, well to me it was. Goodbye." I say under my breathe...

I get in and the doors shut and I leaned against the wall of the elevator and finally let go of the anger I had buried deep inside me. I was right; he was too drunk to remember, but god how I wish I could have used that excuse to try to forget. I head out and the car service is there to pick me up, get me out of this bloody god awful place I tell my driver. He smiles and asks me where I want to go, okay yes that would be good.

"Sea-Tac, I have to catch a plane to New York please. What's your name? Sorry, I should have asked."

"Taylor. Jason Taylor Ma'am."

"How long have you worked for Grey then Taylor?"

"I have been with him a while, actually shortly after he started GEH proper, just over seven years ago actually." So he started GEH a little before he came to the Island, that was the last time I saw Christian Grey, before today that is.

"Is he always so aloof?"

"He is an oddity Ma'am, but alas as I signed a strict contract, I cannot speak to your about him."

"No worries, he was an ass growing up, and I doubt he has changed much."

"He hasn't Ma'am." I spend the next forty minutes texting and messaging New York. I could have done without today. Apparently the big guy Grey is away for a month in Europe, so I had to divert to Seattle to sign today's deal. When we arrive at the airport, we head through the gates to the private jets.

"Why are we going this way?"

"My boss has arranged for you to travel to New York in his corporate jet, he realises he made you divert to Seattle and this is his way of an apology." How thoughtful, it's a good job he didn't have to compensate me after he left me that last time, because he'd be a broke ass of a man.

Christian Trevelyan Grey Explained:

I have been waiting for Anastasia D'Acciaio-Lambert to accept my proposal for Otter Island since her grandfather had the stroke over six years ago, and one that eventually killed him two years ago. I asked her time and time again to sell to me, or rather I asked the managers who were ruining the island, because she has been hard to catch, in fact using a net to catch oil would have been easier than getting to see her, I always seemed to have just missed her or she was unobtainable whilst sourcing ingredients in deepest darkest Peru, but as my father told me time and time again, when she was ready to sell her heart, she would, and she is doing so today. I hope, because Andrea has just informed me she is wavering outside and looks worried. I am tempted to run and see why she is not coming in. I however sit and wait patiently, something I am not known for. I text Suzie and tell her to be at the apartment at six. I may need to take out my frustrations in her, if this deal fails.

Miss D'Acciaio-Lambert walks into the room and I swear my mouth is open and my eyes stare, I don't remember her looking this hot before? Was she ever hot? Charming perhaps, annoying as a kid definitely, but all in all she was just Papa Frank's granddaughter, who spent her summers running around the place like a wild hellion. Her grandfather spoiled her and her grandmother worshipped her. I of course didn't realise for many years her father was dead, because he was never spoken about, actually I always presumed she simply came for the summers to stop with her grandparents. I never equated Lenny Lamb, to Franklin Lambert and I never would have, had I not decided I wanted the island badly and wanted damming leverage to use. I was screwed if I thought she was having monetary problems, because she was far from poor. She was rich in her own rights and she was heiress to both her grandfathers estate and her late father's estate. I had to have the islands at any cost because to me they are and they were the most relaxing place I have ever stayed at.

I continue to stare and we have a pleasant exchange of words, I get a text from Suzie, she is ill again and is unable to come to the apartment for any of the weekend, fuck that's two weekends back to back, she needs a physical done and ASAP. I will have to go hiking with Elliot I guess? She scowls at me, then looks through the paperwork and signs it. I breathe a sigh of sheer relief. She refuses to have a drink with me later. As I stare at her, yes I stare, I may be a fuck up, but I am not a blind fuck up, I see something of myself behind those glazed eyes, a darkness a sadness almost. After she shakes my hand and those of Ros and the others, I escort her to the elevator and there is a distinct chill in the air. Does she want to back out of the deal?

"Have I offended you Anastasia?" I ask, I don't think I have, the terms she laid down have been met, the price is what she asked for, what could I have done to upset her so?

"No, what could you have possibly done to offend me Christian?" Exactly, my thoughts on the matter too, I haven't done anything to her.

"I don't know? That's why I was asking you, had I done anything." I say like an idiot, she said she was fine, so leave it Grey, I tell myself.

"Christian, the last time I saw you I was eighteen and a stupid girl, it was the same night Papa had a stroke, coincidently the same night you and Elliot left without bothering to tell me why."

What, she is pissed because we left and didn't tell the cook why we had left, why would we? She was the cook wasn't she? At least I think Frank said that's what she did, the cooking, before he went to bed feeling peaky, peaky and off, fuck that was the night he had his stroke, fuck...

"We were called back home because our mother was in an accident. Both Mia and my mother actually, they had been hit by a drunk driver, they were cut out of mom's mangled car barely alive, they had nearly been fucking killed, of course we went home. What did I do? If I remember rightly I was drunk, from getting there to going back home. Did we do something terrible?" I ask, because I was drunk, I was celebrating becoming a multi millionaire, I had paid back Elena and I was free from debt with everyone, I'd secured Escala and all my hard work had paid off and I had made my dreams come true! I was drunk from getting on the plane with Elliot to getting back on it, all I did was drink the castle's finest Scotch with Frank, whilst Elliot played fucking golf in the snow. I wasn't even aware we were on our way home 'till I woke up on the plane going back. How the fuck Elliot and Taylor got me on the plane was a miracle, of course he used his good looks and charm to do it, or I would have spent a couple of days sobering up or having my stomach pumped for alcoholic poisoning and it was the main reason why I don't drink myself into oblivion anymore, it was an awful few days of drunken amnesia and nothingness.

"No, no we didn't do anything wrong, but you made it dirty by leaving. So I am going to go before I succumb to my urge of punching you. Goodbye Christian, I doubt our paths will cross again. I don't think GEH want to acquire either D'Acciaio House of Chocolate, or Dark Hearts Chocolate Range, or do you?" Punch me for doing what, and why would I want her candy stores?

"No, I am not in the market for your little chocolate empire, I would like to know what I did, you have me puzzled. Did I do or take something from you, I did have a habit of pilfering the odd souvenir or two, whilst drunk, but I was twenty five back then, so I would have thought I was passed that, but again I was drunk, sorry if I took something from you or behaved in an unsavoury manner, I can tend to be an ass when drunk?" The elevator doors swish open.

"Oh you took something precious that evening, well to me it was. Goodbye."

She says in barely eligible murmur, what the hell did I take? The doors close and I am lost for words. Hold the front page, what the fuck did we do? I did have light fingers for ashtrays, as I seem to recall, I have acquired quite the collection from my drunken days as a teenager, stashed in my room at Casa Mia. I doubt it was a damned ashtray then, did I take something precious? Is she kidding me? I mean what could I have possibly taken from the castle, her grandfather's lighter, no he gave me that as we lit those cigars, I left it there anyhow, I left it I know I did, didn't I? With doors closed on that strange conversation I head back to my office. Ros comes in and fans her face.

"That was one hell of a pretty woman. How do you know her Grey?"

"She was the granddaughter of Otter Islands owner. I met her when she was a babe in arms."

"She is a babe alright."

"Erm Gwen?"

"Knows I like to look and as long as I do not touch, I am safe. So, she is mad at you then Grey, actually I would have said mad as hell."

"How..." I ask my COO.

"I read pissed off women well, and that was as pissed off as I have ever seen."

"She can't be pissed at me, we barely spoke in all the time we went to the fucking island, let me tell you seven years age difference is a lot, I remember when she was eight and I was fifteen, she was clingy and fucking annoying, and Elliot encouraged her to crawl all over me."And I think to myself, that was the very same year that Elena changed my life and me forever.

"She touched you? How is she not maimed?"

"Because Elliot pulled her away before I did damage, then for a few years after she would just spy on me all the time and annoy the crap out of me."

"When did she get that sexy then?" When did she, it's a good question, and one I ask myself that too.

"I didn't notice she had actually."

"Liar, I mopped up the drool, you may have found the one to change you Grey." I laughed. "So, what was she like as a teenager then?" She thinks I am an in the closet gay, and I let her think I am, my private life is just that, private.

"She was quiet, she cooked a lot as I recall. She lived with her other grandparents in London after her grandmother Mimi died. Frank, he wasn't able to see to a teenager girls growing needs, not after Mimi died, she was his wife and adored Anastasia. I think Anastasia was twelve when she went to live in London. She returned for all the holidays and she was adored by Frank. Do you know her father was Lenny Lamb?"

"Yes, he died the same day she was born, or the day after, if you count keeping him alive for the harvest? Do you never read Rolling Stone? His band are doing a twenty fifth concert to remember him and they are releasing a new album of undiscovered songs, I can't wait for that."

"They are, where?"

"It's taking place next month, after her 25th birthday, the day after actually, the 11th of September, the day that twenty five years ago they were supposed to perform to a sold out set of concerts at the Hollywood bowl. I remember the night well, I was a local and a mere snip of a rebel chic fifteen year old pain in the ass and full of attitude, those were the days. Anyway the hills behind it were awash with candles and fans who couldn't get in, fans waiting for updates about his condition, I was one of them, and so we mourned his loss instead of listening to him, the band piped music and we held a vigil. Rumour has it she will sing her father's last hit song, you know the one, the cover he did, they did sorry. Leonard Cohen's Hallelujah, have you heard it? The band released it after he died, it was very moving and his death brought about a curious revival of his work and his songs?"

"This year? And yes it's on the top of my play list!" I say sarcastically.

"Really Grey, you do surprise me." Seriously?

"No Ros, but I have heard of it and the group. However, I am not a rock and roll fan, but I am shocked you are!"

"Okay Boss, I liked my rock chic years and I play a mean set on the drums! Anyhow, this year she gets all her father's estate in its entirety, and then she becomes a mega wealthy woman. They reckon she is already worth nearly a billion, and that's just from chocolate, then add in her father's estate she's loaded as in worth as much as you, if not more. Her grandfather looked after her inheritance and very well too, until he passed it onto your father's friend, the investment banker and his boy, who you are friendly with."

I know she thinks Ethan Kavagnah and I are gay lovers, but he is just my friend and he gives me great advice on what should I sell and what I keep when I take over a business. If he is looking after her money it's in safe hands. It also explains why I couldn't get all her financials; Ethan is as tight with his clients wealth as he is with his own. Her own wealth is pretty good too. Chocolate or should I say her chocolates are in high demand. But for now I have to see Elliot and see just what I did to upset Ms D'Acciaio-Lambert, when I was drunk and being a bad bastard...

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IF YOU HAVE READ MY OTHER WORKS AND THERE ARE A FEW. AS YOU KNOW I BUILD UP AND SNOWBALL & THE CHAPTERS THEY ARE LONGISH ONES... READ AND REVIEW AND TELL ME WHAT YOU THINK HONESTY IS THE BEST POLICY...


	2. Chapter 2

By now you know this is not fifty shades it is all the letters of the AC, OCC things you guys understand and I do not, you should know how I write, Ana and Christian are not total strangers when they meet again, it is a tear jerker of a shortish story, this story is mainly about Ana too... Christian is just a big part of it and it takes a few chapters for him to make a big appearance in my story. Thanks for those who are favoring and following, and for the few of you who left a review thank you. xxx

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Dreaming of Chocolate and Grey:

Chapter 2:

Christian: The clueless fool:

I head to meet Elliot at his place and I am or I think I am in a good mood, think? Yes think, because Anastasia's obvious hatred of me is confusing the hell out of me. I know she was like a puppy dog when she and I met at the island, but other than that I have no clue as to what I have done to upset her and make her hate me, yes that's it, she hates me and I do not know why? I drive to Robinswood, to his new home there and as I pull in he is in his garage sorting through his equipment store.

"Hey Bro, are we riding the trek or hiking?" I shrug my shoulders.

"Either or, what's best for you? I am easy either way, I want to banish some blues and get some fresh air, so you choose."

"Biking it is then, my car? Yep, yours hasn't got the bike racks."

"I will chip in for fuel." I say as he throws the things we need to the floor.

"Har-de-har... What are you looking so down about Chris?"

"Nothing Ell, well something, I don't know what really, god that made no sense to me Ell, today made no sense, I can't explain why I feel so off?" He looks as confused as I feel. "It's just something happened today at the meeting to purchase Otter Island and it has me utterly confused."

"Wait, you are buying it?"

"I have already bought it; it's now part of Grey Leisure."

"No way. Wisp sold it? I never thought she would. How was she?"

"That's it, that's why I am confused. She was mad as hell with me Ell, and I don't know why, for fucks sake I haven't seen her since the night we flew back to Seattle, when Mom and Mia were in the car wreck. What the fuck did I do that night?"

"Oh lord Chris, you don't remember anything?That was the epic night you were wasted, the same night were you and she got close."

"I what..."

"You were lured into her web, you have to remember? She wore that fantastic pink fluffy sweater and tight assed leather pants, I mean she had really changed Chris, but she was still my little sister our little sister, I warned you off her and went to play golf in the fucking snow. You'd had a bunch of phone calls, all of which made you mad and you drank yourself stupid, you were already drunk on the plane. Chris, you really don't remember the change from 'Wisp the Mouse' to 'Ana the Vamp' you must have, you said she was fucking hot?" I remember the calls; they were of Elena and Sasha wanting to know where I was. I had rang Otter Island and booked it and we flew off within an hour. That much do remember; my being pissed off with those two. I ended my contract with Sasha shortly after the trip and tore a strip of Elena too.

"Fuck, no I don't, what happened, did I really make a pass at her?"

"I don't know what happened during the day, but after hitting the second bottle of Frank's finest malt, it was an epic drunk episode. Judging from the way she had gussied herself up for the nights party at the farmer's place, I would think she had set her cap at you that night, not the farmer's son you seemed to think it was done for and you got jealous and sort of made sure they knew you and she were together. They invited us to the party, you said yes to going and well you got washed and changed and we went to a kids party in the croft. You; you were pie eyed and drunker than an alcoholic at a free bar. I mean you were funny as crap, but drunk."

"You see that's all I remember, so I didn't do anything to upset her?"

"How would I know, as I said I was helping feed the animals their dinner and getting jiggy with Olivier in the hay loft? Why?"

"Anastasia, she said I stole something from her that night and made the evening dirty when I left, sorry when we left without telling her where we were going. Why would we tell her?"

"I don't know; when I came for you, you were passed out drunk in your room. I had to put you in a wheelchair and get the hell out of there. You were out cold and in no state to fly. I told the pretty stewardess you were going back home for the kidney transplant and were heavily sedated. She fell for it and we got you into the first class cabin and you luckily slept all the way home, as I played the attentive male nurse and got one of my many mile high bunk-ups."

"Trust you. You see that's all I remember too. Wait you said Anastasia was gussied up, as in how?"

"Wow, she pulled out all the stops and yes she did look amazing. She had on a tight red dress, her hair had been cut, she looked amazing, really amazing actually. She seemed on a mission to get you to notice her Bro. I did tell her you were gay and she seemed upset, I also remember you sleeping a lot and laying your head on her shoulder."

"And this was the same night we left the island, in the middle of the night?"

"Yes, in the early morning actually, we even missed her amazing baked breakfast rolls too. I heard later Frank had to be rushed to the mainland, because he'd had a stroke, the first big one and there was nobody around in their quarters to catch it early enough, Dad said Wisp blamed herself for not being there to help him."

"Okay, she said her last night spent there was that night, so why does all this mean she pissed at me?"

"Because of your drunken state I would presume? You would have to ask her that Bro. She had the biggest crush on you growing up. Do you not remember her following us?"

"Yes, all the fucking time and you encouraged her."

"Hey she was a fun kid; she knew all the great hideouts on those links and brought out my inner kid. She was like a fairy almost, she loved to hide in the trees and watch us goof around on the golf course. Happy days. So, is it a free family pass now?"

"I will see; I have to recoup the fifty million I paid her for it somehow."

"Fifty, wow... She is a rich lady."

"She was rich to begin with and getting richer soon." I tell him and put my foot in it.

"Why, when the check clears the bank you mean?" Yeah right. He knows who her father was.

"No, when she inherits her father's millions, you know Lenny Lamb, he of 'Of Lambs and Wolves' fame?"

"No, because it is actually Lenny Lamb, 'Of Wolves and Lambs' fame. Yeah I knew she was Lenny Lambs kid, Wisp and me, we spent time in her father's room at the castle. It was a cool room. All his memorabilia was amazing, she even had a big screen tv to watch his concerts and videos on. She said it made her feel like he was singing to her."

"I didn't know her dad had a room there?"

"Yeah, perhaps had you not been such a dickhead she would have shown it to you, it's where he lived as a kid?"

"I wonder if I stole something from there, she said I stole something precious to her that night. I can't think what I would have stolen that meant that much to her, I mean she said I turned stealing it into something dirty."

"Women are confusing at the best of times. Wisp, she is confusing all of the time."

"You still see her?"

"Yeah we meet up occasionally, when she is in the country. She rents a suite in the Peninsula when she's in New York, and she has a big home in Los Angeles, Calabasas, where her folks live. The crazy Italians, they are epic. She has one in Denver and the other one is in New Orleans. I told her when she opens the one in Seattle I want to do the contracting?"

"She is that good?"

"Fucking good, do you know those chocolates Mom gets once a month?"

"From her secret admirer?"

"Fuck off, they are from Wisp. She has sent them to Mom and Gram for years. She first started sending them when Dad and Gramps took some home. They liked them so much she made and sent them every month, they were called Lush or Lust, but now they are called Desires I think? They are from the Dark Heart Chocolates that Mia loves, those are the ones that Wisp's company makes."

"She is responsible for those awful sounds Mom makes? Really, has she ever met Mom?"

"Umm, once or twice I think? She did a book tour and Mom, Grams and Mia, they went to meet the lady who I raved about and who Dad and Gramps told them about and of course to thank her for the chocolates."

"What book?"

"Oh she is a bestselling author too, have you never heard about her book? It's called The Little Book of Chocolate Kisses? It's actually written by Miss D'Acciaio, The Chocolate Queen. Do you want to read it you queen?" I push him away; he has to stop calling me the Queen of Seattle at some point, the moron.

"No, what's it about? Women's stuff, romance and chocolate?"

"No, and sort of yes?She did a book for some charity, it's a book about her love of chocolate, she even has a few recipes in there too, she explains the chemistry of chocolate and how she comes up with her new ideas, she maps each taste sensation she researches and develops."

"So, is it any good?"

"I have a copy somewhere in the house, she signed it for me."

"She likes you then?"

"She loves me like the big brother she never had."

"Literally Ell? You never, you know, you never had her like that?"

"Fuck off Chris that is gross, she is like my kid sister you fucker, that was below the belt Bro."

"Sorry Ell. I am still stumped as to what I did that was so damning and wrong? If I see her again I will ask her."

"She's coming to Mom's ball. She has finally said yes to coming to stop at Casa Mia for the annual Grey shindig, Coping Together, she is making a big donation too."

"She is?"

"Do you never listen to Mia; it is all she has talked about for like months Chris, OMG, really Chris. O.M.G... Did you not get the memo from Mia, to be nice and to come this year?" He mimics our sister Mia perfectly.

"I go every year."

"I think she means for more than a swift walk around, she does not want you high tailing it out of there as quick and as stealthily as you do, and you do it every year too!"

"The thought of all those touchy feely women repulse me."

"It must be hard being so god like and yet so gay?"

"It must be hard being so good looking and as thick as the wood you build with!" We horse around and I laugh, I need today, I need to be with Elliot because he makes me laugh, normally at him but I am happy to be here with him.

"Hey, I am not thick, but I am the good looking one of we Grey brothers, with my boyish good looks. Now, help me on with the damned bikes. Why do you not keep them in the ivory tower I do not know?"

"I only ride here and with you. I would go and see an optometrist, I am clearly the must have guy in the room."

"I think they find you a challenge or so Elena says. You know they all want to make you turn away from the gay light and to the lady side."

"Elena, she said that?"

"Yes, she was telling her niece, that you were not easily swayed by women."

Damn her for speaking to anyone about me and with Leila of all people. We will be having words. I think that Suzie has reached the end of my patience too; she needs to go and in fact after today I am terminating our contract, so I will need another submissive. Maybe when I get back from Europe I will see about interviewing a new one? Elliot and I head out for our ride around Tiger Mountain.

Anastasia: Her nightmare unfolds:

I am on a very pleasant five hour flight from Seattle, in Christian's private jet, and I am thankful to him for this act of kindness, because of the quiet and space on his jet, I have been able to dot the I's and cross the T's on my new book. I hope this one sells as well as the last one and the charity does just as well, better in fact. This is in the same vein, it's chocolate kisses mark two, filled with more recipes and more tales from my travels; in this one I explain my love of food. I sit back and relax, I reminisce, which is a dangerous thing for me to do, but seeing Christian again it has reopened that never healed wound. Yeah right, it will never heal, as I constantly pick at the damned metaphorical scab that is Christian Trevelyan Grey, and I have only myself to blame. I sigh, because it feels like I will never heal my broken heart. Chocolate, it heals all the world's woes and making it does just that for me too, most of the time that is...

I just know I have always meant to be working at what I am doing now, working with chocolate and creating my own mouth watering morsels; chocolate runs through my veins instead of blood. I started baking and creating from an early age, and in earnest when I moved to London when I was twelve, where I could always be found in the back of Nonno's bakery in Soho. The pure Italian side of my family, my mother's side, are the best bakers in the world, well in my world they are. I would watch Nonno for hours baking, and when I was old enough I'd help I practically lived in the place, it was a happy place and filled with Italian opera, raised passionate Italian voices about the bread, wine love and life, it was filled every day wonderful customers and it was a world I was truly at home in. It was different from the island; this place was alive and happy, whilst the island was a big boys club. There was and is a vast difference between the two places actually, they are chalk and cheese in fact, and now it's not even mine, I sigh.

I really loved making the pastries, breads and cakes for my Nonno, then one day a customer said she'd had the nicest chocolate pastries on her travels in France and Belgium, where she said they also sold the best chocolates and pralines, she was in heaven with all her sweet treats and vices under the one roof, her coffee, her bread and her chocolates. She'd even had chocolates on a cake, she showed me a picture on her phone and asked me to try and make her one. So that day after closing I began reading how to make chocolate and confectionary, and then began the endless experimenting. I would create my mini masterpieces, all with the help of my neighbour in London, Oliver Douglas or Ollie as she preferred. She lived with her foster family next door, but she and I were rarely parted, she was my chief tester, best friend, my walk to school mate and my college buddy and my shadow. The bakery is where my career path was chosen, right there at the back of a small Soho bakery, and all thanks to a truffle chocolate on a fancy cake and a lady asking for more...

After two years at catering college, where I learnt everything there was to know about the art and science of all things food. I learnt first to be a chef, as I had to learn to cook anything and everything, before I could pick a specialist area and start on the next chapter of my life's mission, and I was getting there too, with the help of the many various courses and competitions I competed in on my rare down time, I was well on my way to getting everything I had ever wanted or dreamed about, I was on my way to being the next big chef even before I even left college, but I wanted to be the best chocolatier in the world, because I needed to be the best, I had a dog eared determination to succeed, it was always there in my head. I studied, watched invented and reinvented. I became a stickler for perfection and order in my life's work, and did nothing else but work, because my love life was a mess, hell it was nonexistent at the time but after I left college I had my ways of killing the ache I felt. That was a joke too, who was I kidding it was just me a man, a room and whatever I chose to punish him with? Work was what kept me grounded, focused and sane, the clubs I went to then and still go to now were just to take the edge off.

I wanted perfection and to be perfect in everything I created. Many, many hands of fate were dealt me which ensured all my dreams would come to fruition and they did, all of them. Then the thought of the best of my dreams crept into my head again, Christian. He was a confusing dream too, he was and is bitter yet sweet, happy yet sad and yes, confusion for me is bountiful where he is concerned. He's the reason I am running again and here on this plane. Oh damn him and damn and blast me for being there that bloody fateful day and for still loving him even after all he done to me. I fall asleep and I dream of the day they came to stay, and the afternoon he walked into my kitchen in the castle and all about the night when he rocked my world...

I was until the last year in college a very plain girl, then and only then did the womanly Italian curves and boobs finally came, all inherited from my Nonna. I then thought, no I hoped and dreamed it would be enough of a difference and he'd finally notice me. Me with my blue eyes, brown hair and yep those boobs, Olivier always said I looked like a young Sophia Loren, but with different eyes and different hair, she wasn't the most observant of friends, but she was there with me on that break from college, she too was pleased to see what the fascination was with a certain Mr Grey, she had been with me to Otter island loads of times, but had never met the man himself. She didn't understand why I wasn't enjoying the attention of the many others who threw themselves at me at school and college. It and they were not the attention I wanted. I always got the wrong attention from others, not I might add ever reciprocated, because there was only ever one man for me, so if anything the boobs and bum were then a nightmare at keeping the boys at bay, but I figured they were my only hope of finally getting Christian to notice me. I have a flashback to the first time I really thought he noticed me and get a fuzzy feeling in my heart...

The door opened suddenly and unbeknownst to me my world was about to change and I would finally get the attention of the man of my dreams. My heart was in my mouth; Christian was stood there gawking at me and yes he was gawking! I'm not such an awkward, geeky skinny kid now am I Christian? I think but do not say. He and Elliot had arrived for their week of golfing. His 'people' had rang through asking for a couple of rooms last minute and they were please we could accommodate them, it was snowing and winter so yes we could, I was more than pleased when I took the call. Me, I'm ecstatic to hear this as it was an added week's bonus for me and luckily I was home from college. It was shortly after my eighteenth birthday and I had Ollie in tow as usual. He dropped his bags at the reception and he was stood watching me. I handed over the keys and George grabbed their bags. I tingled all over as he kept watching me, I ignored him as per his usual request, so as I went to the kitchen to do the guests wives their gift baskets of chocolates, and I made damned sure he noticed me as my backside sashayed from behind the desk I dropped my pen and picked it up seductively and placed it in my mouth and walked into my kitchens.

I had almost finished making the chocolates when I noticed from the corner of my eye the man himself watching me make my chocolates. I carried on creating; he was not in the room and he was not drop dead gorgeous, but he was damn it, and even more gorgeous than he was since I last saw him, it seems I'm still hooked on my crush! Argh well, I still lived in hope that one day he will give me the time of day. He wouldn't remember the last time I saw him, because he was drunk as he is now come to think of it? He'd passed out on the edge of the couch I was sleeping on in the great room here at the castle. I cried that night and real tears too, because it was then he chose to tell me I was just a geeky freaky kid, his other little sister and really awkward to be around. I'd had my card well and truly marked that night. I sighed and carried on working. I will ignore him and continue to create and damn well salivate as I do.

As the chocolate tempered on the marble slab, I scraped the correctly tempered mix back into a clean bowl and melted it into the smooth glossy, thick, sweet tasting liquid, it was liquid goodness to coat the truffles with. I worked the truffle into a small bite sized ball, rolling it in the grated chocolate and tiny crushed nuts mixture. I popped one on the dipping fork, when suddenly it dropped off into the melted chocolate, so I fished it out, ready to dip the top into my sweetened vanilla sugar and cocoa powder mix, he walked behind me and put his head on my shoulder and watched me at work. It was not at all off putting having him breathing against my neck, he smelt wonderful, even his whiskey breath was welcomed, he smelt of the aftershave that I'd sent him for his birthday, so he did get it then? Who'd have thought it would smell that good, especially mixed with him? I'd happened to get a drop of chocolate on my hand whilst fishing the truffle from the chocolate mix and suddenly without hesitation Christian smiled, took hold of my hand and licked it off. Now _that_ seemed different, and it _was_ different, because it sent shivers through my body, feelings like I'd never felt before, a feeling of elation and lust, and he just stood beside me and smiled.

"That tasted just as sweet as you look Anastasia, when did you change?" I was in shock and trying to pull myself around from the finger suck. My mouth did the damned talking thing, and all on its own too.

"I have always been the same person Christian. I don't think I've had a brain transplant or anything and my personality is the same, but I did get boobs. Perhaps that what you meant by changed?"

"I was just stating the obvious you have changed since I last saw you. You look nice." Olivier smiled; she knew I had the biggest crush on this man and sat watching as I played my cards.

"She has all the guys dropping at her feet at college and she tells them to walk away or lose it." She laughed as he pinched a truffle and as he bit into it he let out an orgasmic groan. Funny, people tend to do that when they have my chocolates, but why did it now do something to me too?

"My God you're chocolates get better and better Anastasia, that's even better than sex."

"Oh well you'd be a better judge of that than I Christian?"

My mouth was still being damn smart. However, I continued to make the small balls of orgasmic heaven, these are Frisky Whiskeys. I am trying my best to remain calm and collected, but I'm failing miserably and I need to shut my mouth too. We call them Bags of Lust for a good reason, because one is never enough and you always need another bite of the all too lustful chocolates. We sell these to the local hotels and newsagents in London and we earn good money from it too, I make them up here for the guests to sweeten up their wives and girlfriends. I make large batches every weekend, to keep supplies at hand for the neverending orders we usually needed. I send batch upon batch here when I am down in London and do the same when I am here for down there, I fill the bloody storeroom here every time I come and yet still Papa needed more, it was a chocolate filled life for me that's for sure!

I changed the flavour of the chocolate dip for the next batch and for the next one, I changed the truffles centre for a nut, and as I did, he sat and watched as I created my mini pieces of heaven. He smiled and watched me more, all as I stared back at him over my secretary style, black framed glasses and as I did that Olivier boxed the differing flavours of my chocolates that would be sent to Grace, her mother and my other regulars. As I finished the last batch of truffles off, these are my Elegant Russian, a champagne and vodka truffle, he came to help tidy away and 'helped' me to clear away by drinking a tumbler full of the whiskey, had he not had enough already? Olivier had gone to the paper store for wrapping paper and Christian walked over to the sink, he held me in his arms and just kissed me, his whiskey flavoured kiss was orgasmic. Oh my, was it worth the years of waiting for and so matter of fact like he did this all the time… I'd waited for this day forever and as I melt into his mouth my kisses are making him want me more, he murmured yes and kissed me deeper. My legs were wobbly and my heart was leaping out of my chest, but I did what I needed to do, I pulled away from those lips, turned around and continued to wash the pots, I was now leaving him wanting the more from me.

"Wow… I err don't know what just happened Anastasia, I'm sorry, I am a little drunk and I am sorry I invaded your space and I am sorry."

"So you didn't really want a kiss and now you're so sorry you kissed me?"

"No, well yes, the kiss was, wow... I don't know what that was. I stopped because you're only eighteen and I'm twenty five Anastasia, and besides I'm sort of seeing someone. I shouldn't have done that. Sorry." My heart broke, he was seeing somebody? So I'd lost him before I even had him.

"If the girl you're seeing and are in a relationship with, well Christian if she and it were that serious, you wouldn't have kissed me at all. Sorry to point that fact out to you, but no worries it was what it was, just a kiss and it was nothing to call the papers over. Relax Christian it happened and it won't happen again."

I smiled at him. He so wanted more. I am playing hard to get now and I am even willing to play the 'I don't need him card', because I'm assured this works all the time, treat them mean and keep them keen? I did I wanted him and I'd loved and wanted him and I had done for years. I finished the pots just as Olivier came back. I put the now cooled last batch into the bags and in the boxes,I then continued to wrap them and then address them and when they were done I then placed them in the basket to deliver them to the mainland by way of the ferry.

"Right we're all done. Arrivederci Olivier, I will deliver these and then get back and get ready for our night out. I'll be back after I take these to the post office." I removed the apron, which had been hiding the fluffy pink tight figure hugging jumper and the boobs, which were there for him to ogle, I smiled as Christian watched everything I did and yes he ogled them.

"Arrivederci Christian, I may see you around whilst you're here, if not then have a nice time golfing, and my best wishes to your girlfriend."

I picked up the basket and loaded it on to my bright pink Lambretta, secured it and then putting the half helmet on my head, I waved as they watched me ride off towards the jetty. I watched him through the mirrors and he watched me until I disappeared from view. Good, I think I had Christian Grey hooked and I did the postal deliveries with a very happy heart because he, Christian Grey had finally kissed me! I went back home and I began putting the well thought out plan into action. Tonight was the night to hook Mr Grey, and damn the girlfriend could go to hell, he was mine. I just needed one night, the one I prayed so long for was coming, and one night was all I wanted to have him. This is the night that I have chosen and I will get him. This will be amy dream night and one I will remember for the rest of my life.

I showered and did my hair, hair that I'd had cut into a long sleek long bob the day before, with the new centre parting, which the hairdresser advised would emphasise my slender face and frame my eyes perfectly and I will give her, her dues, they did seem to look better now that they weren't hiding behind the full fringe that I once had. I did the makeup like I was shown by the lady at the cosmetics counter; who insisted I was to keep things to the natural, less is more minimal look. She said my sun kissed complexion yet flawless skin were in need of nothing much in the way of help, and she went for all natural light colours to my eyes and my lips were painted a luscious red tone.

I'd actually managed it, after weeks of trying it out, I'd finally mastered the art of the thing called girly stuff, and boy am I glad I took up Ollie's offer of the spa day last week, where we had our legs and bits waxed. The sneaky mare she said it was a very late Christmas present, how is torture a present and a thing of pleasure? She is one sick puppy, she loved it me, I cried like a bitch, the first strip looked like my papa's toupee was stuck on the wax paper... Yes, there was a lot of fluff and a lot of tears shed that day. Well thanks Ollie I now had a smooth hoo-ha and with any luck it's someone's gift to open and gaze upon. I looked at the girl staring back at me, and wow she's different. I'd pulled on my new slinky red shift dress and the look was completed with the black killer heels. I had planned this night for years, the seduction of Christian Grey. I would use anything and do everything to get that man to notice me, which meant reading every damned article I could n the matter, from books in the library to magazines in the hairdressers and the damned dentist chair. So with everything from Emily Bronte to how to do it freshman way learned about sexing yourself up for a man I headed down to the main bar area, only to see Papa and Christian drinking.

"Wow, where are you going dressed like that?" Christian asked and then stood open mouthed, so as I walked past I closed it with my hand, and then walked to the bars mirror.

"Olivia and I are going to a friend's eighteenth birthday party in the crofters cottages." I looked back and as I did I heard him take a deep breath, this was working. Who'd have thought the women's magazines in the hairdressers worked? Tell him you don't want him, and they want you even more. The article said men needed their minds made up for them, apparently they did. I looked at him through the mirror, as I adjusted the lipstick on my full lips, the only good gift from my mother! I give a silent thank you for the luscious full lips. I went into the lounge and he followed, I swear I heard him gulp, as my backside sashayed in front of him, my hips wiggling just enough to tempt, was my seduction really working?

"Papa, I have to go and help Olivia with her hair, do you want me to make you some food to soak up that whiskey? Do you want food Christian?" My papa smiles and answers for them both.

"No wee one, we have had your game pie and it was excellent. No, you go and enjoy the night with the young ones, it won't be a late one, the last ferry for the mainland leaves at midnight, then I have then arranged for security to escort you and Olivia back home, but Ana you and Olivia will be safe there, there are no bad boys being allowed over on the ferry and Grant and the men are on the watch for wave crashers."

"Papa, its gate crashers!"

"Not here it isn't wee one, the sea isn't too forgiving and their little boats crash against the rocks, so I chose the right word. Now go and do the lassies hair, she is calling you." I smile and head up to help Olivia. Yes, it was working Christian had not taken his eyes off me, now, to get her hair done. I spent the next hour straightening her frizzy hair, with that done, I set about re curling it, and I curled it into soft and beautiful ringlets with the curling iron. I finished the look off with the minimal amount of makeup, and she was done.

"Perffeto, Olivia you look stunning as ever." I said as I finished my master class. She put her dress and carried her shoes. I watched, as she entered the lounge where I had left Papa and Christian, they both told her she looked nice. I came in behind her and put on my shoes.

"Right Papa we are off. Christian, I will see you in the morning don't wait up Papa, I may be reeling, doing a jig or two and dancing the Strathspey until the small hours." I gave Papa a kiss, smiled sweetly at Christian waved at Elliot and grinned as Olivia hinted they could come with us.

"Aye Son, you and Christian go with them, I am tired and need ma bed anyway, go have a dance and make sure the girls get home at a godly hour. Ana, did the men take the food over you made?"

"They did Papa, I am sure Georgina will love it."

"She will that, have you her present?"

"I have the keys to her scooter yes. She will love it."

"She fair liked the pink machine I bought for you. So I got her one in yellow, I will have to buy Sassy the red one next week, you girls wipe out my wallet. You see to it Elliot they get back okay?"

"Yes Sir, where are we going Anastasia?" Elliot asked.

"We are going to dance at a party. In a croft cottage. If you and Christian want to come, you can I guess?" Christian nodded his head like a toy dog in the car window.

"You, partying Christian are you sure?" He whispered something to Christian and they hit each other playfully. We waited for Christian to 'freshen Up,' which for Christian was an impossibility because he was so drunk, but he insisted he needed to change, so wait we did. I was hugged by Elliot as he horsed around telling Papa he would kill the man who looked upon his Scottish sister in a wrong way...

"Do not interfere in my love life Mr Elliot Grey or you are toast too..." I said to Elliot joking, he was already dressed and was heading over the ferry to a club. The boys had security with them and they were told to have the night off. I know Christian is a rich business man and Elliot is a builder, but there is very little in the society pages of the magazines I read about Christian Grey other than he is an eligible bachelor, I hope his girlfriend knows this, I thought as I thought about the article.

"Too much information little sis, I don't want to hear about your love life, are you even old enough to have one?" I blushed no I do not have one, but sheisk Olivia, she has, She is a sex addict and needs help, serious help, because she has been having sex for two years and has quite the reputation for howling too as she climaxes, umm, would they think it was a highland beastie as she howls, if and I repeat if she bags a guy tonight that is, hey she is also called 'have a go' because she will have a go at anyone, including lecturers. Christian headed down the stairs or I should say he fell down? I said he should stop and Elliot said no, he needed the fresh winters air to sober him up, before his liver died and was pickled forever in Scotch. Something Christian agreed to as he picked himself up off the floor and grinned, he'd come down the stair looking hot, and I mean damn hot. He really was stunning in a white linen shirt, worn over tight black jeans and a black jacket, his copper hair is in a tailored cut to the sides, but it is left longer on top and as he ran his finger through it, I had to wonder if he had read the same articles as me? We headed to the golf cart and I jumped in the back with Ollie, Christian jumped in the front seat, and sober Elliott drove us over the linked islands to the party cottage, it was in full swing when we got there.

I'd followed the article to the letter and though excited, I was also confused as to what to do next if I succeeded and this plan actually worked? I would have to improvise. He continued to watch me and I watched him back. Hahaha this plan was so working, I needed to take it up a notch which I did whilst I put on more of the lip gloss, running the tip of my tongue over my lips and as I did, he sighed as he turned to look at me; he's definitely, as the lads in the class keep saying, up for it. The rest was now up to him, I'd chased him enough, now it was his turn. I could have got it wrong, what if he didn't like me? Perhaps he was only being led by his man bits. I salivate remembering that part of his anatomy too, last seeing that particular part of his body when I walked in on him on a prior visit when I was fifteen. I was cleaning their rooms and got caught short, he was meant to be out with Elliot on the mainland and as I opened the door, I realised it was too late for me to do anything, as I desperately needed to pee I'd simply barged in, and just as he was getting out of the bath and he wasn't missing any bits from the long look I managed to sneak in, but hell did he scream and shout.

The head room manager ran into Christian's room and told him that's why there was a lock on the door and he could have used the display card on the door that he was engaged, I got sent to my room like a child, I was a child, and I peed myself on the way back to my room, just for good measure. I lusted after him even more after that day but alas when I did see him the year after, he gave me a very wide berth. I then only saw the Christian I loved drunk when he came back from a club he went to whilst he was here, with the smell of sex and perfume on him, the last time he did this it broke my heart, he told me I was the geeky sister, as I slept in the lounge...

"Right Chris, pretend to be with Ana, the local lads usually hit on her, she tells them her boyfriend's back home in London, now they will leave her alone if you're there. Now Elliot, show me that wiggle again, you do have more to your repertoire than a wiggle and a tushy push right?"

"Way more Ging, come on I will be your Fred Astaire..."

We watched as Oliver told him her usual at home gameplan, me I'd been watching the same game plan for two years, it's the same old plan, just used on a different man every weekend. She makes her play midweek in college, they get the green light, they meet up at the party the man she has set her cap at is captured in a room away from prying eyes, usually a bedroom full of coats is involved, usually a bedroom, usually after a few glasses of wine, they disappear for a while and then you hear her cries of "Do me, do me hard I'm coming Tiger." She then growls as she comes, it has earned her the dubious name of Howler-The-Growler. I cringe and want to die of embarrassment. Elliot is fascinated by her and I know that look from Ollie, she has found her next toilet conquest, Elliot! He doesn't know it yet, but he's gonna hear her howl. He starts to tell me off, for god's sake, not tonight Elliot. When Ollie tells him of her many conquests.

"Shit, you're only just eighteen Ginger, don't tell me you do this too Wisp? When did you grow up? Last time we came to Otter, you were still lusting after some pop star." I smirked and looked at him, fluttering my eyes in Christian's direction, no I was lusting after your brother, I think but did not say. The old record is on its scratched and on repeat, I know, but I did want him.

"At the end of summer and when we have finished with college we, Ana and me we go travelling, Ana will be on her own in Italy with all the hot Italians and wow I wish it was me..."

"What do you mean travelling?" Elliot asked Ollie.

"Oh hell, I landed a really good job, following a television chef around Europe in the spring, and right up until the winter, as his Commis Chef and I can't thank Ana there enough for teaching me Italian, 'cos I had to speak at least two European languages, I already speak French and well now Italian. They offered it Ana first, but she turned it down to do her dream job. I hope she gets it after all she's sacrificed."

"I won't get it, but thanks for the support Ollie. I still have to go back to London in September for a few weeks then, to Palma for six months and then if I get chosen, I get a six month work placement at La Maison Du Chocolate in New York, under the fantastic chocolatier, Daniel Frost! The world will be my oyster then." Elliot is genuinely interested in my plans and I am happy to talk, so too is Ollie.

"Well Wisp, you will have to call when you're in New York, Chris has a place there. Wake up Chris..." Great he's asleep. A great end to a crap night. Why did he want to come again?

"I can't get over you worked with him here when he came to do a master class; he had an orgasm when he tasted your champagne and vodka truffles. Why exactly did Nonna say no to it again, that he had shifty eyes and was after your virtue?" I laughed

"She used a rather cruder variant, when the letter came offering me, a sixteen year old, an apprenticeship under him and to stop at his apartment in New York." Elliot and the now sluggish Christian listened as she spoke and as we approached the crofters barn, Christian shocked the hell out of me as he slipped his arm around my waist. I jumped a little, the shock of feeling him so close and his hand, so tender against my back. I have died and gone to Christian Grey Heaven. Is this really happening?

"If, I was your real boyfriend, then we would be kissing, so this is nothing, pretend girlfriend, now my job is to do what, play the boyfriend, I think I can do that with my eyes closed." There's wishing Anastasia, kiss away Christian please.

"As long as the real girlfriend doesn't hear about it and breaks your man bits off, you will be fine." Bloody hell Ana, you said man bits really, isn't that what a five year old calls them? You could have said dick because that's grown up, or used the correct terminology and said penis, but no… You said man bits. Elliot laughs.

"That is going to have to be an Oscar winning performance Bro; do you even know how to kiss a woman, being gay and all?"

"Yep, I can pretend Ana is a guy, I will be fine Ell... Way to go, outing me on a Scottish Island, look there is a sheep over there go fuck that." I think I am going to cry.

"Nah I will leave the sheep to you, gay boy..."

I am stunned and stop walking. He is gay, oh god what a fucking epic mistake. I now feel sick to my stomach, how did I not see that? Ollie gives me the bent hand motion for gay and I want to cry. She and Elliot leave us to it and go to join the party. I am not in the mood for it now, not now my dreams have been dashed, but the kiss earlier was not a gay kiss, not unless he thinks I am manly? Am I?

"Anyway Christian, we are here now just act like you're my friend, and that too will take some acting upon..." We walk in and the music is pumping out of the speakers, some sort of techno house wailing is going on. I head to the food area. I spent the best part of two days baking for Georgina's party and it looked great.

"Here let me get you a drink, can you have a lager or do you want a cup of something that the others have sneaked over, whiskey?"

"I could stand a very large whiskey; before I sober up thanks Anastasia." The lad at the table tucking into the food was hailing me.

"Annie, this food is fucking awesome, fancy being my girl? I would worship the kitchen you baked for me in, and at the hands of the cook that cooked this feast for me and the other reprobates here tonight. Go on Annie you know you want me, last chance sexy ass, and then I'm at the mercy of the big bad world." That was Dave, the resident pothead of the estate and funnily enough the green keepers son soon to be off to University in America. God help America...

"Thanks, I'm glad you like it, there's plenty and as ever my answer is no, my boyfriend still wouldn't like it much." I note the whole lot is out, and there is a crowd around the table.

"Yeah, like we haven't heard that chestnut, all the way through your days in the fine English college you go to. Pity you're not like the howler, now I would make you growl Baby." He came towards me just as Christian stepped forward, his height towered over Dave. His arms protectively captured me in them and Dave exited hurriedly as Christian kissed my neck, oh hell yes.

"Do you want something to eat too; you can stop now it had the desired effect thank you. I can however handle them and I have done so for many years Christian, I have known them all my life and they know I can fight if I have too, Ollie over exaggerates everything." He follows me to the outhouse where the stash is... He put his arm around my neck, as the lads start looking again. Diane and Georgiana, whose party it is grab my arm and look dreamily at Christian.

"Wow, when you said you had a lad we all thought you were making him up, this is the once a year guy from the castle and you are dating him, really? Well what we can see of him is nice to look at anyhow..." Cheers Diane. I know I can't hide under my hair for long, but my face needs to stop burning.

"Sorry, I should have introduced myself I'm Chris, Ana's boyfriend I flew in from Seattle to surprise her, pleased to meet you all at last, and yes I fly in for a week of golf with my family and yes she is my girlfriend. Ana Baby, can you get me some food and come sit out here with me it's really hot in here, see you again sometime girls." Phew, crisis avoided and my face is now looking just mildly embarrassed.

Baby, get me some food? He will be wearing the bloody food. I get him a plateful of sandwiches and assorted nibbles, along with a small plate of the desserts, which no doubt the stoners will be taking to munch on when they come down. So it's best he does stop out there, because the smell will be everywhere in a short while. I grab a coke and a bottle of malt, which looks like one of Papa's! Heading in the direction of the walled garden where Christian had headed too, I find him in the back of the garden, in the cow shed unused I hasten to add, it's used as a summer house now. I go and sit with him.

"Here you are Baby your food." I smile as I pass it him, and he takes it from me touching my hand as he does, I feel a sudden jolt of static. He smiles as he eats. I watch as he eats and dream about the man sat at the other end of the bench.

"Will you sit down and come nearer why are you down there girlfriend? I don't bite, well much and even then only in the throes of passion."

"What is it with your need to inform me of your sex life Mr Grey? I really am not interested in how my chocolates are better than sex and that you bite during the same said sex."

"It was a figure of speech only, you really are tetchy tonight. Have I done something to upset you, and its Christian, Mr Grey is my father, oh yeah and me at work, oh and I am not gay either, so ignore Elliot, he hasn't seem me with my girlfriends, so he assumes I am gay, I am not, far from it actually?" He said girlfriend like it made him sick... Who is he fooling; besides I do not care now.

"I couldn't say why you think I would have a reason to be tetchy Christian, it's not like you know me or that you want to know me at all really. One week a year for sixteen years is not a friendship it's a summertime thing and besides I know where you stand now and I am fine with us. I am not tetchy however I am amazed you think you know me enough to judge me. You made it clear the kiss was a mistake and I would hate to upset your girlfriend's feelings." Damn it; he's right. I am a little tetchy.

"Good, I would hate to upset you, Breadstick." Oh, he remembered what he called me when I was younger. I smiled as he murmured his sweet nick name for me as he eats. "You made all this Anastasia?"

"I did, I was asked to do the pastries and the breads and well went to town, do you like the food then?"

"Anastasia, hell you're great at cooking and baking, these all tasted the same and as ever they are like you magnificent, and were great whilst they lasted, and I've eaten them all sorry."

"I love to cook, but making the chocolates is where I want to be in five or ten years, running my own chocolate shop, bakery and cafe combination and making the best chocolates in the world. I have at least I hope I have a modicum of talent to do that, I just need the push that six months in New York would give me."

"I tasted the ones you make for Mom and Grams, and they were fantastic and Ollie is right there is an orgasmic feeling with each and every bite. I may take some back for Sasha, she loves chocolates." Oh yes do that, I'll do her some specials and put poison in them or laxatives. I smile, because crying just wouldn't do right now. I was under the illusion he liked me and oh how wrong was I? I drink my coke and as he eats the last sweet morsels and drinks the whiskey, I watch him with my feet up on the bench and as the music changes to a less headachy type, I suggest going back in and sitting in the warmth.

"Are you cold? Here slide over here and I will warm you up." I am so tempted, but it is Sasha being bought my chocolates and she is his girlfriend, so no, I don't think so as I can't take more rejection tonight.

"No, your fine, I wouldn't want to give your girlfriend cause for concern. Do you want to see around the farm? I can give you a tour if you want, seeing as we have very little else to do here. I would much rather be back at the castle making the next batch of chocolates than here waiting for Ollie to have Elliot in the hay loft..." He smiles as he finishes the last morsel on both plates and the whiskey, I then wonder why he needs to be so drunk, what if anything is he drinking to forget? He stands and takes my hand.

"So who is this mysterious boyfriend you have Anastasia?"

"I don't have one actually; I have other plans and having one will only interfere with my life and I'm not sure where I'm going to be? I don't want tying down. I want to be able to go somewhere without having to ask permission and have to explain, if it's only me then there's only me to please and to think off."

"Anastasia, I told your friends I was your boyfriend, but do they know you have a tiny crush on me?"

"Christian, please don't tease me, I had a crush yes, but it's over, I am over it and you okay? Your jumping in to play my white knight was not needed. I don't give two hoots what they think of me? If you need a lift back call the reception. I'm going to walk home; I think I have had as much humiliation as I can stand for one day."

"Sorry, I didn't think that I was, or that I would be cramping your style. I can go if I'm making you uncomfortable, but I really wanted to spend some time with you."

"No Christian, you're not making me uncomfortable, but why would you want to spend time with me, I am so not your type of girl..."

"You are exactly my type of girl Ana, with your pretty blue eyes and head of chestnut hair, you are exactly my type." Oh heck!

"You need your bed Christian, you are drunk and do not know what you are saying. I will take you back, you shouldn't have come, and you shouldn't be so drunk, anyone could take advantage of you like this."

"Ha, like they stand a chance, I am dark Ana, so very dark..." I watched as a sadness took hold of him. I felt sorry for him.

"Nobody is dark Christian, you are just drunk and don't know what you want." I wanted him so badly Id have him anyway I could.

"I know that I want to do, I like this you very much. I am dark because Anastasia, I want to fuck you Anastasia. I want to fuck you hard and long. I want to take you over my knee and spank you and then fuck you, but I can't because I am drunk, I want you though, I really do..."

Okay then, the bloody plan worked. I am not willing to take advantage of him anymore because he is so sad and worryingly so. I decide he needs to be in bed and sleeping off his hangover. I sigh and wish this was a sober Christian and that he knew what he was doing, alas he isn't and as much as I wanted tonight to be the night, it looks like I will have another few months to wait and have more ways to hone my seduction plan. Hopefully in the summer he will be sober when he comes again and still feel like he is doing right now. I can but hope anyway...

"I have to give Georgina her keys and tell Ollie I am heading back, we will take the golf buggy back. I am driving though."

"Yes bossy. I will sit and wait! I have a few fucks to give..."

I hear the pilot tell me we are coming into land. Great, I am dreaming about him again. That's all I bloody need.

* * *

Some of you have guessed he took her virginity, and I guess you will have to wait a while... There is a lot of back history with Ana to go through and some of it you will not like... I guess? Thanks for reading it and speculating on what will oer won't happen and though I hate putting HEA, it seems some of you won't read a story if there is not one, so I will say there is a mutual HEA for them both...

I hope to get more than the 33 reviews I got last time. I read my viewing stats and there are hundreds reading it, leave a ;-) or a :-( if you lobe or hate it please...

shameless plug of my books on Amazon, under the name Curley Shirley... It the new laptop fund lol...


	3. Chapter 3

By now you know this is not fifty shades it is all the letters of the AC, OOC things you guys understand and I do not, you should know how I write, Ana and Christian are not total strangers when they meet again, It is a tear jerker of a shortish story, this story is mainly about Ana too. Christian is just a big part of it...

* * *

 ** _Now to address some issues. I will not be doing this every chapter, however as it is all new and singing and dancing, here goes..._**

 ** _I am sorry these are not the characters you are used to, they are mine and mine alone._**

 ** _The way she tricked him into sex... Will be explained._**

 ** _The way she is obsessed with him. Everyone he meets is obsessed with him._**

 ** _Will there be a happy ending? Yes but I had hoped you would wait, besides you who know my story's know I always do a HEA..._**

 ** _It's not your thing? Well okay I am okay for it not to be your thing too. Thanks for the good wishes though xx_**

 ** _I would like a few more reviews lol needy and greedy seeing the reviews makes me wanna post more lol_**

 ** _THERE ARE A LOT OF GOOD COMMENTS TOO THANK YOU..._**

 ** _AS ALWAYS READ OR DON'T THAT CHOICE IS YOURS AND YOURS ALONE..._**

Dreaming of Chocolate and Grey:

Chapter 3:

Anastasia's obsession:

I thank the crew for a very pleasant flight, and headed down the steps and onto the tarmac, then climbed into the back of a wonderful air conditioned car, which the hotel had graciously sent to collect me and headed for the hotel, The Peninsula. I'm shown to my suite, and as I was here just for just a week. I really couldn't be bothered unpacking and packing again, besides I am too tired and cranky and way more bothered by today than I thought I would be. But because they do a very good unpack and press service as part of the package, I give in and I am allowing myself a little pandering to calm me down. Besides I am here to set up my shop and factory which will be hectic, as it is the largest I have done to date, and so before tomorrow's mayhem ensues I feel a little more spoiling was the order of the day for me. I decided to go for a massage, spa treatment and get my hair done. In fact I treated myself to the works, which I thoroughly enjoyed, including the strip wax of my hu-har, pain can be so pleasurable at time. My body was relaxed; however, my mind was still in turmoil after seeing my lust crush and nightmare hogger... Christian Grey. I returned to my suite.

I enjoyed a simple room service supper and sat at the piano and tinkered with the keys with my drink in one hand , a tall vodka and orange, and with the other I play Alicia Key's Empire State of Mind, well sort of... I stab at the keys and then get drawn in, I finish off my drink and after putting down the glass I begin playing the piano properly, when I get the chance this is a luxury and I find it a very soothing way to calm myself. I need to practice anyway; I still have to have a couple of rehearsal sessions with my dad's old band for the concert. I know the words of the song; I just get a little choked up singing them. Singing Alicia's song is way easier, and as I get to the end of the song my fingers are hitting the keys perfectly...

"In New York! Concrete jungle where dreams are made of there's nothing you can't do, now you're in New York! These streets will make you feel brand new, big lights will inspire you, let's hear it for New York, New York, New York..." Indeed I am in New York... But in what state of mind am I after today? Why did I have to sign in person, why did I think that box would stay shut, did I really kid myself into thinking I was over him? Did I think because I was strong in business and in my life choices, so strong that seeing him would be easy to handle this time? I guess I was wrong, I guess I am not strong... I wonder what to do next; who do I talk to about this stupid crush thing I still have? I guess Uncle Wolfe would answer my call; he is a no nonsense, been around the block guy, a type of guy with life experience and more importantly answers. I still have to arrange that rehearsal after all, I leave it for now and will see how I am faring after I open this place.

I can sing, and play her song perfectly but my father's song, it's another matter altogether because I will be singing live in front of his fans for the first time. They have added to my inheritance for almost twenty five years and this concert is their last hurrah, the guys say they have had enough and they are not getting any younger and are retiring for good. I think it will give me a taste of what he felt like singing in front of his fans. I have seen his videos and they were amazing, he was amazing. Uncle Wolfe begged me to do it and what Uncle Wolfe wants he gets by pestering you to death. Andrew Wolfenden is a bad-ass Brummy drummer from Birmingham, England. My father's best friend and my godfather, he is a wild man of rock who met my dad at uni there, where they formed a band and the rest was history. Wolfe and the band still hit the summer festivals, but that's about it. He semi retired after my father passed and the band went their separate way, he said it was pointless carrying on 'Of Wolves and Lambs' because without my father they were nothing but a tribute band but I knew they were more than that, I was too young to understand any of this when he came to spend time with me in Scotland, but he was as good as my father, but he lacked the front of stage charisma my father had. After I calm down I go to bed and grab some sleep, some much needed sleep...

I wake up in the night and my bed is sodden with my sweat and my pillow is wet with my tears, and all because I dreamt of him again last night, it is nothing unusual, because I dream about him every night, and I have done for years. I always see him there and I will always love him, no matter what he does to me. I have tried to get passed this obsession I have with him. I swear, once again, to try and put the thoughts of him away, once again in the lock box and decide _**I will**_ get over this obsession, because I have to. Yesterday it was a shock to find out the feelings were still there and still as strong. He had not changed much, he was way buffer perhaps and more worldly than he was back then, but still my heart raged in my chest seeing him again.

The last time I saw him, he left me and I felt abandoned, used and dirty, so dirty and used that it nearly killed me. After that night I was dead inside for years and I was very nearly over him, or as much as I could be over the love of my life, and now because I have seen him again I feel worse for seeing him its like the near seven years never existed. He was locked away good and tight and only thought of once a day instead of all day, I'd laugh but that was the truth and now I opened the box, and I know I need to close it again, because I will not be that weak and needy girl ever again, but god I want to leave it open, and for me to be dragged into his world and for him to notice me and to love me like I do him, why am I so needy of him? I don't know why, I am I just am. Perhaps it's true and I am a fantasist, a sad woman living in a world without Christian in it, and making do with the dreams I have, dreams of the one man's love I crave. I could look for a replacement to be with me forever or however long forever is these days, but that wasn't what I wanted, I wanted an original Christian Grey to love me, not a copy they are the ones I like to whip, they are just a way to a means of ridding me of some of my issues...

I could have stalked him and followed him, but I chose not to. I could get in contact, but again I chose not to. Grammy Mimi, she said if it's meant to be it would be, she had this crazy idea that boys and men needed to sow their oats before they settled down with their one true love, and we good women and lassies had to wait until they are done and realise what they wanted was always there they were just stupid to know it! Obviously I didn't agree, because I went after him and I suffered for it, I realised after I was just one of the wild oats he had to sow and meant nothing. So I did as she had suggested, but only _**after**_ I messed up that night, stupid I know, but I guess had I known I would have been up for more heartbreak, would have done the chasing? I guess the answer is yes because I did not sit back and wish for it to happen I made it happen, but, I had suffered far too much already for my one moment of passion. It was my mistake for seducing a drunken man and that was my punishment, it was my fault, I pretty much had my way with him and did the worst thing ever, I near on assaulted Christian that night, I would say raped, but he never said no once, he never told me to stop and he in fact took the lead, but I did use a drunk man to fulfil my own needs, I needed to have sex with him, and it was wrong on so many levels because when he woke, he realised what a mistake it and I was, and ran...

I am however, the master of my own universe now and I yield my whip to no one and get a kick out of it too. I don't love, I don't feel anymore, or at least I thought I didn't. In the world I now live in I am the one in charge and those feelings would only be a hindrance to my lifestyle. I have the say in who can see me, who can talk to me, who I dine with and what we do afterwards. It's never what they think they are getting, nothing near it in fact, I do what I need and then walk away, but they do leave happy I guess? Not that I care how they feel when I leave the room, I get my kicks and leave them. I am dark and I am a sadist, and I get my kicks out of whipping men who look like him. Men who beg for more, they beg for me and plead with me to stay, and I walk away, like he did. God I need to go to my club tonight, I have a need to let loose with the whip... Thanks to seeing him again, someone is going to feel my frustration tonight.

Christian's quagmire:

I had a great day today, bought my own private island for golf and to spend my down time in, and the place I loved. I don't know why I loved it like I did, but despite my anger at being dragged there I did like it. I even if truth be told liked the fun Anastasia brought to the week, not that I would admit it, not to her or anyone. When I returned to the Island after my sixteenth birthday I had changed, a lot. I had calmed down. That week of golf with Dad, Gramps and Elliot, was the only week for six years I did not see Elena, and for a week it was needed, to allow my back to heal, my ass to stop throbbing and my dick to get a rest from my Mistress. It was my escape almost. I shiver; I wonder if that is why I like the place, the freedom I had there that I didn't have back in Seattle?

That was the last summer holiday of just being a boy, that was the last holiday before Elena fucked her way into my life, I was fifteen, but it changed me totally that summer and I put some of the change down to Anastasia. I'd had a great time, sort of that is until Elliot left me to look after Anastasia. She was ill and he was looking after her because he liked her, I happened to be in one of my usual moods when he asked me to look after her for a bit, just whilst he went to eat. I of course complained but as he pointed out she had a fever and was sleeping, I looked and yes, she was dead to the world and I thought what the hell she can't annoy me if she is sleeping? How wrong was I? She woke up and wanted a story, so after much arguing about lying down and sleeping she complied, so I was sat on her bed and was reading her a story, when she suddenly launched herself at me touching my chest, I don't know what happened in the madness that ensued, but I lost it and was about to strike her when Elliot rescued her. After that episode Anastasia was a little afraid of me.

How could I tell her why I hated to be touched, when I didn't know myself? Her touch was different though, it hurt me differently, and that was why I panicked, not because it hurt as I usually did, because there were no pins and needles, and no burning sensation. I guess I lost the plot because I stupidly thought she was a witch and her hands were squeezing the life out of my heart, my heart actually hurt in a nice way when she touched me, I guess that's why I panicked because it felt soothing, but only for a mere nanosecond. After that though she never came close to me. When we got back home stateside, Mom was told what I did and she sent me to sing for my supper as they say, and I had to do menial jobs for her new friends. Yes to calm the brat I was and to make me pay for hurting Anastasia, I had to help out her good friends The Lincoln's, they were new to the area and I had to help with the renovations at their home, that was the same year that the summer of sex and seduction began. I was drawn into a web that I felt safe and needed in. I loved it, it saved me, it tamed me and Elena made it happen. I shake off those thoughts and ready myself to dine with Elena. I get a call from her as I change for dinner.

"Elena, what is the matter?"

"Darling you have ended your contract with Suzie; did you not think I would call you?"

"I don't have to explain my reasons to you Elena, but she was seen out last weekend when she should have been here with me, I called to see if she was okay for this weekend only to find out she is ill again. I know this is a lie as she is booked on a flight to Vegas with her friends and that is not acceptable. Once was not acceptable but twice was cause for termination. It is like Leila all over again, she was too settled and she like Leila wanted to be my fucking girlfriend."

"She is young and needs to let loose, I will have a word but it is your fault Christian, because you need to be firmer with her? You should have learned from your mistakes with Leila."

"I have terminated her contract, cancelled her cards and her things are being boxed and sent to her apartment as we speak. She gets the standard contract fees paid to her and I will continue to pay for her university and apartment for twelve months, she also has her medical needs covered. If she tries to break her NDA, then she forfeits it all, please remind her of that. Now, I have to cancel tonight. My mother and sister want to go to New York. I am going to see to a problem with work there is there anything else?"

"My, my you are very stressed Christian, do you want me to send someone around? I could come myself, if you want?"

"Why would I want you, we are through Elena and I am never going back there especially with you."

"How about..."

"...How about I get in touch when I get back? My accountants want you and I to sit down and discuss the drastic downturn in Esclavas figures for the last quarter anyway."

"Okay, I will get my people on to it."

"There is no need the books are being audited as we speak."

"Christian..."

"...What, did you not think I noticed the drop in profits Elena and the sudden new face and ass you have? I am not funding your body changes Elena."

"You would have nothing without me."Here we go again.

"I paid back your loan with enough interest for you never to mention that again, I even funded your start up in the salons."

"Yes for a fifty one percent stake."

"I like control in all areas Mrs Lincoln. You taught me that. Now, I will see you when we get back." I end the call and feel a little pleased with myself. She is annoying me to death at the moment. I even think she is the one behind Suzie and Leila's erratic behaviour too. I call Mom...

"Christian, darling, what is the matter?"

"Nothing, I was wondering if you, Mia and Grams will still be needing the jet to go to New York tomorrow?"

"Yes, but we can get another flight, if you need it Christian?"

"No, I have to be going there anyway to tend to some business, I was calling to ask would you mind the company?"

"Yes my darling boy, we would love it. Is there something wrong in New York?"

"No, Ros was going, but Gwen is ill so I am stepping in, it's nothing that can't wait but I feel like a break will do me good."

"It will, so what time do you want us at the airport only it's a big thing for Mia, she wants to be there early?"

"When does the event take place Mom?"

"It is a seven thirty opening. We however have an early VIP pass to tour Anastasia's factory too, I mean Mia is besides herself and so giddy. I know Daddy pulled some strings for this meeting with Anastasia."

"She sold me Otter Island today Mom." I tell her, she knows how much I wanted the place and seems shocked I have at last got it.

"She did...? I thought she would never sell it, I really did. What will you do to it?"

"Nothing, I will get the best management in it and perhaps overall the estate a little and update the decor a little in the castle, but there is nothing drastic that needs doing."

"Oh there is, you need to allow women to use it, it has been a fuddy-duddy boys club for far too long."

"Mom, that would be sacrilege, and I would be black balled in the society, you know that is one of the last bastions of male only sanctuaries in the world."

"Oh phooey, it's just a good ole boys club. Was Anastasia okay with you?"

"No, she was a little off, but I guess selling the place was a hard thing to do?" I do not tell her about our conversation, because until I talk to Anastasia again, I still haven't a clue as to what I did wrong. "So I will meet you at Sea-Tac at eight then? I have informed Mrs Travis to get the apartment ready."

"I rang her too, thank you for the use of it."

"Mom, when did you ever have to ask?"

"I know, I know. Now, have you eaten?"

"Gail is away this weekend, so I am reheating her famous mac and cheese. I need to do some work this evening and ready my bag for the weekend."

"Okay darling I will see you tomorrow." I end the call and get myself my own dinner. I do my dinner and pour myself a glass of wine. I am sat at the breakfast bar and notice how silent the place is. Has it always been this depressing? Why am I now just noticing this? I eat my dinner and wonder again what I did to Anastasia, to hurt her as badly as I seem to have done. Racking my brain is pointless, as I still get nothing, so I decide it is a fruitless task. I was simply too drunk and not able to remember anything about the trip. I do a little work and decide to download her book. I spend an hour reading it and it is as Elliot says snippets of her life, with recipes for chocolates and photos of her and her scatty friend Olivia. I read the dedication and wonder what that means too... 'For my friend Olivia and her travelling companion, keep each other safe and wait for me.' That got me thinking, had I perhaps done something with Olivia? I Goggled Olivia Douglas and London and I was shocked at what I saw. Olivia had died in an accident, in late summer, before she went travelling, I remembered that, why cannot I remember the more I need too? It the same year we last spent that last snowy night with her and Anastasia at Otter Island, I wonder if Elliot knows this? I called Elliot.

"Hi, this is becoming a habit, what can I do for you, I won the hundred dollars fair and square?" I laugh; he cheated but will never admit he took the whole corner off the trek to make sure he won.

"Olivia Douglas..."

"Oh hell, she is a blast from the past. What of her?"

"She died."

"It wasn't my fault, she was alive when I saw her last, I swear."

"No you fool; she was killed in a traffic accident. That year, much later at the end of August."

"No shit, poor Ollie, poor Ana, she and Ollie were inseparable."

"Elliot did me and Ollie, did we know you know... Fuck?"

"No, she and I were busy right up until I got the call, we were wailing in barn there. She was a little offended when I said thanks I have to go, but it was the middle of the damned night. I liked that winter romp; it was surprisingly warm in the barn despite the snow all around. Happy times. So no, you didn't fuck her. I doubt you could piss straight let alone fuck anyone or a sheep."

"See I remember sheep now too and the snow. Why the fuck is it a blare?"

"Whiskey, whiskey was your demon that night. I mean, come on Chris, you must have been drunk to book a fucking golfing holiday in the fucking snow."

"I remember wanting and needing desperately to get there, I needed to get there, that's all I remember after the celebration party in the club, I needed to be there and you agreed."

"So do you want anything else oh great and amnesia brained one?"

"Umm, not unless you are doing anything for the next couple of days, I have to go to New York, this is playing on my mind and I have a problem at GEH there, Mom, Grams and Mia will be at Sea-Tac at eight if you want to come too?"

"Umm, I could do with a couple of days there, thanks, I will see you at the airport, and don't worry it can't be that bad. Not if you can't remember it."

"I suppose not. Anyway I have to pack. See you tomorrow Ell." I end the call and ponder the message again. How sad is all I can say, I think I remember tiny bits about her too, but nothing bad. Damn you Anastasia, you have me riled and I don't know what I did... I go and pack after I tell Taylor we are in New York for a couple of days.

I wake up in the morning, go for a run and pound the pavements, because I didn't sleep last night, again. I woke having hot sweats and nightmares as I do most nights. But last night was different, last night all I dreamed about was Anastasia. She haunted my dreams and in the end I woke, played the piano and read her cookbook. I did some research on Anastasia and what I did read blew me away, she is to chocolate what Bill Gates is to software. I did insult her saying she was a confectioner and ran candy stores. She is as she states on the books cover, The Queen of Chocolate...

Anastasia's gets more bad news:

I get up and get dressed, and go for a run around Central Park. I have always loved to run here, and I did so, so very often when I came here to study... I am playing my dad's album as I run, 'Better Ask Forgiveness Than Ask Permission.' I did wonder if my dad did things first and then said sorry afterwards as I do? Uncle Wolfe did not know why he titled their last album that, but it was the biggest record they ever had, it was a pity he had to die to make it happen though. I run for what seems like an age and when my pulse is good and high, I start to calm down and slow it down. I stop for a tea in the park, and walk back to the hotel. I have ordered a light breakfast and grab a shower before it comes. I dress in my usual austere, but classy 'uniform' this time in navy, with a pale blue blouse and navy pumps. I will be changing to my chef whites when get there.

After breakfast I use my car service to get me to my new shop and factory. Finding premises large enough to do this has and is the biggest problem I have with my new business start ups, but I am sure this building will be great for New York. Each of my American properties have and will use the same formula I have for Europe. They will each service the shops and they will all be expected to make and distribute the orders to the stores in their district. I set off with everything I need for the day, it has to go well, it has too, these stores are like my babies and each one is just as precious. I get there and the windows are being cleaned and the vans are pulling in and out of the underground parking. We are right opposite Cartier and yes I thought that would be an added bonus. The damned building cost me enough. I would love to be a tenant in the apartments above, they may, after a while even become sick of the smell, but who in their right mind hates the smell of vanilla and chocolate? I walk in and gasp; okay we may have a problem. I have walked into the confectionery shop and it is nowhere near finished, fuck.

"Mareena, Mareena, where the hell are the frigging counter fridges and the walled fridges, why are they not in the shop?"

"They have only just arrived; they are being steamed and readied. They only finished off the floors at midnight. The men have worked through the night Ma'am."

"I pay them enough, they have their deadlines and I have mine. Walk with me to the bakery, is it working did they fix the snag list you gave them?"

"Yes Ma'am everything in the cafe and the bakery is finished to perfection, in fact it made its first batch of bread at seven. All was successful; the shelves will be full in no time. We are not open to the public until tomorrow, but the magazine wanted the shop to look as it will when we open, that is correct yes?"

"Yes, and when the event has finished whatever is left have it all packed and sent to a shelter nearby, waste not want not, the same goes for the cafe and make sure it is done each night, because there are many hungry people out there and every little helps Mareena." She makes a note to find the nearest shelter or food bank.

I go through to the cafe and it is perfect. The staff are already serving the workmen and all the staff hanging around waiting for the various trades to finish off, it's not the best sight in the world, but neither is it the worst, as they are all smiling as they eat. I hold my breath as I go through the factory doors and see the shiny new machines. Mareena smiles as I walk towards the back. I walk around and it is perfect, that is apart from the confectioner's shop. I walked back in and saw the delivery's arriving. The cleaners were in and the fridges were finally being wheeled in. Mareena was supervising their placement and the builders were clearing their things away. My shop just needed cleaning. The custom cabinetry was the same as in all my shops and the bookcase type shelves were being cleaned ready to take the bars of chocolate, the pre packages bon-bons, the jellied fruits and the candied nuts and fruits were already here from Denver. The gift shoes and the mini golf bags full of candies were here too. I smiled and went to get changed. I wanted to create not be a bullying bossy bitch as per usual...

"Mareena, can I use your office to change?"

"Yes... Please do. Miss D'Acciaio, Ma'am." I went to get changed. I looked at the offices and people were already busy taking orders and sending them down to dispatch. As I passed one office I heard the name Grey being screamed and an awful lot of shouting. Kate was on full volume again. Kate Kavanagh, my chief financial officer.

"Why are you raising your voice to a customer Kate again, they are not the devil's spawn, they pay your wage be polite and bite your tongue?"She looked at me and pulled a face.

"It is a guest for tonight's opening, they would like to bring two more people and when did you last pay me, you miser?" She said with her hand over the phone. For god's sake that why we have headsets, her and her damned hair. Why she refuses to wear them lord only knows, but vanity plays a part I would think. I know she keeps out of the kitchens because of the hairnet rule.

"The Greys," she nodded her head as I asked her who was on the damned phone, " and they want to add to their party?" I ask, "and I don't pay you, you're right, you pay yourself girl. Who do you think funds your shoe collection KK?"

"Yes Ana, I was joking, do you really think I do this just for the glamour of adding to my closet space? Now, we are very tight on numbers already, two more may be it, what if another press outfit want in?" She is great with my money and the company's finances.

"Pass me the phone Kate. Hello, who is this?"

"Hello it is Grace Grey; I was asking the young lady would it be possible to add two people to our guest list. My son's are both coming to New York with us, last minute."

"Hello Grace, it is Anastasia, of course they can come. I will have Kate here put them on the list. That young lady by the way was Katherine Kavagnah, Grace."

"I didn't recognise her voice, her parents will be very disappointed in the abrupt way she talks on the phone, she was quite rude Anastasia, very rude in fact. I did try to tell her I don't think they will stop very long, they are, well they are Elliot and Christian after all and not Mia, now Mia I am afraid you will have to pry away from the place at closing."

"I am so sorry Grace, but she and I are very busy and she is very stressed, this is her first live opening and she is sticking to my direct orders, which is very hard for my best friend to do, her having to follow other people's orders. So Mia still wants to create her own chocolate house does she?" I change the subject.

"No, no, she wants to help you run yours." I laugh. "I am serious; you are all she talks about. She is doing so well in her classes. She returned from Belgium especially for tonight."

"I am glad she is doing well, my most favourite of teachers is the very reason I did so well at what I now do, Mia she likes Mr Fraser, yes?"

"She adores him and his school. She only wishes she could have worked with his cousin." I smile when I remember 'Sir', Mr James Frasier, and the other 'Sir' in my life, John Hyde, his cousin and the reason I have my empire. I remember his faith in me and his hope for me to carry on with the school and the business, but alas that was not to be, his sons did not want that on any level... "She was grateful you asked for her to be considered for the apprenticeship with him."

"It was my pleasure, alas I do not teach, one day I will have a school perhaps in London I think? I am looking at a property there at the moment."

"Oh good, Ana we are about to set off, so it is fine that the boys come?"

"Yes Grace, it is more than fine. I will see you later." I end the call and have Kate add Elliot's and Christian's name to the guest list. "They won't stop long. I doubt once the photographer has finished many of the guests will stop too. It is a cafe opening not a nightclub after all, now anymore problems?"

"One and it is huge. Ana, really huge."

"Okay, hit me with it Kate, we haven't got all day?"

"Mr Jack Hyde wishes to attend the opening; he is at his school here in the city, and wishes to see you about something important." Fuck. I mean double fuck. I have not seen that idiot since I almost broke his company and took four businesses from The House of Hyde and made them profitable and huge. He was the monster who for a short time made me forget Christian, but he was nothing more than another con man in a nice suit after things I held dear. A man waiting to jump into his father's shoes, shoes he and his brother could never fill, their fathers shoes were clown sized and theirs were mere babies booties in comparison.

"What did he say exactly?"

"He wants to discuss you taking over the House of Hyde, and as your business advisor Ana, not your friend, I'd sit down with Uncles Pieter and James first. I hear the House of Hyde are not taking coming second to you and the Dark Heart brand. They are making big losses for the first time ever. They took the biggest hit when they overpaid you for taking the Lust Range back and to cut costs they have started using inferior products and some of the stores standards have slipped, so much so James Frasier has quit at the school, which is being shut as we speak. They are no longer teaching to cut costs." Oh god what will he do, poor James, he will be so upset. I need to speak to my old and trusted friend, immediately.

"Thanks Kate, add him to the list please. I need to use Mareena's office for that particular sit down and talk. Have the cameras been installed?"

"Yes. In every room and office, over all the cash registers and they are were all done before the staff came in so nobody but a handful of staff know they are there."

"Okay, thanks Kate. I will see you later; I have to help fill the shop. Come and get me if you need me."

"I will do."

Katherine Kavagnah was recommended to me by her brother Ethan, and what those two don't know about finance could be written on a post it note, in fact I would say a postage stamp would have space, their father Eamon taught his twins well. I need to know why the House of Hyde is losing money and I sit behind Mareena's desk and make the call.

"Hello Sir, Mr Frasier, James it's Ana..."

"Ana, It is good to hear your voice. How are you?"

"I am very well, how are you?"

"It would be a lie if I said good, things here a falling apart and quickly since last month, the fools are running the business into the ground. Their closing of the schools was the last step for me."

"Why, did they do that, it is where all the good chocolatiers learn their art."

"The boys say they can mass produce in Poland and Romania cheaper, they say they don't need artisans to fill moulds, when machines can do the job cheaper and faster."

"I see, so how much do you think they want for the company?"

"Too much. They have over priced it. It is not worth a tenth of the price it was before you left."

"My taking as much as I did, did it break them?"

"No, no they are still spending a great deal on themselves and buying cars and spending cash on the playboy lifestyle they want and need. They are paying themselves a stupid amount to do it too. Their mother wants to sell her shares, as does Alice. Ana they only want a fair price for what they have and between the two of them you would own fifty two percent of the company and be able to force the brothers from their seats on the board."

"Do you still have your seat?"

"I do and I can sway enough of the board if I tell them you will be the new head of the House of Hyde."

"If I buy them out it will be added to the House of D'Acciaio. I can't have all my good work dragged down because of what Jack and George have done."

"I am willing to stay on, but only if you return it to how John had it?"

"That goes without saying, everything would return to the days before I was pushed out of the company, it will be just as John Hyde made it."

"Good, so shall I tell the girls you want their shares then?"

"Yes and I will pay them, and only them the price the shares were worth at the time of John's death, the other two get the very least I can get away with paying. Get the board together. Are both boys here?"

"George is in Monte Carlo losing big, and Jack is there closing the school."

"Oh god, not the school here too?" I may be getting my schools after all. "Thank you; you my private number James, please call me with news." I went into see. Kate. "Kate can you and Ethan get me the figures together for the takeover costs of The House of Hyde. I want each of their twenty four percent of the company; I have their mothers twenty eight percent and their sisters twenty four, so I already own fifty two percent of it, Kate"

"When he asked for a sit down Ana, I knew there was trouble. Go create and I will call you when I have something for you."

"Thanks, I may go back to the hotel and do some of my own work." I have great staff, family and old friends working for me, so I know they have my back, Mareena Morales is my company's marketing director, who is doing fine down there and then there is Jose Rodriguez, who is my troubleshooting manger of operations; he really knows how to set up my shops perfectly.

I just know this is going to be trouble, but I am not letting my old teacher and mentor down. I swore to keep his good name and they have ruined it. I went to see Mareena and Jose and they were happy for me to go, I would say they were relieved really! I got back to the hotel and kicked off my shoes. God what more crap is coming my way? I lay on the bed and then I cry like I have not cried in ages. I close my eyes and think about how the Hyde's shaped me and formed me, and made me partially what I am today. I remember too how it all started... How glad am I that it worked out in favour of me that day, a day that could have been so different had Mr Vincennes, the head of the Parma Cookery School, one of the four feeder schools for the converted place in the New York School of cookery, had his way and sent the bimbo he was actually sending instead of me. She was a crap baker, but she did extras to get her grades high, I did not stoop to his or her level. She however, had decided that she didn't like cooking on her internet interview with Daniel Frost, my name was called and he looked up.

"Argh, Miss Anastasia Rose D'Acciaio, we meet again. I believe you will finally be coming to New York; congratulations, you are in for a hectic time, are you ready to begin learning and everything from me, a Maître Pâtissier? I am looking forward to teaching you all I know, would you like that? Your Nonna sent a wonderful letter telling me she had put a curse on my manhood. I am both amused and relieved that it was an empty threat; let's just put it this way that the bits she said would wither and die, are still here." I laughed I remembered the letter being wrote. "We are looking forward to seeing you, do you still make Lust?"

"I do Sir yes, but only for family and friends now, being here sort of prevents that. Though after the six months with you, I am sure I will be making them with more finesse, Sir."

"Excellent Miss D'Acciaio, but the job is now for twelve months, six here with me and six in Zurich, Switzerland, at the new headquarters there. We will see you in a week. You have been assigned your rooms here, and they are in the apartment block. I hasten to add, the school owns it and I do not live there, tell Nonna that please, her next curse may work."

I smile as Mr Vincennes is told to send me home to see Nonna, and to make sure I have the correct tickets and travel expenses. That was a bonus, but not needed because I had money of my own. I packed up my room, including my awards and certificates, I had finished top of the class and have the much coveted paperwork. I packed it away in my new folder for my awards. I had won four shows whilst I was here, awards for my breads and pastries. So after getting the first flight out of Parma, I arrived at their home in the early morning to the wondrous smell of fresh baking bread, the smell I had grown up with, I was home. I left my bags in the car and put on my chef's whites and went in to help Nonno with the baking.

"Anastasia, you are a week early, did you get thrown of the course for partying?"

"Nonno I didn't, no you know I don't party. I have won the six months apprenticeship at the house of chocolate, but Nonno it's for a year and not just six months. It is six months there and six in Zurich, Switzerland, at their new school and factory and shop there."

"Splendid, right do your thing, Nonno needs to have coffee. I will tell Nonna you won the place, she will be thrilled."

I remember that day and the following days as being both happy and productive. I baked and made my chocolates after the bakery closed. I had a great week with my grandparents but it flew by too quickly, because it was soon time to head to America. I got my flight from Pisa to JFK; I smiled, because this flight was taking me to my dreams. I slept most of the way there, and the rest of the time was spent writing down my recipes for new taste bites to add to the Lust Range, I needed to add to my repertoire of exciting flavours. I already had a massive journal full of recipes and drawings and bag ideas, wrapper ideas and box ideas, all for my perfect shop, ideally there would be room for three, a bakery, a cafe and confectioner's store, all connected, and it would need to be the brightest and airiest of places.

I landed and hailed a taxi to take me to my home for the next six months. The place was buzzing when I got there, our rooms were shown to us and I headed for mine with a great feeling of accomplishment and delight. I unpacked and settled in. Looking at my uniform first, the milk chocolate coloured trousers, a white tee shirt and brown wrap around apron and the customary hairnets and hats. The top student of the class awarded the darker coloured trousers and brown tee shirts. This was the competition that Frost initiated, something for the students to compete against each other for.

We had to be up early for our first day, so I got comfy with the rules of the house and the layout too. From the shared kitchen, dining room and lounge on the ground floor upwards, there was to be no food, nor was any alcohol allowed in any of the rooms. After classes we were free to do as we pleased, but at eight am on the dot, we had to be in the school kitchens and ready to work. I went straight to bed and woke fresh from a wonderful night's sleep. I jogged the few blocks to school and as I jogged, my iPod played the hits from my father's band, hearing his voice soothed me, it always did. I arrived at the school; I showered, changed and went to the classroom. As I looked around, I wondered where they all were? There were eleven other students and I know they had been partying all night. I heard them coming back along the corridors.

"Argh Anastasia, put on the browns in the changing rooms please." Daniel boomed at me.

"Yes chef." I was asked to wear the browns, so I did. The others ambled in and I had already changed and put away my 'whites.' The others came in, in dribs and drabs as I stood waiting.

"Right the rules to stopping here are simple, follow them or lose your converted place, the one place available to be taught in Zurich, has already been awarded to Anastasia D'Acciaio, she out of all four thousand candidates is the only one who has come top in all her classes. She has won four, yes four master bakers titles and she was the only one in bed at a reasonable hour and the only one who ran here, showered here and changed here and arrived well before time. The following people will please leave and not return today. The house you share, it will be cleaned and scrubbed from top to bottom and an inspection will be carried out when I have finished class." He called out several names. "I repeat you are never come to class from home in your whites. You have all been in the classroom environment before, and you know the golden rule. I would hope so anyway, let me refresh you, your whites are for in here only, you change every time you leave the school and return, if you can't remember that, then there is no hope for you becoming master at anything if you cannot master basic food and personal hygiene issues."

They left and I looked around at the remaining faces looking at me. I was to be the one student that all my classmates would hate. They could hate away as I had enough of that of my own, adding theirs to it made no difference at all. I would however use their hate as a focusing tool, my task in hand was to concentrate on learning and not make new friends and sure enough, that was what happened. I won the brown tee shirt every week. So much so, that one or two had been ruined, they had bleached writing on them 'it's brown because of where the wearer's nose has been,' and other profanities, it was no big deal I had several of the damned things!

I was focused, didn't go out, nor did I drink at their every night parties, not that they invited me or included me in any of their other activities in the house or indeed asked me to join the weekly dinners. This was my life, a pitiful empty existence. I came across as an arrogant hard bitch, the fun loving go get them Annie, had long left the building, and I wasn't bothered by their unfounded hate of me, it made me more focused to do well and better them at all opportunities, and I did. My baking skills could not be matched, even the teachers told me that, I did however never complain, I never knew if they could teach me a better way of doing something, so I buckled down and listened and learned. I was here for the sole purpose of being a chocolatier, and to learn the art of chocolate, this was my sole reason for doing the course. After three months, I had learnt as much as they could teach me with the pastries and breads. I was moved on to my one on one session with Daniels number two Ramón. Who actually ran the place, as Daniel was forever doing chat shows, cookery shows and interviews.

Ramón advised that I should never divulge my recipes to him. I should always hide an ingredient or two from him when making my chocolates too, so he could not replicate them. As Daniel was renowned for taking credit for the new recipes that he 'invented or discovered' in reality he stole the ideas and passed them off as his own, and I had him pegged as being a good egg too, it seems I am not a good judge of character after all. I thanked Ramón for this tit bit of information, as Daniel had asked me how I made the champagne and vodka truffles, and I was about to give him the recipe too! He was a fake and a charlatan, but thanks to Ramón I was slowly learning who I could trust and who shouldn't be trusted... Daniel became another person I had grown to despise, and I hardly had any training with the renowned 'Maître Pâtissier' in the months I had been here either! I took an odd class, I did an odd show where I did the damn work and he took all the credit.

I was however given the best break ever, and this was what would eventually set me on my current path. I was asked to help make my biggest box of chocolates to date. I was to use only my recipes, and my ideas and there was to be an added bonus too because the head of the company and the master chef at the Zurich operation, Mr John Hyde was flying in to see if the winner, Daniel picked, me, was worthy of going back to Switzerland with him! The cheek of the man, I worked hard to be the best I could, I'd sacrificed enough too. I asked Ramon, who had taught me the correct chemistry of chocolate and the correct tempering methods, to show me where the cameras in the kitchens where, he pointed them out and with a little fiddling and a slight moving of tables, we hide my recipes, it was all very cloak and dagger, but I had a feeling Daniel was up to no good.

I gathered the best ingredients together, the best Mexican vanilla bean paste. The best chocolate and the freshest juiciest fruit, in fact I had the best of everything before me and set about my herculean task. The box had to have at least twenty five variations; they had to be light, dark and white chocolate and contain pralines and candied fruits too, they had to be no more the standard black ganache frame, and they could contain any filling I wanted. I began by tempering the chocolate in the small machines; all three were whirling away, the disc circled as the chocolate turned into a smoother silkier tempered and shiny chocolate. I created: I measured, I poured, I mixed, I chopped, I moulded, I sprayed all sorts of chocolate into moulds and I worked for hours, when they were all finished I stood back and looked at my creations, and wow these were the best selection of handmade chocolates I'd ever created, and yes I was very proud and pleased, as was Ramón. Including in the frames were the three new flavours I'd invented, the Grapefruit Sour Bomb, the Salted Chocolate Caramel, and the Gingerbread Dream. My heart and soul had been placed in each of those chocolates, and also added into each batch that I created that day was a tiny piece of my soul. Finally, as I presented my creations for tasting on the large amounts of trays to my would-be new chocolate master, I was stunned to learn they were to be sent to the president's wife for her birthday. Holy Shit as the Yanks say, I was creating my chocolates for the First Lady.

When I had finished Mr John Hyde entered the room, I was both shocked and surprised he was to be my new master and I was going to be his one apprentice, really? I was so nervous now, what if any or all of them were not good enough, he'd deposit me back home, quick as a flash and without a bye-your-leave. I had a large selection of chocolates for him to taste, all on their individual trays, sat on the two massive tables and as he grazed along the table, he selected a chocolate or praline, then tasting each one he would then look at the card, with the name and descriptions. Then when he finished tasting he made notes and smiled.

"Ramón, please send our biggest box to the lucky first lady with the compliments of myself, and the House of Hyde, and please put the name of the creator of each of these thirty little masterpieces, as Miss Anastasia Rose D'Acciaio. Have them photographed and the name of the said chocolate on the card, all with the usual VIP packaging, and the ranges name is to be what Miss D'Acciaio? The honour of naming the new range falls to you; they are after all your chocolates?"

"If it is all right Sir, I would like to call the range, Dea Della Lussuria, the Goddess of Lust range?" Ramón and two helpers took ten of each chocolate and disappeared into marketing.

"Students please gather round, I have been pleasantly and seriously surprised today. Had I any doubts that the supposed less qualified of you students was to be joining me in Switzerland, I have just had them blown away today. If you have any doubts about this young lady, who I assure you is not sleeping her way to my master class, and is not worthy of being my only apprentice this year, then I'm about to allow you to taste the very good reason why it is her coming and none of you. Miss D'Acciaio will be vacating those hideous browns today and giving someone else a chance to wear them, as she will be flying straight back to Switzerland with me. Taste her creations and tell me you could do better." They did as they were asked and I was stunned by what he had just said, so I asked him outright what the hell was going on.

"Sir, can I ask why you are here and who can I ask, made those accusations of me sleeping my way here or anywhere else, Sir?"

"There have been several emails sent saying you have slept your way to the top spot weekly, because you knew Daniel before you even went to Parma and you were first offered a place here when you were just sixteen?"

"All barring the sleeping with the man are correct. The offer of a place here when I was sixteen, was in fact rejected by my grandmother, my Nonna, she thought he had and ulterior motive, as he offered to put me up in his own apartment. He came to my catering college and did a master class on chocolate, and I helped him that day and made the champagne and vodka truffle, my 'Elegant Russian'. I can assure you I will not sleep my way to anything, if my work is not good enough I will improve, I will never lower myself to sleeping with someone that I do not truly love." He laughed, and as we returned to the table, the faces of the students were amazing.

"Right what did you think?" Their faces said it all. I was finally getting their respect after six months of their back stabbing. "Anastasia, you are coming to Switzerland with me for a minimum of six months you will learn and you must show willing to learn about more than just chocolate and if I feel you warrant it, you will be entered into competitions and if I think you will benefit from it, you will be entered into the master pastry chef exams. I want you to be licensed and accredited; you have to be to get on in this world Anastasia. Then and only then will I allow you move on in my company, you may be months under my tutelage or even years. You will Miss D'Acciaio be worked harder than you have ever been worked before. You will sit exams, do competitions, I expect you to be total perfection and not only with the wonderful chocolates you now do so well. but you will also be taught the business side of things, management, finances you name it you will learn it. If you want that, my car will pick you up in two hours from the apartments and guard that book well, in fact make a copy and place that in safekeeping. Can you be ready to fly tonight?" I was astounded.

"Yes Chef, I will be in your car in two hours." I emptied my locker and ran for home.

...I wake up and realise I had been dreaming again. My dreams are slowly killing me and making me a wreck. I now have not only Christian to deal with, but Jack too. Oh my lord this day get weirder and weirder...

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Now Jack is in the next few chapters be warned... I know you despise the character as do I, though I am kind of thinking Eric Johnson is kind of hot as Jack in the film... I will answer your pms if fan fiction allows me to its crankier than me awaiting my holiday to Greece... I have already written several chapters so will update whilst there. As ever please read and review, if only to make me post a tad quicker... lol... Don't forget the books for my new laptop fund... Curly Shirley the author on amazon...


	4. Chapter 4

By now you know this is not fifty shades it is all the letters of the AU-OCC things you guys understand and I do not. You should know how I write? It is a tear jerker of a shortish story, this story is mainly about Ana too. Christian is just a big part of it...

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There now follows an important four chapters; chapters that give you more much needed back information n Ana and her past after Scotland, unfortunately the four chapters feature a lot of Jack, which is needed, bear with me and don't be jumping all in my face until chapter eight... PLEASE?

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Dreaming of Chocolate and Grey:

Chapter 4:

Anastasia vs. Jack: Part I:

I am sure that Jack is up to no good or he will be when he finds out I am thinking about taking his father's company from him. I have o to save his father's brilliant reputation. I woke from my power nap with still no clarity and finality about my feelings for Christian even after I have slept on the it. I am worrying over nothing, he won't come tonight he was just being pleasant to his mother, he and I are just those two ships that have now not only sailed by in the night, I in fact won the white ribbon for the fastest get out of Seattle ever. I call the shops and everything apparently finished, it is clean, stocked and manned and the photographers are there, as is a news crew. I change into my cocktail dress and wonder what worries tonight will bring? My car service picks me up and I head back to work, I feel so guilty because I have never been so lazy with a store set up as I have been today, although I think Jose and Mareena are secretly glad to be allowed to do their jobs without me interfering? I enter the premises through the back door and through the kitchens; I slide on an overall and place my hair in a net. My good shoes are placed in my bag and I slip into my white clogs, oh how glamorous I must look?

I do an inspection of the new kitchen and the production line is in full swing. My Chief of Production is Ramón Dahl, the teacher who honed my chocolate tempering talents, and whom I poached from the Hyde's school here many moons ago, he smiles as I walk the line and make a table stop at the shop's signature chocolate bench, each shop has one a work station and a chocolate only available on line and in the particular store it's made for, and New York's is called the Big Apple of course! It is a light white chocolate and vanilla ganache, it is topped by a layer of gooey appleness, all made from locally sourced and produced apples which they then make into a homemade apple sauce, I added a layer of this, and then topped that with cinnamon and cider jelly, making it very apple friendly. Then I topped it with milk chocolate. MY edible company logo sits atop of it. I see the rose and smile. I taste one and murmur my approval. It works and god it smells divine, just like eating an apple straight from the tree only with chocolate...

"How are things Ramón?"

"Very good, and with each new store it becomes easier. I bow to your expertise, you were right keeping the same layout works."

"Hey you know chocolate, and I know my stores and the chocolate too of course. Listen, how would you fancy going back to teaching?"

"A school, you are going to start teaching at last?" I nod my head and finish off the Big Apple.

"I have been offered the House of Hyde. What do you think?"

"Have they ruined it?"I wipe my mouth.

"Yes..."

"Then we have to have them back and yes I would love to teach. James, would he be still teaching?"

"Yes, but I will also have him running Switzerland for me, because I can't be everywhere at the same time. You are still up for helping run America, right Ramón?"

"If the president steps down then yes..." Har-de-har-har...

"It wasn't funny when you said it the first time and it's not funny now Ramón."

"I think you need someone with the passion for management, alas my passion is teaching you know this Ana, you need t cast the net wider than family and school friends and get someone in to work with Kate?"

"You can't blame a girl for trying, and I am looking, I swear I am. Now, how is the shop looking?"

"See for yourself, it is packed to the rafters. The girls have finished putting together the complementary bags and we are on clean up for the VIP tour for your guests. They will be here in an hour. Now go and see the rest of the store, it looks amazing."

"Thanks Ramon, I couldn't do this without you."

"I know and that's why you pay me the big bucks. Now move or I will have you scooping kiwi fruits, and we all know you love that job."

"Hey, I will have you know I love Kiwi's."

"Liar..." I laugh and head towards the mêlée that is opening night. Jose and Mareena have done a great job and the store is perfect. The staff are in their clean uniforms. I give a pep talk to all my new staff before ever new store opening.

"Hello, can you all gather around please?" I wait for the three sets of shop assistants to come into the cafe, the production staff are by the three doors at the back. Wow there a lot of fresh faces watching me. "As you all know I started this company, The D'Acciaio House of Chocolate just three years ago, all this has come from my humble begins in the back of a Soho bakery, in London. I have had a dream to be the best chocolate master in the world for what seems like eons now and finally I get to do that and we now sell the best chocolates in the world... I want you all to know I couldn't do that without all of you, you are who make my dreams come true, without you and your hard work then my dreams would still be written on the pages of a journal I kept. A journal with all my hopes and dreams for just this thing, for just this business, a business you are helping me to grow into the best chocolate house in the world...

Now I thank you for the time and the effort you all put into helping me make my dreams a reality, I also need you to keep those faces smiling and that smile and eagerness each and everyone of you has, is the first face and the best face of my company, that our customers see, they don't see the people hand making the products we sell. they see you. So, tonight when you pass over a snack roll, or give someone a chocolate or pour a customer a drink, think of what has gone into all that behind those doors and smile, be polite and enjoy yourself. That goes for in all you do at D'Acciaio's House of Chocolate. Please remember that the customer is not always right, but they are the customer, so let them think they are right. If any one of you has a problem about anything, you all have my email, tell me your woes and I promise to try to fix it. I want my staff to be as happy as I am right now. So, once again thank you, enjoy yourself and remember to smile."

I get a round of applause and then head to see Kate; I need news about Jack, because I feel it in my bones that he is up to his old tricks and is plotting my downfall as I waffle to my staff. Kate is missing in action; so I sit at her desk and grab my laptop and see his name on the guest list. Crap, what the hell do I do if Jack makes a scene? He is Jack Hyde what do I mean if he makes a scene, he is Jack Hyde he will. I hate the fact that I allowed him to do the things he did to me, it is the one true regret I do have in life, being so bloody desperate to be loved I was conned by that fucking bastard, the bastard with the morals of an alley cat. He was Christian's supposed successor. what a fool I truly was, I trusted another man and he too let me down. Jack Hyde, the two faced cheating dick wad of a bastard. He nearly had me with his smooth talking and his romancing ways, for my shame I allowed him into a part of my world that I wish to god I had not.

...I'd met him whilst training in Switzerland. Switzerland, such a happy time and my first day there now seems like it happened a lifetime ago...

Travelling there with John Hyde, his father, I felt special and honoured to be going there and eager to learn. I'd bought the two journals as he'd suggested at the airport shop. I then sat and copied out the recipes from the old battered one and in doing so, I was then hit with a different memory of something about another time in my past, this ledger was started when I was just ten years old, when I took notes on all my grandparents' recipes as they created. On each page it had something that would remind me about a certain thing, things that Ollie and I had done together, a smudge of chocolate or a drawing, Ollie's scribbles are in the margins too, I thumbed over her writing and a tear fell. I missed my friend so much it still hurts to see her name, I doubt I will ever have a true friend like her ever again.

I ate the crusty dinner served in the economy seats, and I wondered what they were eating in first class? I bet it is not a rank casserole thing, a pot of fruit salad and something what passed for custard that's for sure? Aircraft food is horrid and after that fight I knew I would always have to bring my own packed lunch. Landing in Zurich our bags are collected, after a long wait in customs and seeing their tired faces wishfully hurrying my bags to magically appear; when they did come out last they cheered. What Like I put them in the plane in the first place first guys? I apologised like a bumbling idiot to the waiting entourage for the air carriers tardiness, after which I was then ushered into a car, oops I may have been a little curt with my replies to the mass of people I will be working with or for, great first impression Ana. It was like a scene from a movie, the sheer number of people who formed John Hyde's entourage meeting us from the airport was unbelievable; there were three cars alone for his staff and his bags, mine was a rucksack full of jeans, tee shirts and trainers and a leather suitcase with my knives and cookery stuff inside. I took up a miniscule portion of the car which was ferrying me god knows where? I stared out of the window and tried to take in the view as we sped along, the place itself was huge, with plenty of modern buildings nestled easily and effortlessly alongside the old buildings. We were in the cars no longer than half an hour when we suddenly stopped to allow John out at his apartment. He walked towards the car with me sat like a hostage in it, and began to speak to me.

"Miss D'Acciaio I will see you at nine sharp in the classroom, your things are in your rooms already and thank you for coming. I will make this the best thing you ever decided to do and I will make you this one promise, I will take you to the top with me. I will see you tomorrow and sleep well because I work long hours, and you will be working them alongside me." I was agag as he spoke to me like a kid staring at Santa and getting the speech about being a good girl and getting your reward for it, phew I was hot, blustered and awe struck hearing my mentor talk to me about taking me with him.

"Thank you Chef, I'm looking forward to it. I will be there bright and early and thank you again for the chance you have given me." I am sure that sounded like I was a ass kisser and brown nosing, but I was genuinely awe struck, he was the king of chocolate and I was his apprentice.

The car pulled away and after a short drive we pulled into the car park of a massive building, it was not as tall as the buildings I had been around these past six months, in fact it looked tiny in comparison, with just five floors, but this one was mega long, and on something called the Bahnhofstrasse, this was apparently the longest and busiest commercial district in Zurich, and I was now part of it and here would be my home for however long Mr Hyde thought my being here was necessary. I am shown to my rooms on the student's floor, we're on the top of the building and my views are spectacular. The girl spoke in French as she began telling me of my itinerary, a test perhaps, a test of my French language skills? Sneaky...

"Miss D'Acciaio? Hello and welcome to Zurich, I'm Emily Hoff, Mr John Hyde's personal assistant. I am so pleased to meet you, you are the talk of the whole school. Do you know you're the youngest apprentice Sir has ever taken on?" I shake my head no. She smiles."There are a few things we have to discuss. Firstly he prefers people call him Mr Hyde or Sir not chef, he is not a chef." Okay but he is to me. I say nothing though. "I have your new bank details here. They will require your signatures and a look at your passport at the bank; it's just over the road. You will have plenty of time to deal with that side of things tomorrow as you are only in the school kitchen from nine until eleven. Sir has given you the day to explore, might I suggest you make the most of any time off, as it is very rare and believe me you will be working long hours and long weekends are usually included in that too. Your schedule is in this folder; you may want to shower and have an early night." I take it from her and I listen as she talks she is very dedicated t Mt Hyde, that much I can already tell.

"Sir has been following your path closely, in fact since he was sent a sample of your little Bag of Lust chocolates, some time ago. He was and is sure you will go far in the industry, but to gain his trust and favour, you have to work as hard as him, if not harder, yes Ana he requires your total commitment to your work and in return you are rewarded handsomely. What you create here and master here belongs to the House of Hyde. Sir pays you a wage and so the rights to them belong to him. He is very fair and generous in the wages he pays and with the commission deals he brokers. That said you have contracts to sign and confidentiality agreements to look over and sign too. As I said there's a lot to go through, chocolate is as big as money and banking here in Switzerland, well maybe it is as big as Swiss Army Knives and watches anyway? Money always talks here. Right this is your room enjoy. My numbers on the front of your folder should you need me." I don't need money, I need the experience, and I would gladly pay them for all this.

"Thank you Miss Hoff, I can't wait to start."

She smiled and walked off, as she did I noted her style and it was wonderful. Her business suit is tailored and neat. Her look would be the look I was to emulate later. Emily, I read would be mentoring me in some of the business side of things, along with someone called Jack, but his classes don't start until Ms Hoff's finish. I opened the door to my room and it is basic and clean. I unpacked my things and looked at the rack of new chef's whites, also in the cupboard is a new wrap of tools and a case of tools for chocolate use. I look at my training schedule and it is nearly all with Mr Hyde himself, I can only hope it is not like the Frost thing again. I got in bed after a long soak in the tub and would you believe it I slept great last night and it's been a long time since I wrote that in my diary. I showered and changed into my whites and head for the schools kitchens and it is like a ghost ship.

I'm early so that I can familiarise myself with the areas I would be working in. The main teaching kitchen is huge and so too are the rooms off it. The tempering machines are in a row white, dark and light. The stainless steel shines, the fridges are well stocked, as are the storerooms! Their shelves are packed with every cooking utensil known to man. The dry store smells heavenly and the ingredients line the shelves. The doors open and students start to arrive, I am finally here and my training has begun.

My first few weeks were a series of whirlwind events. My apprenticeship started with my being taught everything from the basics to the unknown, yes mundane and tiresome at times, rehashing all I thought I knew, only to discover I didn't know as much as I thought, but all my tasks were completed without complaint. I did three or four local competitions and had my business meetings with Emily, which were a lot more fun than I had ever envisaged them being. I loved every day here and thrived under Mr John Hyde's tutelage and Emily's watchful eye, she was amazing at figures and treated me like her younger sister she took me under her wing and sort of mothered me a little...

The nights I spent writing and working on my cookery book. A book I was asked to think about doing when the article about the chocolates, those great chocolates that given to the First Lady was first published. Everyone wanted to try my bags and boxes of Lust, after seeing her groan orgasmically on the television when she opened the darned box and I was suddenly inundated with requests to join different confectioners and other houses of chocolates when they went into production. With my newfound insight into the business side of things, I agreed to sell the range and the recipes to the House of Hyde. I had only invented ten of the chocolates whilst studying in New York, so Mr Hyde made me an offer on the rest, and he was very generous in the commission I earned, as Emily had said he would be. He paid me very well for the rights, though the old Lust recipes with some regret now belonged to the House of Hyde I was thankful too, because they had the power to make more and make the whole range better. They had the transportation issues already in place and they had their own shops and their well-established trading partners, and were able to sell the range all over America and Europe using just the three factories, one here, one in Belgium and the one at the back of the school in New York.

I also wrote to the relatives regularly Papa's was read to him by Nonno and Nonna or by his carer, but he did not know who I was anymore and sat and stared out of the window and waited to die, I visited as much as I could, but it broke my heart each and every time I did. I would just post the letter, letting him know I was fine and everything was good with me. The packages to my faithful customers I continued to send. The weeks turned into months, the months now totalled eight, and it was a tough old slog and damned tiring but I didn't care I loved it and the life I had here. I was now being entered into competitions regularly. I had won the right to wear various flags on my white collar, French, Australian, Belgian, English, Swiss and Italian; my neck looked like the flagpoles outside of the UN... The next competition is tomorrow in Belgium, the theme of the competition is Women. I feel I may have an unfair advantage there. The theme for the competitions is 'Happiness is...' and it comes in three major parts. Firstly the individual handcrafted chocolates and praline task, the twist in the challenge is to be in the presentation. The chocolates needed to be presented for sale in a unique gifting way and the gift was to be for a female.

The second is the sculptured part of the competition, it is to be sponsored by a milliner, so the sculpted design is to be that of a hat. I'd been to the high end fashion houses here, and taken snapshots and had a vague idea what I was doing with the hat, but I was using some risky new ultra-extreme chocolate colours. The third and final part is festival of desserts. I had to do three imaginative desserts, all must have a common theme, of my own choosing. I'd prepared my menus and the hat mould and shoe moulds were coming with me too. However, the biggest shock was that the House of Hyde were doing the dessert course, a dessert for the four hundred and fifty people invited to the gala dinner after the competition. I was the lucky head chef for the day too. I had a competition in the morning for the dessert part of the competition as well. Well, I may be under a little bit of pressure on Saturday then? Bring it on because I live for pressure and thrive.

"Miss D'Acciaio can you be ready in an hour? We have a plane waiting for us at the airport, and you will need to phone James with the things you want for the gala dinner, he will be expecting your call during the flight Miss D'Acciaio?"

"Sir, I can be ready in half an hour, I will work on the menus and get it to him Sir." Having done this countless times I was always ready for the last minute off, I always had a suitcase packed ready for the quick getaway. I went down to meet him and he is busy talking on the phone, he has with him a new student in the front of the building. He walks away looking for the car and is speaking to someone in a loud and menacing voice; something I have grown accustomed to, I don't often pee myself anymore. I feel a tap on my backside and I am about to lurch at the idot coping a feel of my ass but he backs off wisley.

"Hi I'm Freddie; I started here yesterday so how come I haven't met you yet?" I smiled and introduced myself.

"Anastasia D'Acciaio pleased to meet you. I was sourcing supplies yesterday for the competition and had to be there at the crack of dawn. So you are coming with us, indeed you are favoured, so are you looking forward to the trip?"

"I was, but the girl I room next to says he's a tough task master. He has a favourite, and one he's grooming to take over his Brussels branch."

"Mr Hyde is a fair teacher and he is excellent to learn under, he isn't a task master at all. If you work hard for him and put in the hours, he will repay you with his vast knowledge and experiences. He's never unfair he is just good at what he does, and as to the replacement that is utter tosh; James Frasier will never be replaced, he cannot be replaced."

"So is this your whole life Anastasia, this chocolate thing because it's kind of boring?" What is he a moron? He must be a nutter to be here if he doesn't live and dream chocolate? I launch into my famous chocolate is a lifestyle speech...

"For now yes and for the foreseeable future too, because you can't come into this industry and only give yourself to it in part, it's a demanding and challenging form of art, it's not just chocolate making to me either, it's who I am. I pour my soul into all I do concerning my chocolates. I want to be one of the best chocolatiers in the world, and under Messer's John Hyde and James Fraiser, I hope that comes to fruition and before I'm twenty five. I have a goal in life and I am using everything I have in me to focus on getting there."

"How old are you twenty two? You sound like you are a hundred and two; you need to live a little before you die of boredom. You need to party, do things and see things."

"Thanks, I've done that already and have got the tee-shirt as they say and I don't want to go there again either, and if that's your attitude you won't be here long. Mr Hyde likes a hundred percent commitment. And, I'm twenty, not that it's got anything to do with you."

"You need to get laid girl, you're way to uptight, loosen the panties a little!" He made a grab for me. I looked at the idiot before me and laughed. He won't be here long.

"I think Fast Freddie you better just watch that clever mouth, and if it's alright with you, I'd prefer you don't mention me and anything to do with getting laid in the same sentence and if you touch me again I will break everyone of your fingers and when I have finished with you you won't be using your dick for a week. Besides, sex and my private life it isn't something I wish to discuss with the village idiot. Do they know you have escaped or haven't they noticed because the brainless, straw filled scarecrow you left in your place is doing a better job than you?" I heard laughing behind me and turned to see another new student. If he cops a feel he is going down too.

"That telling you Fast Freddie, hello, you have to be the famous Anastasia? This ass is Mr Hyde's nephew, Fredrik and I'm his son Jack, and I'm sorry to say we aren't actually students Anastasia, Fast Freddie pulls that same line on all the new girls in hopes of partying hard with them all night, something he was warned about weren't you Fredrik? I am going to be running the business side of things and mentoring you when we get back, in corporate finance. According to Emily, you're a natural." Wow, he's cocky and he reminds me of a certain someone else. "My father thinks we need to see a few different chocolate makers in action, and that we need to speak to his colleagues and such, so we are coming with you, he will then introduce us to the right people. I'm surprised you're so young though, the way father raves about you, I thought you were at least my age, which is twenty eight, by the way." And he is up his own butt too, very I don't know, false?

"Does it matter how old anyone is in the scheme of things? I'm here to learn and not to do anything else and I'm hardly a new girl I have been here at the school for months, eight nearly nine months actually."

With that Mr Hyde joined us, as the ordered car had arrived, the bags were stashed in the boot and we set off. I was handed my schedule of events by Emily and as we drove to the airport, we discussed the competition. I watched as Jack interacted with his father, his father so obviously proud of his son. Freddie had just donned sunglasses and looked out of the window. Father and son chatted away until we reached the plane. Emily brought me out of my daydream.

"Anastasia, did you pack your little black dress?"

"No, I thought we were in competitions all day and for the whole weekend?"

"You are, but Mr Hyde expects you to win and you will have to attend and collect your awards at a gala dinner?" Jack smiled across at me as Emily spoke to me. I was rather ignorant and ignored the obvious come on.

"No, I'm sorry Emily but I wasn't given any messages yesterday, but I was at the market all day. So there's no pressure on me to perform then?"

"Sir always expects you to win, because you do, and you never let him down as will be the case this weekend Ana. With an hour to spare when we get there, you will have to grab something. Don't worry you would look stunning in a paper bag."

I smiled back at Emily as I Google somewhere to buy a dress from near my hotel. What a result, because on the very same street there are a lot of posh frock shops. I then looked at the schedule before me and whilst doing so, I phoned James Frasier's assistant but as she was unavailable I spoke to the man himself! He assured me the exposition centre was perfect, and the team had already set up for me and my lists of competition ingredients that I had already sent had been placed in my section too. Mr James Frasier is the head of the school there and Sir's cousin and best friend, I sighed good at least all my ingredients were already there. For the gala dinner he was sending five people to help. My shopping list of ingredients for the later event I rattled off to him and he laughed as he made notes and said they would be eating like kings, and that he was looking forward to working under me. He was to be one of the five people helping me, so I was definitely under no pressure then?

"Non preoccuparti poi, Mr Frasier, I will see you then, ciao." I made notes as I realised people were looking at me. I had talked to him the whole time in Italian.

"Miss D'Acciaio is fluent in Italian?" I smiled at Jack.

"Well being that I am Italian I would hope so. I speak a little Gaelic, French and a smidgen of English, plus I'm fast learning bullshit too." I say sarcastically, I put my headphones in and did a detailed run through. I put my things away as the hour long flight was over. Mr Hyde and the others got in one car and me? I'm in a taxi headed to mine. One day I will stay at the same hotels as Sir, why I don't I do not know, because I have the funds to do so. I guess I like it here in the cheap seats called real life? I gave the instructions to my hotel to the taxi driver and as soon as I got there, I went in search of the dratted dress and shoes; those were found within a hundred yards of the hotel. I got three and a few more things, more tee shirts, jeans and jumpers because I live in them. I hung them to let the creases fall, and unpacked the overnight bag, my whites would be waiting for me with the competition sponsors name on, this event was being sponsored by a women's beauty product company from here in Belgium, so it was to be themed around women. I left to go to the exposition halls, after showing them my identification I was given my new cards, I went in search of my kitchen areas.

"Miss D'Acciaio?" I'm greeted by four students. I think it always astounded people that I'm normally much younger than they were. It helped my progress into teaching by being born into a family of bakers; it also helped because I'd had many more years practical experience than them too.

"Yes I am, and hello, did Mr Frasier send you?" They all nodded. "Right then off to the kitchens to begin the boring prep work for Saturday's banquet, I'm afraid it has to be done and there's a fair bit to do too." I lead them to the makeshift kitchens they had specially set up for the event, not bad for a temporary kitchen. I ran through my list and the things I had ordered were all here.

"I would like you to make one hundred chocolate cakes to fit within the ganache frames. They are for the Death by Chocolate, please. Savoiardi biscuits will be needed too, can you please make six hundred to be on the safe side. I will need a few for my competition on Saturday too. Also, I will need mini macaron's in pistachio and chocolate, they are to be mini decoration sized and who of the four of you is the best one at the chocolate decoration work?"

"That would be me Chef. I'm Natalia Gordon."

"Hello Natalia, I would like dark and milk chocolate cigarettes making five hundred? All cut to two inches in length, then white, light and dark chocolate strands, again two inches and enough for five hundred. I will come and do the chocolate lace moulds for the ice cream later; they need to moulding over these glasses, they need putting in the cooling trays and refrigerating, if Mr Frasier gets here show him the menu. I need to get cracking on the vanilla, mint and pistachio ice cream. Did they send the ice cream machines or have they ones we can use here?"

"There are three and they belong to the school, chef." I show them the menus they will be working from and tell them what exactly I want. I look at the available dessert plates and choose the black long one with matching small espresso cup and saucer for the Tiramisu, the plate is long enough for the other three mini desserts they are to eat. Death by Chocolate is a decadent multi layered chocolate dessert. An Ice Cream Dream, is a chocolate bowl with a scoop of vanilla, pistachio and mint ice cream, with crumbled pralines on the top and finally the dessert tray is completed with a the Kiwi Cheesecake, a hint of chocolate and green run throughout, the event sponsor's colours.

"I'm really sorry to be saying hello goodbye, but I have to leave you to it as I have the first part of the competition to do, but I will be back as soon as it is over to help you, and do some prep work. This will be a great learning experience for all of you." I looked at them and they all seemed to know what they were doing, they took the notes with them to work from, they looked competent enough, and Natalia seemed to take the natural lead. I went to register and take up my position in my kitchen area. I found the changing area and set about my task for tonight, to make and present in an individual way a minimum of six handcrafted chocolates and the theme, Happiness is… When the email came through with the themes, I had already been working on the shoe idea, a chocolate glittering shoe and it was so ideal for presenting chocolates in.

As the competition commenced I worked hard, but at the same time I'm busy interacting with the crowds who are walking past my station and asking questions, which are politely answered. Firstly I begin moulding the shoe with the spray gun. It's filled with a mixture of red sparkled chocolate with gold edible glitter, a marvellous invention, sadly not one of mine! Two of those set aside and I'm ready on to the handmade pralines, an apricot and brandy parfait called Hot Mamma, a dark violet mousse which is my Dark Violet, my strawberry Very Berries Bomb, a simple nutty toffee, my Praline Dream, the champagne and vodka truffle, the Elegant Russian and then a risky chilli melt, my new Lava Java Bean, with that one I am working with chilli, chocolate and coffee. Then lastly, the salted chocolate truffle, the Bittersweet, the last two are a couple of my new ideas and risky. Then two of the old favourites, a chocolate and vanilla fudge, my Bean Dream and finally a white mousse bomb, my Citrus Torment. I mixed the various flavours of mousse, crèmes, and fondants for the centres and I began creating, I moved quickly and smoothly around the small kitchen, as the judges watched, asked questions and noted my ingredients. Their outer shells are finished too, so I put them to refrigerate before filling, finishing and decorating. I had started with the shoes, as they needed the longest time to set; they were out of the mould perfectly. Re-sprayed and when they are finished I have a pair of sparkling Dorothy red shoes, because there's no place like home and my theme is 'the things that make ladies go oh'...

I placed them on the presentation plinth and then I set about finishing them. When finished they looked like an actual, wearable pair of shoes. People watch and would ask questions too and I would answer them, it would be rude to ignore them, and as the crowds came past in their hundreds I carried on as usual. I made the ribbons for the front of the shoe and then the chocolate white, light, and dark roses, to place around them along with the rich red wine mousse served in a large wine glass, it too tasted divine. I stepped back took a deep breath. I had the vessels to receive the chocolates now ready, now to get them finished, with all of two hours left.

I assembled the chilli coffee truffle, after correctly putting the right amount of chilli in, I was so pleased I'd mastered the right amount and how to pipe the tiny coloured flame decorations, which were sweet. I finished the Violet Parfait off with a tiny piece of crystallised violet and finished the rest. The 'Elegant Russians,' are so easy to do, I think I can now do them in my sleep. They are finished with flakes of edible gold leaf. The Citrus Torment needed something special on the top. I made a powdered sugar and gold flecked dusting, to rough roll them in, after their dip in white chocolate and then added an orange flavoured dark chocolate mini curl on top. My strawberry Very Berries, are my favourites, and are the simplest to decorate, a fine red spray over the top of dark chocolate and a simple fork run over the top, simple and less is definitely more with these, the punch comes with the use of a fine wild strawberry liqueur, a Crème à la Fraise des Bois. My chocolates in the main are flavoured with the best and weirdest alcoholic beverages available.

The apricot ones were the fiddly ones to do, as they were thin layers of chocolate and slices of apricot sliced as thinly as possible. This is layered between thin layers of the rich dark chocolate ganache and repeated to the top of the frame and finally turned out, were the edible logo for the House of Hyde logo, would now be on the top. I held my breath as turned each of the three trays of twenty chocolates out. Success they came out perfectly, they called for the ten-minute time, and I looked at my creation stood back and took a bow. I'd finished, and the extra chocolates are presented at the side, for tasting by the judges. As I cleared my area I heard a voice to the side of me.

"Miss D'Acciaio you truly are wonderful to watch in action, two of them haven't even finished, and this looks like you've spent days making it instead of just four hours. Watching you work is quite relaxing, no wonder my father thinks so highly of you."

"Thank you Jack. Shouldn't you be schmoozing with your father though?"

"I have come to ask you if you want to come to dinner." My first ever date in lord knows how long, and it has to be with my boss's arrogant, yet gorgeous son?

"Sorry, I can't I have the prep work for the meal, and still have two more parts of the competition to prep for, the dessert and the sculpture, so thanks for the offer but the answer is no as I'm here to work."

"All work and no play makes Ana a very dull girl indeed."

"Thank you Jack, I'll keep that in mind for my day and night off on Monday, I will be a party animal then. I may even go wild and have a glass of wine or two too."

"Pity, I'm back in Paris on Monday, then I'm back to take up your training where the lovely Emily left off."

He smiled and headed off, he is strangely arrogant and yet pleasingly friendly and confusing all in the same breath, I know what he wants but he is dancing a strange dance. I forget about the impossible Jack Hyde and return to my competition. I laughed and cleared my area and awaited the judges. I looked as he watched my every move, and as the judges came to my station and I described my concept of a woman's need for pretty shoes, which could only be beaten with our need for wine, roses and chocolates. The wine flavoured chocolate drink set off the presentation perfectly as it was actually a fine chocolate red wine flavoured mousse. I stepped away from my now clean area, and I went to wait with the others. I hated this part because I could be doing my prep work for tomorrow. An hour later and we are called back at our stations. As I looked at the eaten chocolate I realised they'd all been eaten and as I didn't see any left in the rubbish, I took this to be a good sign.

"In third place from Hemi chocolate is Gavin Ransom, congratulations." He collected his award.

"In second place Daniel Frost Junior, from The Frosting House. Congratulations, your father will be very proud." That was Daniels son? I'm sorry Danny Boy, he only likes winners and as he took his award, he looked at me and scowled.

"And the winner from the House of Hyde is Miss Anastasia D'Acciaio congratulations." I smiled and received my awards. Mr Hyde came over and congratulated me. He looked at the shoe and smiled.

"That will be a good Mother's Day gift. The shoe idea will be an instant hit, as children will want to give them to their mothers as birthday gifts too. I knew there was a reason I liked you." My heart sank.

"Thank you Sir, I need to be getting back to the function room kitchen and supervise. Thank you for the invitation to dinner, but as I told Jack I don't drink and socialise when I'm working, especially with my boss's son." He looked angry.

"That's quite all right Anastasia I understand, and Jack should have known better, I shall have words." I placed the shoes under the glass chill display, as they would be collected later and raffled off for charity at the gala dinner, along with all the other entries. The chocolates were placed on my counter top, so the spectators could taste and leave comments on the cards. That done I went to the kitchen, armed with a tray of chocolates for the people working. It's time to get a move on and break the back of the prep work for today, even though I feel like I could sleep for a week.

"Congratulations Miss D'Acciaio, I believe the chocolates were mouth watering?" I am greeted by the wonderful Mr Fraiser, he is so like my Papa Frank, that I like him already.

"Thank you, there is a tray over by the rest area, help yourself Mr Frasier. Thank you for doing this, if you want I can take it from here as Mr Hyde is here with his son?"

"Thank you I think I will. The others have all gone home. Everything that can be done has been done, including the chocolate shell baskets you required. Four desserts you are going to be spoiling us. You too Anastasia why don't you go home and get some sleep the car will come to take you back? I called it as you came in because you look so tired and you worked well today, tomorrow is another competition day for you." I was so tired and decided yes on the sleep option. Finally having checked everything was finished, I went back to the hotel. Tomorrow it was a matter of making the ice cream, crèmes, the mousse and the ganache. Oh and making the kiwi cheesecakes, five hundred of them in a day they can then chill overnight. We will assemble as much as I can tomorrow, and refrigerated overnight to get them ready for prepping an hour before needed.

I take a car to the hotel, I walked through the bar where the people were laughing and joking, my mood dropped and the sadness returned, it was whilst walking through the packed bar that I realised how lonely I actually was. There was a party in full flow in the big room here and I looked in and envied their happiness. I figured they can be as loud and as happy as they want, I'm on the top floor furthest away from the hustle and bustle, so it won't bother me. I stop for a meal in the restaurant and watch as the guests are wandering in and out. The party is in full swing, it's a wedding I think? Whatever the occasion is the night is a hit for them. I finish the meal with a glass of wine and head to my room. The days during competitions are long and the nights as usual lonely. Showered and changed I send down my whites to the laundry. Then hit the pillow and sleep soundly again.

I woke early, dressed, grabbed my bags, books and I headed off to the exposition centre. I'd slept well because I'd been totally exhausted from the gruelling pace of the travelling and workload yesterday and today was going to be no walk in the park either. I just had to hope all my chocolate pieces had made it here in one piece, because I had just a mere three hours to assemble and make any extras needed. With my chef's whites on and areas prepped, I unpacked my stuff onto the massive steel table. For today's task I am to create a milliner's dream, and I am lucky only a few pieces were broken in transit. The competition starts, and I begin with the making of the hat, it cools down in the freezer between layers, I do a second and a third coat and as I turn it out everyone's fingers are tightly crossed, as we have no time to make another. and thankfully it is perfect. I join the insides with melted chocolate. The seams inside are thicker to allow for strength; that set, I polish down the seams and touch up the imperfections.

Putting the delicately made feathers to one side, I have to make two more and set about the task. There is an intense hour of fine piping ahead of me, all in garish blue and green chocolate. A steady hand is needed and I am lucky only two were broken; the different chocolate colours lie next to and also over each other, so they look like peacocks feathers, the blues and the greens of the eye look breathtaking when completed, with their shiny smooth silkiness they are eye catching, pun intended, I laugh to myself. The tempered brightly coloured chocolate looks amazing; the eyes of the feathers pop and look realistic and fantastic. I spent days perfecting the making of these, as they form the biggest part of the hats decoration, so need to stand out. My mission is complete and they work.

I use freshly made moulding chocolate, working it into a workable softness and begin making the roses and the ribbons. As the time ticks slowly by, I take notice of the people watching. I notice Jack again and he smiles as he watches from the seated area in front of me. He's with the idiot Freddie, who looks like he's just dropped in from one of the many all night bars in the town and is set on sleeping it off here. I smile and carry on as his father, John Hyde is coming to have a look.

"Did you sleep well, Anastasia? This looks like your usual good work."

"Thank you Sir I did. Can I ask when did Daniel set up as The Frosting House?"

"When you came to Zurich I had him replaced by Ramón, seeing as he did all the work and ran the schools in his 'absence'. I don't pay people good money to use me Anastasia. He was too busy in his self promotion to realise he had worn out his welcome in my company. Ramón trained you at my request, I had him train you because he was the only one you could learn the chemistry of chocolate from. This may surprise you too, but it was Ramón who first brought you to my attention, by sending me a little bag of Lust. Daniel had purchased several bags and was trying to pass them off as his own work and he tried to replicate the chocolates within and failed.

Ramón was asked to help and was impressed with what he tasted. Yes, he could replicate them but refused to as they were neither his, nor Daniels creations. He had found a diamond in the rough for me and sent me your creations. I was amazed; they lacked a little finesse, but nothing that a little training wouldn't help. I wanted you to be taught by the best, and Ramón was the best one for that training, he is very good at his job and I thank the day Daniel brought him to work for me. He was the only one I trusted to make my diamond sparkle, and he succeeded,he also said you were too good for New York and needed more challenges. Challenges I hope you have had these past months?" Oh my lord, I always thought it was Daniel who had given Sir my chocolates. It seems Daniel had always lied. I'd lost faith in him quite soon after my arrival at the school. I didn't trust him, and once working with him realised early on who was the better chocolatier.

"I enjoy the differing challenges you set me Sir and I have learned a great deal, but I think there is still yet more to learn, Sir." He nodded.

"He and his son are your only competition here today and Daniel Senior may make an appearance. Word is he wasn't happy his son lost out to you. I wouldn't worry; it looks like he will be losing out again. Good day Anastasia, I will see you later. I'd love to stop and watch, alas I have another meeting. Hopefully Junior will keep his distance, but watch your back he takes after his father. I have people looking out for his arrival and should he turn up, they will keep you safe."

"Thank you Sir, I will do my best not to let you or the company down."

"You could never me down Anastasia, you never do." He walked off, taking the boys with him. I carried on. Daniel was in fact fired, that explains a lot and it also explains the dirty look I was given yesterday from junior too, it wasn't just my imagination, but how did Sir know? He has bloody eyes everywhere.

"Chefs, you have half an hour of creating left."

I looked at my chocolate mannequins head, and the sheer amount of chocolate clay I'd made for that was colossal, and I was very thankful she'd arrived intact and unharmed. She now came complete with chocolate hair, the fun I had making that as did the crowd watching as I flicked chocolate to make strands. I assembled my piece, placing the jewellery around her neck. I smiled at the simple chocolate golden leaf covered locket finished off the display, it looked so realistic around her neck simple and yet elegant. I gave the piece a final once over, with the gentle steam of the steamer and tidied my area. This had been a nice piece to work on. I look around the room at the others and relax...

"Can you chef's please stop working on your pieces, and head for the waiting area whilst judging commences." I went to the area and disappeared to the toilet, washed and refreshed I went to sit with the others. Daniel was scowling again and whispering to his team.

"Mr Frost, have I done something to make you unhappy? I can't think what I can have done to you personally, because until yesterday I didn't even know you existed?"

"You paid a big part in father's removal from the House of Hyde and his converted position at La Maison Du Chocolate, something he says you will pay for."

"Until this morning I was unaware he had even been let go. I can assure you I am not to blame in any way shape or form for that occurrence; I can only think that Mr Hyde thought he was doing more self promotion than he was doing for the company. I can assure you, you were badly misinformed."

"Nah that's not it at all, you fed Hyde poison to get the position for yourself, bitch." I looked in horror at the idiot sat across from me.

"I don't want to be a head of house, just yet. I have much more I need to learn first and I am so not ready and if I had done that Junior, I would be there and not the very talented Ramón. So Junior get your facts straight and quit with the attitude, and like a bitch I bite." We are called back to await our fate, I look at the other entrants displays as I walk by them and they are wonderful, especially, even though I hate to admit it, Daniels.

"Ladies and Gentlemen, today competition was the closest yet, only a matter of three points in it. In third place we have Mr Daniel Frost, from The Frosting House." He looks angrily towards me. What, like I did the judging? It shocked me, because I thought his was good, perhaps the judges didn't like how he worked. All that is taken into consideration too, not just the end piece you produce, but how you get there counts too…

"In second place, with just one point separating him from the winner… As I said, there were just three points separating our top three competitors, from Dizzies Chocolatier the very talented, Milo Gogh congratulations." I looked over and boy was he was ecstatic? I had never met him before, but he was as I was when I won my first competition, way back in the day and busy jumping around like a madman.

"Now for the winner of today's sculptured creation and the competition, which was so very close to judge, it was a task that was closely fought over… From the House of Hyde, Miss Anastasia D'Acciaio, congratulations again and well done, it looks good enough to wear." I took my award and bowed, wow that was a near miss, just three points. After the clean down, I went to the kitchens loaded down with my bags, books and equipment. I feel a tap on my shoulder.

"Hello, Miss D'Acciaio, we meet again. Sorry I wasn't with you on your last day at the La Maison Du Chocolat, I do believe you did an exceptional job of creating the First Ladies gift, from the House of Hyde, that honour was supposed to be mine, as well as the publicity after the article came out. Old John getting his protégé to do it instead managed to make me look a complete fool, after I had just announced on television I was to be doing them. I was coming back to do them especially. Why did you feel the need to move the tables away from the cameras? Did you really think I was interested in stealing your pitiful recipes? I am a master chocolatier; I do not need to steal from a second class baker like you." He pulled my arm hard and he hurt.

"Take your arm off her Frost, if you wish to be using it again? Father was watching you for weeks, not just that day. He always said give you enough rope Daniel and you'd hang yourself, so we did, we gave you just enough and we have it documented on film. There were, and are cameras my father had put in that you knew nothing about, we needed proof of you stealing your student's ideas off them, and really passing them off as your own creations. Really Daniel you are nothing other than a washed up pastry cook, and undeserving of your titles. Something my father is looking to have you removed of? Your dismissal was nothing to do with Miss D'Acciaio, now take your hand off Anastasia and now." He did.

"You and your father will be sorry you did this. I will make you pay one way or the other and the House of Hyde, will come crashing down." I recovered rather quickly. I rounded Back on Frost and boy was I angry.

"Not Daniel, before your bloody house of ice melts. If you touch me again it will be the last thing you do. To think I wanted to be just like you? Thankfully Ramón taught me all he knew, because you were always too busy with your head up your own arse for me to learn anything from. Keep the puppy at bay too, because I will castrate it if he speaks to me that way again, because this second rate baker is fucking excellent with knives Mr Frost. Goodbye and good luck you need it, there's a forecast for sunshine and showers, watch your house doesn't melt too soon, get it back in the freezer with your son. He needs to chill down too, oh and for the record, he is the second rate baker not I" I fume at him and walk off. What is it with me that I attract nutters and good looking playboys?

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As I said there is a back history first, and explains a lot... Read and review and don't hate me just yet lol... As I have done a few chapters already I will be updating whilst in Kos interwebby thing permitting... Thanks for following me and for buying my books, self publicising shamelessly lol Amazon and author name Curly Shirley... cheers.. xx


	5. Chapter 5

By now you know this is not fifty shades it is all the letters of the AU-OCC things you guys understand and I do not, you should know how I write. HEA, always...

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Christian will make a big appearance after I tell Ana and Jack's back story.

 _ **TRIGGER: THERE'S AN ATTEMPTED RAPE SCENE...**_

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Chapter 5:

Anastasia vs. Jack: Part 2:

I walked off followed by Jack laughing. "What do you want Jack? Did your father not warn you to keep away from the hired help yet?"

"He did actually, and he said you were not to be distracted by my shenanigans. He tore a piece off me for annoying you actually, not that you are the help as you so put it, but because he knows what I am like with beautiful women and he wants you away from me." Oh, that's unusual honesty in a man, unless of course he's after something else? Quelle surprise, yes he is after something, his arm is around my waist and he's holding me really close.

"I'm sorry but I didn't want your father to think I was that way inclined, you know doing things the easy way by grabbing a chance with the boss's son. I have my plans and I am sticking to them Jack, you are not a part of my plans besides, I don't have it in me to do anything but work and achieve my goals, now move it or lose it." He laughed and withdrew his arm damned quickly.

"Anastasia, you made that very plain yesterday, today I was just freeing you from his arms, I was sent to follow him, Father was right he was going to try something. Let me walk you to the kitchens, no touching of course. Father is there going over your menu, he is a little concerned that you will not do all four elements in the required time frame, so he says perhaps do just three dessert choices?"

"Oh I will be fine. Everything but the assembly will be done today, even if I have to work into the night. I won't have too though because the team Mr Frasier gave me work excellently. Please believe me I would never let your father down." As I walk towards the kitchens with Jack, I really take notice of just how handsome he is, he has dark blue eyes and the dark hair, he's really quite dreamy. He's tall and looks like he works out… I will not stray from my path... I run my mantra through my head over and over again. When we get to the kitchens his father is there and looks angry. Jack speaks to his father in German, which is not a language I know, as Jack finishes speaking John Hyde rushes over.

"Are you all right Anastasia, did he hurt you? I will have him and his idiot son thrown out of the competition."

"I am fine Sir; Jack thankfully stopped him from hurting me. However, I could have handled him but thank you. Please don't worry, I will beat him fairly in this competition, he would only say you got rid of him so I could win." He patted the back of my hand and Jack smiled at this caring gesture. He pulled me in for a hug, which took my breath away a little, this was the closest he had ever been to me and he seemed genuinely concerned for my wellbeing? He said something to Jack and to a worried Emily, who replied and went off again speaking on the phone. Was I missing something, he didn't hurt me?

"I do worry about you, I have had Emily pack your things because you are stopping with us at the hotel, and you are not to be left alone here."

"That's very generous of you, but the hotel where I was staying was quite fine and I was quite safe."

"That was before you threatened to melt The Frosting House and castrate the golden boy..." He laughs and after he calmed down I needed to assure him I could do the task at hand too.

"Sir, you have concerns about the menu? My timings are perfect and after this afternoon it's just a matter of assembly, straight after the dessert, part of the competition tomorrow. However I could have done with doing another stage. Daniel won the internet vote yesterday and is entering another competition today. If he wins that, then it all hedges on tomorrow and I don't want to let you down."

"You have enough to do here, and so if you come second, it's not the end of the world? Right, we will leave you, the chocolates you left were your best yet."

They left me to it. I started making the ice cream and drifted back to making this in Nonna's kitchen, and her words of wisdom. "We Italians are the expert ice cream makers; never forget that Anastasia, I will tell you all the family secret recipes. Nonno only married me for my ice cream making skills and to get his hands on them." I always laughed at that. He married her because she was stunning. I get my head back to the meal and the batches of ice cream I have to do. I have six lots to make, and just three machines, damn it, well no stress then? The students arrive and I had them make the cheesecakes, this process is started by placing the five hundred small rings on the trays for the fridges they had allowed us. This was going to be great and our biggest act of teamwork, somehow I had to pull them together as a team. One made the cheese mix, using only the finest Italian Mascarpone cheese, extra thick whipping cream, sweetened by vanilla bean paste and vanilla sugar. One did the biscuit for the base a half and half vanilla biscuit and coconut biscuit, all made yesterday in the school. The last assistant had the job of spooning out the fleshy inside of quite a few Kiwi fruits into a whole orb and then slicing the fruit finely. I bet he has enough of them by the end of the afternoon; I know I did when I first started.

The ice cream had taken me all afternoon. Finally, I had enough done and three small tubs of vanilla, pistachio and mint for my competition, and with that the freezers were full. The pastes and ganache, I managed to do whilst waiting between batches of the ice cream filled another fridge too. Everything was completed, and we were finally ready for tomorrow. The students worked so well together and knew what I expected of them, and I liked giving the orders and watching, as the things I'd asked of them, they did without question. I could have cried when I realised that all that our work finally over, and we were facing the home stretch. I'm exhausted, and after seeing off the students, I too am headed for my new hotel, eager to see how the other half lived. I walked towards the front of the exposition centre, but as I'm red hot I leave by the back door for some much needed fresh air. Loaded down with my things I take the side entrance, the walkway isn't too dark, but there are noises coming from everywhere, making me jumpy, there is laughter from the workers, truck wheels turning and something is knocked down in the distance.

 _ **Trigger...**_

I hear noises all around me, calm down Ana, Daniel was just pontificating, but his threats had made me really nervous, and now I was thinking how stupid I'd been in walking this way, when really I should have walked through the building. As I walked past a dark doorway I was suddenly being pulled into the dark service alley, dropping my bags as I fend off my assailant I screamed as I am being pulled in. I'm frightened and I'm afraid as a hand comes over my mouth. I bite at it and screamed for help. Nothing happens, nobody is coming and he continues, so I scream again and the hand forces my mouth closed tight, I think I have bit my inner cheek, because the pain shoots through my shaking body. The fear and the adrenaline are making me feel sick and stupid. I need to gain control of my body and clear my mind; I need to focus if I want to survive this.

"Bitch, get in here and shut up."

I screamed as loud as I could and screamed some more. Kicking and scratching at the person in the shadows. This was happening; it's really happening. Attacked, I'm being attacked. I'm being held tightly and as I kick and scream more, I pull him out into the ally. The face of my attacker comes into view, I'm shocked at whom my attacker is. It's Freddie, a drunk and enraged Freddie, shit I have seen him, so this will not be good.

"Argh, now that could be a problem Princess? You weren't supposed to see my face, that means you're not going to see the rest of this night Babe, so make the most of this, I'm in sore need of someone to fuck senseless, you really didn't want to screw with me, because now I'm literally going to screw you to death, what's under here, you prick teasing whore?" He was pulling me in for a kiss, what did he just call me Babe? "You have a nice pair of tits, soft and nice, so ripe they're asking to be bitten, fuck I can't wait to fuck you, you're excited, I see them all perky and ready for me, see what you are doing, you're hard for me and I'm going to fuck you so hard, you'll be begging me for death."

I have a nice pair of tits, I am facing death and he's going to kill me, really? I remember suddenly Elliot calling me Babe and my hitting him because I wasn't a pink pig sheep dog. I start to remember the lessons he gave me. Elliot was always trying to teaching me self defence; he said to use whatever I could to fight off an attacker: I was to scream, bite, pick, punch and scratch. He was afraid for me when he witnessed a drunken man try to pull me away from the lounge one summer, so taught me self defence of sorts, thank you Elliot. Babe? like I look like a bloody pink pig, but I do bite like a dog. I bit his slimy tongue hard, as he stupidly slid it into my mouth for the most intimate of kisses, was he really that stupid?

His hands ripped open my chef top and the buttons pinged off, then he started grabbing at my naked breasts and pulling at them hard, clawing at them and twisting my sensitive nipples with a force that hurt and he'd made them bleed. I was mad and angry and I cringed at what I did next, I too drew blood and I could taste a horrid metallic taste in my mouth as I bit through his tongue. I spit out the remnants of it and the blood and I ran. The shock made him let me go; I guess his losing his tongue must have hurt a little? I want to throw up, I feel nauseous and frightened, but I ran, ran as fast as I could and straight into the populated front of the expo centre, and straight into the arms of Mr James Frasier.

"Anastasia my darling girl, what is all this who has done this to you? Speak child." I was crying, screaming, sobbing uncontrollably and drawing in quite the crowd. My face is covered in blood, my chefs whites were open and as I realised that Mr Frasier could see my breasts and I hurriedly hugged my top coat together...

"Freddie. Freddie, stop him he... He attacked me in the side ally, all. All my things are the, ther, there… He just pulled me in… He tried to, to, he tried to do things to me… He was going to ki, kil, kill, kill me, he has hurt me please stop him." He sat me down, took off his jacket and wrapped me protectively in it, kissing my head and whilst hugging me in a protective hug, he made a phone call, the security had already arrived on scene to investigate and had rushed to the area where I pointed to. They looked in and around the area and brought me back my bags. There was no sign of anyone around.

"Anastasia, are you sure it was Fredrik there will be no getting out of it this time for the little bastard? He's in a lot more trouble. He should have learnt his lesson last time."

"Last time, and they allowed him to do what again, what has he attempted to rape and kill before this?"

I felt another bout of nausea coming, as I sat and waited for the police. I sat shaking whilst the medic looked at me the blood on my face, which was not all mine, but Freddie's, he took photos of my face. I wasn't for showing him my bruised breasts, covered in finger marks and red welts from the scratches, but the paramedic said they had to photograph them for evidence for the police, before they could clean me. I was both embarrassed and ashamed, but allowed him to take the photographs. The paramedic then removed the blood and as he gently wiped my face, he bagged the wipes and tissues, he finished just as Mr Hyde and Jack came running out. Seeing the blooded napkins on the seat Jack flipped.

"Where is he? I will kill him. Father this is too much. He has to be found he has to be stopped. He has hurt her look." His father cursed and spoke in German.

"John, Jack please speak in English your frightening Anastasia, she is in deep shock, and she thinks you're angry at her." Mr Hyde looked at his cousin James. He looked at my bruised face and the marks on my arms.

"No, Anastasia I'm not angry at you, no dear girl no, him I'm angry at, him not you, he will pay for this. His idiot mother and my useless puppy dog brother Pieter need to sort out their drunken excuse for a child, this has gone too far." He went to speak to the police and left for just a moment with Jack.

"Are you all right Anastasia? He can be a handful when he has had a drink. He forgets he isn't above the law just because of his father and his damn mother." He looked angry and I wasn't sure if it was at me.

"I didn't do anything to him to deserve this, I promise Jack, nothing. He was frightening, he said it was a problem because I'd seen his face and that I wouldn't see the end of the day, what did he mean?" He leant in and tried to give me a hug, but I recoiled from his touch. Mr Frasier had given me a hug, which I found greatly calming, but Jack's made me feel awkward, I didn't want Jack to take anything I did or said the wrong way, after Freddie had called me a prick teaser and a whore, I didn't want Jack to get the wrong signals too. Jack explained to me about Freddie's past misdemeanours. He said he was and is a horrid person; he wasn't a child he was an adult and though twenty five, his mother still treated him like a spoilt child, from what I could gleam from the conversation they got him out of trouble all the time, they let him get away with murder, hahaha, not this time Freddie.

"All the other girls he did it to, couldn't identify him, as they didn't see his face; the other girls weren't as lucky as you."

"I don't feel so bloody lucky. It was awful and he's missing a bit of his tongue, it's in the side ally." He laughed and then held me tightly; I though pulled away again, and moved away from him.

"Sorry Anastasia, I thought you could do with a hug, nothing more." I watched as the police came towards me they looked at me and then at the photos taken, and after a moment or two asked what I wanted to do. I was shocked. I just wanted him found and arrested. Mr Hyde and Mr Frasier came back as the question was asked.

"Can Miss D'Acciaio speak to you in the morning when she has had chance to calm down and rest?" Was Sir asking me to let him off?

"I think that would be for the best. Thank you for being so nice about all this." The policeman smiled and then scowled at Sir. Jack picked up my bags. Mr Frasier helped me to my feet; he then walked me to the car.

"Don't buckle to the pressure he puts on you; you do what's right. If Fredrik had anything about him, the boy would hand himself in and confess to the attack on you, the bastard. I will be in tomorrow and help you set up and prepare, Anastasia. I will get the best of my pupils here, and we will show them what the talented Miss D'Acciaio can do."

"Thank you Mr Frasier Sir. Why was he allowed to get away with it before? Why do people like him think they are above the law?"

"He's a spoilt rich kid, his mother's a judge, and his father, my other cousin Pieter Hyde, is one of the country's top defence lawyers. So he tends to think they can sort everything out, and they do every time he messes up, they need to take responsibility and stop making excuses for the little bastard." I shivered as the car pulled up, and I was put in a taxi. Jack put my bags in the car and gave the driver money and told him to take me to the new hotel.

"We are going to look for him and take him to the police; Anastasia. Father says enough is enough." I smiled as he touched my hand tenderly. I said goodbye and was driven to the hotel.

I was shown to my room by Emily and boy was it a fantastic place, she left me alone saying she was next door if she was needed. My room was bigger than anything I have ever stopped in before. Oh how the rich people live, and how I could live I guess? Emily has unpacked everything, including my box with the locket in. Did she look in it? I get in the bath and relax the warmth of the room and the heat of the water, totally relaxes me, I must have been in there forever, wrinkly and pink I climb out of the bath and wrap myself in the luxurious towel robe, I'm definitely taking this back with me.

I receive a call from my publisher, as they need to clarify the dedication, and a few more details, because my book is going to print in two days. I'm so happy, because the advance they gave me was a little mind blowing, but given the forward was generously offered up by the First Lady, who now is a regular on the order books! they are expecting it to be flying off the shelves. Lust was a very big seller in America, being made there in the La Maison Du Chocolate's newly expanded industrial sized kitchen unit at the back of the school and since the article came out, it is their biggest seller. I finished on the phone and got out my laptop; I close it down for the night and answer the door.

"It's just me Anastasia. They have him in the police cells for the night. His father and mother are on their way." It's Jack, so I open the door and let him in.

"Argh, you look more relaxed, are you? Do you want to get something to eat in the bar downstairs?"

"No, but thank you for asking, I thought I would just sleep, I have a big day tomorrow and because of Freddie it just got a whole lot more complicated." He smiles and watches me closely. I hope he doesn't think I led his cousin on? Jack doesn't look the type to misread signals; however, mine are confusing the heck out of me, because all I am thinking is, why is Jack looking so good right now?

"Father has told Uncle Pieter that he has to face the consequences this time, and he actually has agreed. His mother though is saying her little boy is an angel."

"He may be an angel, but he's a dark angel and he is where he needs to be. Thank you for telling me, now I think I need to get to my bed." His eyebrows move upwards.

"On my own; thank you Jack." I smile, as he mocks me with the holding of his heart, he kisses my cheeks and says goodnight. As I close my door I smile, wow he's hot. I do need food, so order sandwiches from room service, and turn on the television in the bedroom, there is nothing on so I switch it off and I wander around the room looking at how pretty everything is. I get a coke from the mini bar, and then I sit and wait for my sandwich. I don't have long to wait, it and the desserts I ordered are here. Tipping the waiter, I set it down in the seating area of the room. I've had an exciting day today and actually feel a buzzing sensation in my head, am I at last waking up and moving on? I finish the food and the coke, then climb in the biggest bed ever and sleep feeling safe in this massive bedroom, with all its luxury. So special, that it's only five stars for me from now on, I have the money, I have hardly touched my advance money or any of the money I got and get from Lust, hell I hardly touch my wages either, my bills are paid from my trust fund, my card is paid by the fund, so really I should live like this, but I like the normal in life far too much to let it go. I snuggle in and hug the duvet around me and I sleep. The banging on the door wakes me, looking at my watch it's half past seven. Someone doesn't like to sleep in, in the mornings? I pull on my robe, and wearily I answered the damn door. Standing there were two people I had never seen before.

"Can I help you?" I'm pushed with some force into my own room; and a brash, blonde woman, who is screaming abuse at me, rushes into my room. How very rude of her, and as the tirade of nasty words fly from her mouth I finally realise who she is, or rather I wake up and realise, if she calls me a whore one more time, I will kill Mrs Stella Hyde and get back to bed. He's like his mother is Freddie, she is mouthy brash and likes to use foul language.

"You can say you made a mistake, you got it all wrong, and that you misread the situation. You need to watch what you say; my son wouldn't attach a girl, because he doesn't need too, as the girls throw themselves at him. That's what you did you threw yourself at him and he rejected you, that's why you're doing this, you want your petty revenge."

"I can assure you, your saintly son's the last person I would ever throw myself at, he is not a very likable young man, and meeting you I now know why and where he gets his lovely manners from, so if you'd kindly leave my room, I would like to go back to bed, or shall I call security to do it?"

"I haven't finished with you missy."

"That's Miss D'Acciaio to you, and I have finished with you, because I have said all I intend to, to the police. I am not a vengeful person I can assure you, but for you I will make the exception, now I won't ask again. Please leave my room and now, unless you too want to join your fucking son?" She stormed off. Her husband looked angry, but surprisingly not with me, but at his wife. She was indeed strange.

"I'm sorry about my wife, our idiot spoilt son is her golden child, and he can do no wrong. When you have a child you will understand a mother's love for her child can be blinding. I only ask you let me talk to him first and get him to admit his crimes, and save you a court appearance and all necessary unpleasantness, which will occur, should his mother talk him into pleading not guilty with her stupid promises to get him free. Enough is enough, I am sick of her pandering to him. I need to speak to him and get her away. Will you please allow me the time to speak to him first, before you make your mind up, about what you are to do Miss D'Acciaio? I ask just for this small favour, and I know I have no right to ask it of you, but I will be eternally indebted to you, if you would do me this one thing?"

"All right, I will, but his mother needs to take responsibility for her son's actions, if she won't allow him to do it on his own. I have a feeling you have very little input into your son's life, and it's his mother who has coddled him? I feel for you, I know he's your son, but I see you look genuinely sorry for your son's actions taken against me. Mother or not though, she needs to know he can't keep getting away with it, and that the more you dig him out of trouble Mr Hyde and allow him to continue, then the harder it will be on him when he does something worse. That's what he hinted at last night. I'd seen his face, and that could be a problem. Your son, he needs proper help, not pandering to, he needs to be where he is and learn that his actions they have serious consequences, I think, no I know he is destined to do far worse things, should he get off with this. His mother's spoiling him has done him no favours and you need to stop pandering to her too, and put your foot down. You may both be in law, but neither of you is above the law, and neither is your son." She was fuming with me, and throwing insult upon insult at me.

"Thank you, he doesn't deserve your compassion but thank you, my wife has walked over me for the last time, she is in for one hell of a shock too and I have finished with the both of them." His wife was still stood by the lift ranting at her poor browbeaten husband to find something they could use against me, they needed to get him out, he was innocent and I deserved it. He shouted at her to stop and shut up, get in the lift and to keep her mouth permanently shut, Freddie was getting the punishment befitting the crime this time, and he was divorcing her, oh I wasn't expecting that little chat, but she was oblivious to the fact he wanted a divorce. She carried on ranting. I panicked what if they dig around in my past and find out about my secret. I go in to breakfast...

"Argh Anastasia, did you sleep all right?"

"I did yes thank you, I think from now on its five stars all the way for me, what's the point in having money and not spending it?" Freddie's mother walked to the table.

"You were in luxury; my poor boy was in a police cell."

"Your poor boy nearly raped and killed me, Mrs Hyde. If you carry on with your tirade of abuse at me you can forget my deal I made with your husband, Fredrik deserves what he gets now, as to you." I spoke in French too. "Dig away Mrs Hyde, for I have nothing in my past that I am ashamed of. I have never been arrested; I have no points on my driving licence, I pay all my own bills. I lead a quiet and peaceful life, I work hard, I study hard and I get to my goals through hard work and that alone. Not on the tailcoats of an overprotective mother, who needs the rose tinted glasses she wears bloody well cleaning. I am ashamed to say you need to hear this from me, because I fear nobody else will tell you, but I will… You did this; you are doing that monster you gave birth to no favours with your constant need to be protecting him and not in the right way either. How can he grow up to be a proper responsible adult, when he hasn't had one in his life to guide him, because you have never allowed his father to guild him for fear his punishments would harm your poor baby. Well you failed as a parent, you failed as a teacher, you ruined his life with your overprotection and over indulging your brat, and you're a goddamn judge.

Mrs Hyde you raised your child in such a way that he doesn't think that what he does is wrong, because you get him off time after time, you did this to him. So wake up, and realise it was you who did this, you alone and blaming everyone else for what you did, and are still doing, and I bet you will always do it, but as the good book says. 'For in the same way you judge others, you will be judged.' Judge Hyde, that's Matthew seven verse two! I go to mass too, so I can enter the sacred place your son wanted to send me yesterday, but at least I would have gone with a clear conscience, would you? The next level he jumps to is murder, are you ready to bail him out on that, when he takes some other mothers child away from her? Right, I have a competition to win and a goddamn dessert course for hundreds to do, so if you will excuse me I have lost my appetite. Good morning to all of you bloody Hyde's and to you Mr Frasier, Miss Hoff have a nice day." I got up, and Emily ran after me. Wow rant much Ana I say to myself...

"Anastasia, that was amazing, do you know how many times in the past near six years, that dirty little pervert has come on to me? Well finely he may be getting what's coming to him."

"When you unpacked, did you look through my things Emily?"

"No, room service did it for you, why is there something you don't want people to see?" She winked.

"God no, I just wondered who colour coordinated my wardrobe and drawers, they can have the job permanently." Nicely averted I thought. She laughed, and I went to get ready for the mega day in front of me.

I have never felt as on top of things as I am feeling right now. I made my way to my kitchen area; I am to prepare, cook, and present three desserts, all must have a common theme? A decadent dessert, a wacky dessert, and a traditional dessert, I had no worries because I loved baking and making desserts too. I am making an Opera Cake, this to be used as my decadent dessert. My wacky dessert is my favourite, a multi layered boozy citrus mousse. My traditional dessert is simple, simple yet very traditional here in Belgium, my beer waffles, served with homemade ice cream, with chocolate strawberry's and a vanilla flavoured white chocolate pouring sauce and hopefully is award winning. I send my helper for waffle irons, and my two pre-prepared ingredients, the Savoiardi biscuits and the small tubs of ice cream I'd placed in the freezer yesterday. I crack on; my head is down and I create. I made the mousse first as they would take the longest to set.

I separated the mousse into three bowls. Added the zest of a lemon to one; lime to another, with orange to the last one. Now for the wacky, I add Limoncello to the lemon mousse, Cordon Jaune to the orange mousse and Lime Schnapps to the lime mousse, along with a natural food colour to each, these had to be wacky, so the colour is bright and the mousse was boozy. Then the fun part began the layering. I had brought eight handcrafted glasses with me and with the slight tinge of green, yellow and orange to the glass stem they were beautiful, very large and so made for filling with the mousse or served full with a nice red wine. Filling the piping bags with the mousse, I piped it into the glasses, each one is a multi layered full of the citrusy flavoured mousse, they were finished and left to set in the refrigerator, with a simple Viennese biscuits made for a side serving.

I cleared away and made the Opera Cake, unquestionably the least healthy of my four desserts to be made by me today. I start by crushing the amoretti biscuits roughly, and adding just a touch of melted butter to the rough crumbs and a good glug of Amaretto to the crumbed mix. Then in the bottom of a cake ring I start by pressing in a thin layer of this mix, and then slowly build up the following layers with a silky ganache, then the coffee and amaretto soaked biscuits on top of that, then the tiramisu cream and then another layer of the biscuits mix. Repeating until I reached the top of the ring, then that too chills down in the fridge to await its crowning glory, the silky chocolate top coat.

I am wondering though is my traditional dessert too simple? I make the beer batter for the waffles, and carry on regardless and all as the people are passing by, watching, asking questions and taking photos. Next, I begin the tempering of the chocolate, to pure over my Opera Cakes, and make the moulded musical notes to dress the top.

"Chefs you have an hour."

Right show time… I rap my hands in a warm damp towel and cleaned them, whipped my face, cleared around and get myself focused on that last final push. I cover the Opera Cake in the silky chocolate, it's perfectly levelled and I add a light dusting to one side corner to corner of the finest cocoa powder. Placing the notes and the 'House of Hyde' chocolate logo in the corner and placing the moulded notes in and on the same corner but falling down the side, along with the decorative chocolate shards. This was served alongside an Italian coffee, a cheeky coffee, with a shot of Amaretto and cream. Next, I complete the dressing of my citrus mousse. It's served on green glass plates and finished with the strips of the candied peel, of the orange, lemon and lime on the top all served with a selection of the Viennese biscuits I'd made earlier, it is served with the Limoncello poured over clear sphere balls of artisanal ice and a slice of lime.

Now the waffles, the three waffle irons were heating as the twenty minute warning came on, yes I could do this. several batches are made and my assembly of this dessert would take but a few moments. The chocolate pouring sauce needs to be completed, so to the tempered chocolate I added melted butter and single cream, mixed and add a smidge of vanilla into the mix taste for sweetness and pour into their little serving boats. I waited to the last minutes and Daniel is laughing as he is informed I have not finished, laugh away boy. Six big plates are garnered and a big round red hot waffle is placed carefully on each. I add a chocolate covered strawberry on the side and the ice cream is lovingly scooped into the middle of each waffle. The sauce served in a sauce boat finished with a sprig of mint, and it smells divine and looks simple, and for my pièce de résistance. I'm serving my beer batter waffles with a chilled Cantillon Lambik, a popular local Belgian beer, which happens to be in the waffles too. I take a bow as my dishes finally go for the tasting. My common theme is no surprise; it is alcohol.

The team comes to help me strip down and clean away tasting the desserts in the back of my kitchen, the general opinion… Can we get a taxi home; they loved them and the booze. We are called to attention because the results are in.

"Thank you Chefs; today you have all created some wonderful taste sensations, some made me think of home and one made me say thank you and please carry me home. Can you please make your way to the judge's tables?" Well this was it, I looked over at Daniel and he was as smug as he had been all weekend.

"In third place and congratulations to Daniel Frost, Daniel is from an all new Belgian chocolatier and patisserie school The Frosting House..." He looked mad.

"Katrina Vaux, takes a very well deserved, second place in her first competition, she is from the Parisian Patisserie Du Cocoa Bean, congratulations it tasted of home, well done the crepes were just as my Mamma made for me. I am now so very pleased to announce the winner of the dessert category and not only that but she is also the winner of this weekend's competition. With her boozy floozy desserts, she gets a big thank you from all the judges, for the wonderful boozy treats she laid before our eyes. From the House of Hyde, today's winner by a clean sweep is Miss Anastasia D'Acciaio; will you marry me Miss D'Acciaio, or at least teach my wife the recipes? Anastasia you have done it again, what a weekend you've had."

"It would be my pleasure to give your wife the recipes, I'm glad you enjoyed the afternoons aperitifs. I couldn't have done it without my wonderful team. I would also like to thank you the public for being so gracious and welcoming, I proudly accept this cup on behalf of all who work for the House of Hyde. I now have to leave you all to cook for the ball tonight, thank you all once again." Today was hard and I hadn't yet finished. I left the staged area and was congratulated by Katrina and ignored by Daniel. I walked to our area, which was now cleared away. "Right team this is all top line, let's make our five hundred desserts, please come and help do the finalisation for tonight's little party." I grab my bags and we head to the kitchens. We get there to see Mr John Hyde and Mr James Frasier are in their whites, I hand Sir the cheque and the cups I had won this weekend.

"Congratulations Miss D'Acciaio, you have done us proud again. The judges loved the amount of alcohol they seemed to be drinking. Was that your intention, get them so drunk that they would give you their vote?" I agreed, laughing as I did at Sir, he then takes me to one side.

"Anastasia, Fredrik has admitted his crime and is in custody, as well as your attack his DNA was found to be a match to twenty more cases of rape, his mother has disowned him and my brother Pieter has refused to pay for his solicitor, he is saddened that the boy has turned out the way he did. He was also told by Stella, that he isn't even his son. I think Pieter has always know this, but when she let fly at him in my suite confessing to the truth, can I say I too was relieved for Pieter. He has, and for far too long been under her thumb."

"I'm just glad he didn't get away with it, thank you and I am sorry for the bad things that have happened this weekend, I swear I did nothing wrong Sir."

"We all know who was to blame, and it certainly wasn't you, now hush and tell me what you require of me today?" I take control and set about giving out the tasks. The massive row of tables in the dessert part of the kitchen is amazingly long.

"Can you please make me Sir, some of your wonderful pralines for crumbling over the ice cream? Mr Frasier, Sir, can you please make sure I have the appropriate number of mint leaves for the ice cream? Can you three, please assemble the macarons for decorations, the hazelnut cream to sandwich the coffee ones together." I said to my helpers. "The Chantilly crème used to sandwich the pistachio ones together. I will do the Death by Chocolate. Thank you all." It seemed funny telling two of the greats in the pastry world, to do menial jobs, which surprised the other trainees too. "Natalia please can you and two others, lay out the five hundred plates along the tables. Please ensure they are wiped clean before you place them, do them in blocks of ten so that they are easier to count, there should be fifty blocks of ten, included are the fifty spares I thought we could need. Will you please see to it that the espresso cups for the tiramisu are on the fridge trays?"

With the ganache trays set up, I assemble and make required amount of cakey gateaux, to be finished off later when we plate. Then put them in the chillier. They need to set a little before I guitar cut them to the correct bite sized pieces. I sneak a taste and its chocolaty gooeyness sticks to my teeth and tastes wonderful.

"Right, you two, can help do the Tiramisu cups now?" My helpers grab piping bags, the biscuits and the well chilled coffee and amaretto liqueur. "Dip, break and place in the bottom of each cup, if you please and as you do that I will be behind you, filling the cups with the cream mix. Natalia can you grab the other bag and go along, filling the cups to the top, then you, please could you walk behind Natalia and finish with the fork design on the top please?" We finished in no time, whilst the helpers decorate the tops and set aside to chill. The day was passing us by and the two masters left me to it and I then relaxed, I always think I'm in an examination with both of my tutors John Hyde and James Frasier. We finished off the chocolate cake with dipping the top in chocolate and the tiny macarons placed side by side on the top, and held there by a smidge of chocolate. The tiramisu had chilled down and all done with an hour and a half left before show time.

"Right lets show them we can do this. The espressos first, then the chocolate cake, then the cheesecake and finally the ice cream bowls, they will be the last thing to go on and the most fiddly, they can however be filled and placed back in the freezer, can you six do that, add a teaspoon of each of the ice creams in each small basket. You four take the Chantilly Cream filled piping bags, and piped simple scroll from the top to the bottom and chocolate strands placed on the scroll at the bottom, can you three please put the company logo chocolate slice in the top of the tiramisu cup, after you have dusted with cocoa and two small cigarettes in the side. Can you help do those? Then it's done; I need to go and change, when I get back please change into your clean whites, then we will place the ice cream bowls on the tray and dress it with the mint and pralines. Thank you, you all have worked brilliantly."

I get to the hotel and dump my bags, shower, do my hair, I get dressed, my shoes are on and bag is grabbed. I get back just as the gala dinner is starting. Throwing on an overall to protect my clothes, I look at the row upon row of plates, I'm very happy with the look and we are nearly there, when I'm called to join the company table. Finally, I look across at the tables, the only thing left to go on the plate is the ice cream bowls, which are already decorated and ready put on the plate. I go to join my bosses, wary about doing so given that now Freddie is in jail. As I get there the men stand, and Jack moves my chair, I haven't eaten all day and am starving.

"How are you doing, are you nervous?" I smile at Jack.

"No, not about the award, but I am about the food though, I always panic in case something goes wrong." His father is watching us. The first course disappears and as the second course comes, I eat a little, well as much as I can after having watched the doors open on two of the kitchens. I now have to finish the desserts. I wipe my lips, excuse myself and get myself back to finish off the dessert course.

"Right ice cream bowls out and quickly. Thank you everyone." They do as I ask and work as a well oiled machine, sprinkling praline, placing mint and cleaning the plate. A final check over and everything is completed. The doors open and the army of waiters takes away the desserts, as the last ones are collected I re-join the table, my dessert is waiting for me, and looking down at the four portion desserts in front of me and I have to admit I feel very proud of the end result. The table eats, and as I look round the room, people are enjoying it.

"Very nice, Anastasia this is very tasty and the ice cream, wow."

"Thank you Jack, it's a family recipe, which does not belong to the House Of Hyde, sorry... All that hard work and ten minutes later it's all gone. Apart from the tables that have the skinny bitch models sat at them, why do they come to a gala dinner and not eat?"

"Oh, I don't know Anastasia this could tempt a vegan to eat." I laugh as he finishes, he smiles and rubs my back gently.

"Miss D'Acciaio, that was as ever superb and well done. You have just passed the last of my tests. You will be coming back with me to pack, and then you are going to American to do the masters examination. Congratulations, because I know you are more than capable of passing it. That passed you are then back here and you begin working with James for a spell at teaching in the smallest of the three schools. I want you keeping an eye open for the next best chocolatier."

Oh, I hadn't expected that one. I will have worked with three great Pâtissiers, I would have said four, but Daniel hardly counted as working with. The gala had gone well and the shoes, they were auctioned and raised money for a women's rescue centre, quite ironic that my shoes were helping a battered women shelter. Then the presentation of the Chocolate Masters title, which was a great honour and got me another certificate, the trophies were in a glass cabinet in the shop attached to the school in Switzerland. Called to the stage I remember the flashes of the cameras, and the applause… I am waking from my dream sat at Kate's desk, just as she comes in...

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Another Jack back chapter... She likes her chocolates and I love writing about them. I know you are all eager for Christian's re appearance, it is coming...

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Read and review and I will get another out to you when I have had a swim and some Oozo and Methos... Yammas... From Kos xxx


	6. Chapter 6

By now you know this is not fifty shades it is all the letters of the AU- OCC things you guys understand and I do not, you should know how I write!

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I am sorry some of you think it is a cook book, it isn't I just love to add in extra's usually it is a spy thing or an extended family thing, this story is about chocolates and yes I can send you recipes lol… But chocolate tempering cannot be explained in mere writing, so go on you tube…

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Dreaming of Chocolate and Grey:

 _Christian does make an appearance in chapter 8: I just have to tell Ana's back history without him, first..._

Chapter 6:

Anastasia vs. Jack: Part 3:

 _ **Some of you are going to say arghhhh I told you so, the fiorst paragraph has the answer to why Ana is as she is...**_

I sit back up and sort out my emails and things. Kate says nothing but sits and waits for me to speak... My second book it is about to be printed 'A Little step to Heaven.' All proceeds from this book were for Sands; the charity that the therapist set me up with to help me get over that painful happening in my life. There were thousands and thousands of women and men, who had experienced what I had, who felt the same as me, and like me couldn't cope, so when I had finished my first book and started on my second one of the contracted three, they asked for a title and that one sprung to mind and the dedication was my first acknowledgment of my baby boy to anyone… 'For my baby boy and his travelling companion Olivier, his guardian angel and my best friend.' Kate was sat at my side on the chair, when she moved I do not know, but she was now privy to my best kept secret... She now knows about Christian... She was so sneakily silent I did not hear her sit behind me. Her nosey disposition is down to her reporter instincts, I really thought she would end up working for her Uncle at Kavanagh Media, and not for her father and with her brother, I guess they use her dog-eared determination to ferret out anything bad in their financial empire?

"Ana, you had a baby?"

"Yes Kate, I did. He died at birth. It was meant to be a secret one day KK you will poke your nose in somewhere and get it bitten off."

"Ana I am so sorry I was watching your face and you looked worried, I was just being a friend, sorry I will not tell a soul I swear on my new Fendi Bag." Wow she paid a fortune for that sucker.

"Don't Kate worry, but please do not ask for details, it's still raw, no matter how much times passes. I have told just one other and he will tell the world my secret, he is just about capable of anything and after today more so..."

"Are you talking about the father, did he skip out and leave you all alone?"

"God no, he doesn't even know we had sex let alone we had a baby together."

"Who is he Ana, the father? This Jack Hyde?"

"No, no it was not him, the father is my other secret and I am not revealing his name ever. It is too painful and my secret alone please drop that one KK, or we will not be friends anymore."

"It says Olivia, is that your best friend, the one from the smudges in your recipe journals?"

"Yes, my very best friend. She was on her way to help me give birth, but her car was hit on the way to the hospital, I gave birth to my baby in the same hospital she died in. I kill everyone who I have ever loved: My baby, my father, Grammy, Papa and Olivia, I think I am cursed Kate."

"No Ana you are not, don't be stupid, it's just bad luck. Ana, when your time is up it's up. Now, how much does he know? How much does Jack know?"

"Enough." I tell her the tale of how he came to find out about my son...

…After my win and my gushing lyrical acceptance speech at the dinner and award ceremony, John Hyde and James Frasier left we youngsters to celebrate and went to Mr Frasier's home there. It left me, Emily and Jack at the table; he was very reserved for a change and was just watching me. Then as we finished the wine he smiled.

"Do you two fancy coming to a club and letting your hair down a little?" He asked Emily and me.

"Oh can we go to your club here Jack?" Emily gushed.

"Yes if you want Emily, how about you Anastasia?" I needed to unwind after a very busy couple of stressful days. I agreed to go out with Emily and Jack to celebrate my victory. I hadn't been out in a long time and needed the release. We arrived and were treated like royalty, we danced for quite a while before Emily had to leave as she had to be up early, so Jack grabbed her a cab and came back. I'd decided that I was stopping out as I'd been given the morning off, it was a rare occurrence, so one I grabbed with both hands, even if it meant stopping with Jack alone.

"Dance with me Anastasia please?" I was a little heady with all the wine I'd had, so danced with him. He was quite the mover and was quite good at it, I'd had a drink and my mouth betrayed my brain,

"You dance very well Jack; you must do it a lot? Oh and there's a woman over there waving to catch your attention, she seems to need to speak to you Jack." He didn't even look towards where my hand was pointing, okay he was deliberately not looking, I definitely think she is an ex and he has loved and left her.

"Is there? Then how rude of her when she can clearly see, unless she's very drunk that is, that I am dancing with the most beautiful girl in the room already." Oh you are as smooth as un-ironed velvet and sneaky too.

"I like dancing with you, you're so gentle on your feet. Jack she's coming down so she must be desperate to see you." He grabbed my hand and escorted me pretty quickly to the exit.

"Let's get back to the hotel and have a drink in the bar there. I need to be up in the morning with Father anyway." He took my hand and led me to the waiting car what was his problem with the poor girl?

"Just a quick drink Jack, I have things to do too like pack and get my things together. Why the rush to leave her behind, was she an old girlfriend?"

"She was an acquaintance I met last time I was here, but she was far too clingy for me. As to you and I, all I was offering Anastasia was a drink, anything else I would have to have known you a lot longer for."

"Yes okay the drink is fine, but as to anything else you will be waiting a long time for anything to happen between us, like forever. I told you before Jack, I'm not interested in going down that road, ever again."

"I find it hard to believe that you don't want a husband and children someday? Isn't it inbred into women, they have to have children and play house?"

"Some of us yes, others play the hands they are dealt, mine is to be the best in this game, what else is there?" He laughed.

"Right Father; get out of Anastasia's body and go away." He laughed again. "My father is so very much like that too, but I know he loves me, my brother George and my darling little sister Alice."

"Are they not bakers or you know confectioners, and keeping the chocolate business in the family?" I ask.

"I am more into the finances and the marketing of the business and I can just about reheat a microwave meal, if I have too. Alice is going into law like Uncle Pieter. George, he is following in our father's footsteps, and is working with Ramón in New York at the moment. George, one day hopes to be able to master the chocolate making, so he can step into that side of the business, if and when my father retires that is. My father is passionate about his chocolate empire and he had very little time for us as we grew up. He couldn't have too many loves in his life, the business has always been his number one love and growing up we found it hard to compete with it, so we stopped bothering. We never asked for more time than he could give us; he loves his world, the one of the megalomaniac master chocolatier. So don't hold your breath taking over anytime soon, this is his whole life too. I can see the same drive he has in your eyes too, and watching you create and tasting your creations I would say you're as talented as he is." I blushed at being given such a complement. That was how I now felt about having just the one love and it is the very reason I had decided Christian would be my only child. I wanted to dedicate my life to my career and nothing else.

"I'm sure your father loves you very much, I saw how he was when we were heading to the airport. He watched your every move, and when you were speaking on the phone he had a great pride in his eyes." He smiled.

"Thank you Anastasia, that was nice to hear and you what about your family?" I laugh.

"Have you got all night?" I then told him about my parents, and my grandparents raising me.

"Right you win the pity party then. My father is a saint; all hail the sainted master chocolatier." He smiled and helped me from the car and into the bar but it was closing, so with a little hesitation I agreed to have a drink in his room and that's all I was interested in too. He opened the wine and we sat and talked for hours, he was nice company and as I yawned for the umpteenth time, he told me it was time for bed and walked me to my room. He never made a pass or asked anything of me, he was just so very nice to talk in fact he was very interesting and worldly.

"Goodnight Anastasia and thank you, tonight was really nice." As he gave my cheek a kiss his father came out of the lift, shouted at Jack in German and with a shoulder shrug, he went to his father and I went to my room. I showered and packed my bags away. I take out the locket and have my nightly talk to it, kiss it and put it back. I woke way later than normal. A lie in is such a luxury. I changed and packed the last of my things and ordered breakfast, whilst waiting for it there was a knock on the door, it was Emily, bright as a button and talking like a million miles an hour, what the hell had she had for breakfast?

"Good morning champ. You aren't going back to Switzerland you're going to America, to do your exam. Then from there you have two weeks off and then you're back to Belgium to work with James. I am to pack your things at the school and send them to your new apartment. You're so lucky; I wish someone would get me an apartment. It's your chocolate sales bonus from Sir. I have all your flight details here and you need to be in the car in an hour and straight to the airport. I have loved our time together." She passed me a card. "This is from Mr Pieter Hyde? He has written his cell phone number on the back if you need anything legal done he's your man, this he said was an open offer and to be used as many times as you need; any place any time get in touch." I smiled. She was high on something that's for sure. I think I took all that in?

She was such a help to me and had become a friend of sorts, well as much as I would let her in. She gave me a hug and said she would keep in touch; we still worked for the same man after all. I ate breakfast and headed to the airport with my suitcase and bags in hand. Over the next two weeks I had to study and practice for the Maître Patisserie's examination. That was the hardest exam to pass, I was tested on everything, and I was watched from the minute I got in the hall to the minute tools down on the last day, but after hours and hours of task's, test and interviews, I was at last able to call myself a licensed and fully qualified Maître Pâtissière, my dreams were nearing perfection and life was getting so much better, at last.

I finished in America and had, courtesy of James Frasier, a week's extra leave with my grandparents who were loving life in sunny California. I was well rested and loved it being spoilt by my all too loving family. I was finally being lazy for the first time in ages. Nothing but sunshine, food and love from my three grandparents, my Papa Frank didn't do much but sit and stare at the world passing by, but I had plenty to talk about with him and along with some good wine, I regenerated for the upcoming time ahead of me, unsure of when my next holiday was coming; such was the pace of life at the House of Hyde. I headed for Brussels feeling good about life. I made my way in a taxi to take a look at the wonderful apartment I now owned, and as the car pulled up at the block I had to ask twice was this the right place? It was absolutely beautiful, it was so pretty from the outside, can a building be pretty? Well this was; it was old and so, oh hell pretty. The first thing I noticed was, besides its beauty, was that it had security. It was kind of hard to miss when they virtually body frisked me. The guard took my details, identification and finally allowed me into the lift, after handing me the keys to the lift and my apartment, security was tight and they assured me nobody unauthorised was getting in, which I guess was a good thing?

My apartment was the penthouse and it was out and out over the top and filled with classy and expensive stuff, it turns out it was all furnished and decorated by Jack, this I was to find out later, Jack it seems had fantastic style, and the luxury was much more than I could ever imagine. Walking around the place, which was huge, the sitting room with a plush seating area and a big fireplace and I smiled imagining the roaring fire in there. The kitchen, it was all state of the art and wonderful. The bedrooms looked like they had been drafted in from a movie set, each of the four bedrooms came complete with an en-suite bathroom. What sort of money was Lust bringing in to afford me this amount of luxury, and just as a bonus? I was so shocked after two years of basic living walking in on this grandiose affair that it kind of took my breath away, this was much more than I expected; I wasn't even sure that this place was all mine, the deeds I saw on the counter said it was so I guess that it was? My clothes were hung up and were waiting. My meagre few possessions were in the drawers and the cupboards, so I guess it is my abode? I unpacked the rest, put my washing on, I showered and went to bed. The days ahead were bound to be filled with such uncertainty for me, because as yet I did not know what new role I would be taking on? Was I a teacher, pupil or both? I was qualified and licensed to work in any bakery in either France or here in Belgium and to teach in the schools now, but Sir's future plans for me were very much in his own head and hands.

There was for a time, a nagging doubt of uncertainty at the back of my mind was this what I wanted? I had enough money to retire and live comfortably, from Lust and I always had my trust fund to fall back on, so money was not my master, but I also wanted to expand on my knowledge, I wanted to be the next big thing in chocolate and I also wanted to teach, I wanted to pass on to others what they had taught me. I wondered too, which school John Hyde, Sir, would place me at, thinking about it him again I realised he'd had very little to do with me since finding his son coming out of my room. Was this his attempt at keeping me away from his son, a bribe? I seriously had to wonder why this had fallen into my lap. After a disturbed night's sleep, I went to join James Frasier in the school. This was half the size of the Zurich operation, and the newly expanded New York base of operations, which had now doubled in its factory capabilities and the school in New York was even more popular too, Mr Frasier met me as I arrived, as always he was nice and extremely courteous. His big bear father hugs, they were as always welcomed and the obligatory hair mess, really? Has he been taking lessons from Nonno? I laugh.

"Welcome and congratulations Anastasia. I cannot wait to train you to be my replacement here, when I retire, I will repeat that for you Miss D'Acciaio when I retire in the predicted eighteen months, you will take over here. In that time, you will learn the skills needed to teach and run the school, and the business here. Jack will be teaching you those areas, but John and I feel you should learn that side later, maybe even letting Jack deal with that side totally. We have plenty of time to sort out the practicalities of everything, but for now down to today's business, teaching the new students how a Master Pâtissière bakes the staff of life. I have no worries, because of how you dealt with the students I sent you in your last competition. That competition and gala were an indication into your great teaching capabilities, and the students, all of whom said they learnt a great deal from you were very enamoured by you. I must admit it was a pleasure to watch you in teaching mode. Now, did you settle into your apartment?" I get the feeling he is a tad nervous, I have never known him talk as much.

"I did yes thank you Sir, though I can't see why your cousin bought me the place, it is way too huge for me?"

"He bought it for you because he was ashamed at what our supposed nephew did, and hopes living here you will want to stop at the school. Since he took over your Lust range, the House of Hyde has now one of the best known chocolate ranges in the world. It is making him and the company, gosh I am being a tattletale here and I'm telling you too much Anastasia; let's just say it is a lot of money. That was a very good day for the company and for you selling the rights to John." I shuffled uncomfortably. He was right I did have a lot of money and I had done very well too. "Right, we will start with you running the bakery today, the class is waiting for you and good luck." I went to teach my first lesson, something I did and enjoyed. That's all I did for the next few months I taught in the bakery and in the confectionary classes. Mr Frasier set's a much lower pace of life here, as this was a much smaller operation, but we got things done, only not at the break neck speed, we did them in Switzerland, and here I had plenty of time off, in between teaching and competitions. The time flew by and James was always full of surprises, like how he would send tickets to Nonna to come and stay.

He didn't work me as hard as Mr Hyde had and gave me time off. Time to shop and get my apartment looking nice and generally have a good life. The frequent visits from Nonna made all the difference here. Both Nonna and Nonno came to make sure it was a good place to live and to make sure I was being well looked after. James Frasier was given their approval as an adopted uncle for me whilst I was here and this tickled him. Their inspection was over and it resulted in the place getting her thumbs up, after which Nonna visited often, a few times with Nonno, but usually on her own.

One day, after returning home frazzled, I'd had a stressed out, pulling my hair out, kind of day in the school. Some idiot had put the wrong flour in the gigantic flour bins, deep joy sorting that out. Then the first lot of students burnt their batches of bread and the ovens refused to stay warm. Anything that could go wrong today did. I was in full on screaming match with a new student, who for some reason, thought she was a teacher and I the student. She won't overstep her boundaries again. She got to empty and clean the flour bins. A small and resounding victory, but my head rang. I came home to find Jack at my door. That man had to have bathed in something other than soap and water because he was more stunning each time I saw him.

"Anastasia. I was just about to leave you a message. I wondered if you would care to come to dinner with me later? This is my first night back here and I haven't seen you since the competition." I smiled and was stunned by my own reply as my mouth was thinking independently of my brain.

"That would be nice, what time will you be picking me up and do you want to come in for a coffee?" He looked shocked, because I'd actually said yes I think.

"No, sorry I have another meeting to go too, but I will pick you up at eight, is that enough time for you?"

"I will see you later at eight sharp, good afternoon Jack." He gave my cheeks the required kisses and disappeared whistling as he did so. Ha, I laughed and went inside, a date with the boss's son, who'd have thought I'd have done that. Well I did and now need to get ready. At just before eight there was a knock on the door. Strange, normally visitors they were announced by the concierge. I answered the door to a very elegant Jack.

"Anastasia, you look very nice, fantastic actually, are you ready?"

"I am, but how did you get up?"

"We are neighbours. I have an apartment here too, the paupers floor beneath you, as of three days ago. I had been given the penthouse but somehow after I toiled over its refurbishment, my father said it would be best if you had it. So I was relegated to the lower level, I know my place." He laughed, but I did not. Why did I think he was really pissed off and putting on a front?

"Welcome to the building then. I hope you'll be very happy here, I am. I can't imagine why you picked this building for me, because its way more than I ever thought possible."

"Father owns the building, and giving you the best apartment was his way of an apology for what Freddie did, it really was a horrific time for you, plus he has hopes you will stay on and teach in the school when Uncle retires." He told me the same story Mr Frasier told me too. He smiled and took my hand and as he did, he kissed my neck gently and really quite seductively. Then we headed to Encounter, the place was amazing. Jack was greeted at the door and we were shown our table, and as took my seat he smiled as I pulled down my dress and generally felt like I stood out like a sore thumb.

"Anastasia, stop fidgeting please you look worried, don't be. Tonight is just a fun night out. I expect nothing more."

"Jack, I can honestly say you will be getting no more. I am incapable of any sort of commitment. Your father really bought me the apartment to stay away from you. Even I am not naive enough to know he wants his son and heir away from the hired help." He laughed as he slid in next to me.

"Ana then why am I only a floor below you? He gave me my apartment too, so surely he thinks it's safe for us to be living in the same block? Umm, and keeping me away from the help, what century are you living in? Ana, are you still under the impression it's me who has to be protected from you? Father knows I am interested in you, and has tried keeping you safe and away from me. Yet, despite his warnings I keep coming back to you, like the damn moth to a flame, so he figured he'd trust me to do the honourable thing and keep my promise. To not force myself upon you and I don't expect commitment of any kind other than friendship, for now anyway." He winked. Oh, hell and I smiled back too. "I just want someone pleasant, with no strings attached, to spend the long and lonely nights here with, and for as long as I am here in Brussels." I watched as he moved ever closer. His hand tenderly brushing down my arm, which sent a shiver through my body, something he noted too and smiled at. "The factory here will take forever to set up. It has taken me weeks just to sort the planning consents out, what with all the paperwork and red tape. Should you decide to take on the challenge of running the House of Hyde in Brussels, after Uncle James retires, then it will be as big as the set up in Zurich." Was he offering me the job? I wasn't comfortable or worldly wise enough yet, to take on that big a commitment or challenge. Eventually and with a few more years under my belt perhaps I would run his father's company with them, but that's years down the track though, the master is not for giving up his throne to anyone, let alone me.

"I will see what the time here brings Jack and yes; I'd like to spend time with you, as friends and not friends with benefits. I can't do that, I won't do that, and if your happy with just that then fine."

"Never say, never Ana, but for now yes, we take it slowly and enjoy pleasant nights out and see where it takes us." He wrapped his arm possessively around me, as a great many people entered the restaurant, was he staking his claim? He nodded to a few of the older people, passing pleasantries and when one woman asked him outright if I was his new lover, I nearly had a fit with her, but he held me tighter and answered the question smiling.

"No, she's a dear and trusted friend, and one I am escorting around the town, to introduce her to the right people." He nodded his head without introducing me. Obviously, she wasn't the right people. He apologised over and over again, she was an ex-lover, possessive and not at all a nice person to know. The looks he got from the diners, most of them women and they were full on drooling from this I gleaned he did this a lot and half the room had already been a conquest of his. I looked again at my 'date' and had to agree, he was drop dead beautiful, yes a beautiful man and with everything I would want if I were dating, but I wasn't or was I? Had I not agreed to come out? Spend time with him, wasn't that what this was, a date? Why had I only ever been interested in Christian, for fucks sake, this would all be easier if I'd been more like Olivier the 'Growler Howler'? I laugh as I remember her.

After a nice meal and wine, we headed out to his favourite club, Rendezvous. It was brimming to the rafters with the young, the beautiful and the money people of the area, the cream of society. The women dripping in gold and jewels, as I said the beautiful people were here and packed in. Boy did I feel out of place in my little black dress, it was a Chanel darling, but with plain ole me in it, and my jewellery was just as simple, my heart necklace that the Grey's sent for my birthday when I was sixteen, it was my most treasured possession until I got my locket. Jack came in again sweeping to my rescue, his whole persona in here changed, he was my protector and lover and nobody was getting near me, he enveloped me in his strong arms to make that point too.

"Relax please; we're here just to introduce you to the right people Anastasia." I looked uncomfortable, because I was. "Stop messing with your dress, you look stunning Ana, you're not covered in thick make up and jewellery, because you don't need that, you're beautiful. You don't need it Anastasia you are stunning, and as I look around the men here think I'm the luckiest male in here, with you such beauty on my arm." I know I went the colour of the pink champagne I was drinking. He made a further claim on me by nuzzling that spot behind my ear, and I know I groaned when he did too. The simplest of touches was killing my no, no resolve, would it be yes, yes before the night was out?

"I do feel a little under dressed. This isn't my usual, type of night out on the town."

"What is your usual, night out?"

"Oh the last time I went out, other than the one time in Belgium with you and Emily, it was an eighteenth party on the island." I gulped, because that was the night that changed my life forever. "I had odd nights out in a bar, whilst in Zurich with Emily. Other than that I don't go out much. I spend my time in the apartment."

"Well, I'm here to rescue you from boredom then."

He smiled and took my hand and led me to the dance floor. I could dance, so wasn't that worried about making the moves on the dance floor and Jack and I had had a brief dance in Belgium before we did a runner, leaving her still trying to get to him, the ex-jilted lover. I have a feeling there are a fair few of them. As the night went on, I relaxed more with him because we were mixing the champagne and the wine. He pulled me to him and danced closer, his arms around me holding me to him, I was lost in the music, my head swimming in champagne, I put my arms around his neck and he leant down and kissed me, and I kissed him back too. I pulled back because this was such a no go area, he was my boss's son, one who kissed me with those sexy, kiss me back kisses.

"Jack no please don't spoil this by starting something I won't finish. I told you, I don't want that sort of friendship, I can't Jack."

He smiled because the kiss definitely was telling him differently. He did make me feel like a woman and wanted, but when push came to shove I still loved Christian, and until he was out of my head, then I didn't feel I could go forward with someone else. Jack was charming, beautiful and he had the connections I needed and wasn't a bad person to try to move on with. We definitely had the chemistry alright and the attraction was there, and I did have feelings for him, but not enough to take it to the next level. It took me years to get to that level of intimacy with Christian, and I can't see Jack being too hard to woo into my bed, he already knows I exist, and wants me, unlike Mr Grey?

"Come on let's get you home, I think you and I need to take this slowly, but I'm not going anywhere Anastasia D'Acciaio." He took my arm and led me to the waiting car, as he did so a simply stunning, blonde woman threw her arms around him and started kissing him.

"Jack Baby, you promised to phone me after last week, naughty man and who's this, my replacement, are you so desperate for company you are dragging the dregs of the club again, Jack will you ever learn?"

"I'm nothing you have to worry about." I said, as I smiled at Jack.

"Please, like I have anything to worry about concerning you and Jack. Ha, you're so not his type. The Mediterranean look isn't what this man likes. But hey, he may be desperate enough to need to sling it in the kitchen staff, even if she is a nobody wearing last year's Chanel."

"Annabelle as ever I see you are turning on that old snake tongued charm of yours. How many drinks have you had tonight, more I bet than the dates we have had, all three of which were quite forgettable and as for Anastasia here being a nobody, she is my father's heir? Heir to the chocolate empire, which she has helped build into Europe's number one, not bad for kitchen staff and one who is worth ten of you, and even in her vintage Chanel dress, she is classier and more refined than you, she isn't the one dragging her drunken mouth into private conversations. Goodnight." Heir is he frigging kidding me?

"You talk the bitch up all you like, she isn't for you and we both know it, you and your special needs are way above Miss Vintage Chanel, when you realise she can't do it for you, ring me Baby, I'm always ready for you and him." She grabbed at his crotch her thumb began stroking the obvious bulge in his pants; it seems Jack has a dark side. She left laughing in my face and stinking of booze and expensive perfume. She was right I wasn't good enough for him, what did I know about dresses and sex? I had lived in chef whites for most of my adult life and the only sex I'd had was apparently crap. I hate to admit this, I need fashion help and Emily to come shopping with me, I don't want to let myself get humiliated like this again.

"I'm so sorry about that, she and I dated for a while, but she was way too much like hard work, quite a nightmare in fact." He looked embarrassed. I felt a little annoyed at her presumption he and I were at it at all.

"You don't need to apologise, there is nothing going on with us and she was right I'm not your type, please let's just get home." A car pulled up, and we headed back to the apartment block. As he said goodnight at my door, he kissed my cheek gently, he then told me he'd had a nice night and went to his own apartment, no more passes made, all I got just the simplest of kisses, it was nice being wanted, but perhaps he didn't want me like that? But I wasn't sure if he was who I needed, but if I didn't feel anything for him, then why was I so angry with the woman in the club? I showered and climbed in my bed. I wondered what Christian was doing as usual as I reached into the bedside table and took out my small box and looked inside; said good night and lightly kissing it I put it back. I cried myself to sleep. I didn't sleep long though, so instead I walked around the flat and looked at my world and I went online and updated my daily diary. I flipped through the some of the pages. All are filled with wishes to see both of my Christian's again and my heart broke yet again.

I joined the Facebook revolution and I looked for him, but with no luck Grey seems to be a private man and a little elusive, but there were friends from college and school, whose invitations to be my friend I accepted. I typed a few messages, yes doing well, yes working in Brussels, getting on with life and generally looking for something to do. I got bored easily and deactivated my account, the people who I had spent all my time with were now strangers, and I was all my fault, no one else's just mine, I had become a workaholic boring bitch. So after changing I then went shopping, and I bought a car first and a quite nice car too, an Audi Q5. I'm not a car person, but this one I loved the look of and the safety specks were good, and it looked sturdy enough to do the round trips to Nonna's and back. It was a little hard to get used to driving because it was a bit bigger than the airport rentals and it is definitely a man's car. However, it nearly drove itself, the sales representative went on and on about fuel consumption, safety, power steering and the anti-lock brakes? I liked the comfortable seats, the music system and the leather smell. Yes, I was that type of girl. I was sold and Q was my car. I took it for one hell of a long test drive it was fabulous. I am definitely having this in white, with all the add-ons.

The salesman, at first was quite a patronising bastard, explaining the financing issues and asking would I be able to meet this payment, or afford that payment, insurance would be very expensive was I sure. I asked to see his boss and promptly gave him my debit card and paid for it. I pick my baby up in five days, I stopped short of pulling out my tongue as the salesman watched my ass leave the showroom. I didn't stop there either; I shopped like I had never shopped before, for me. I bought pretty dresses, shoes and I finally made my wardrobe sigh, at last it was getting proper clothes in it and the shoe rails were filling with things other than white clogs. Over the next five days I tried to change my dull life around, nothing too drastic was done and I noticed too that Jack especially liked the new Ana. I felt rejuvenated and had a reason to move on after a dratted hair appointment, it was then I realised Christian Grey was never going to be mine... I'd picked up a magazine as I sat and waited for the colour to take in my hair and as I flipped to the society pages, he was there, at some ball with a woman old enough to be his mother she was draped on his arm like a sugar Momma, and they were smiling. I hated this Mrs Elena Lincoln and as soon as I thumbed my finger over his face. I realised I was never his and this proved it. I left looking fabulous, and yet I was feeling like crap inside. The life I wanted with him would never be and he would never be mine.

My classroom schedule was not as hard as it was in Zurich, nor was Mr Frasier, he told me to embrace my life and enjoy. He pulled me to one side after my week of change and rather nervously tried to talk to me.

"Please, all this Anastasia, t is wonderful, but Jack?"

"Mr Frasier, he knows where he stands. Besides, Mr Hyde would not like the heir apparent dating the hired help." He too laughed.

"John thinks highly of you, just the other day George said he wanted to take your place here and you were to go to New York." I oh-ed. "He was told he was years away from coming here, and at least five years before he goes to Zurich. It caused quite a stir that conversation, he was informed he has great plans for you and you will eventually take over the running of the company, alongside Jack, who will be taking the financial responsibilities away from you. You were the subject of a heated debate behind closed doors between the brothers and their father. One that I wasn't privy to, which in itself was unusual as John normally he tells me everything, but this argument was between John, Jack and George, who both argued into the small hours with their father. It was rather heated and involved a lot of cussing.

I wish we had gone home, instead of stopping the weekend with them. All we heard all night was the shouting and madness. Jack came here the day after and refuses to have anything to do with John on a personal level, but business is business, however he won't speak of it to me. I think it was John's damn will business again. Oh excuse me Anastasia, that was family business and one I shouldn't be gossiping about, please forget you heard this stupid old man say anything?" I already had. He smiled and went to his office, I was being warned away from Jack again, only this time by Mr Frasier, what do they think is going on, because there is nothing going on apart from friendship? Later that week Jack came to pick up my car with me and he likes it, I loved it and as we took it for a spin he looked uncomfortably at me.

"What is the matter Jack? Things at the school are tense, your Uncle James is forever in his office, I am being left to deal with the shop and college and the factory, is there something going on I need to know about?" He laughed.

"No Ana, nothing that you need to be bothered about, though father and I are having a few issues at the moment, and he is bending uncles ear a little bit at the moment, if only George was more like you we wouldn't be having problems at all. Can I drive Ana only you're a little mad?"

"Tell me why George needs to be like me and I may let you drive the Q." He laughed as I pulled over.

"Deal, he can't or doesn't have your capabilities Ana and not to put too fine a point on it, he never will have. He is a good baker, but that's the extent of his capabilities. He doesn't have your natural talents. Father wants to offer you a partnership. To keep you tied to us, I agree in part, but George won't agree, he has issues with the perfect Miss D'Acciaio taking his place in the business and with our father, he has always wanted our father's approval and is only trying his hand in the world of chocolate to be like our father to please him." I laugh and get out of the car as Jack scoots over. I climb in the passenger side.

"Then he should do what he wants to, this life I have and your father has, it needs a total dedication to it and you need to put your whole heart into it, otherwise it is useless. Doing it for someone else isn't right, it's how I managed to come up with the Lust range, each chocolate took an age to perfect, it didn't happen overnight it took me years to perfect the range and many hours spent alone and concentrating only on my chocolates, forgoing a normal life!"

"Your chocolate line, Lust, it has made the House of Hyde the best known independent chocolate maker, and it is all thanks to you and your chocolates and the years of research you put into them that our business is flourishing way beyond the expectations father had envisaged. The Lust recipes you sold to father, well it has the potential to make many more millions for the company. It is the bestselling chocolate line in the past century, and we can't make them quickly enough. Your ideas breathed much needed fresh air into our business. George can't understand why father doesn't rate him, it's as you and father always say, to create in chocolate and try inventing the next taste sensation, is not just a career, it's an all-consuming life choice and it has to be in your soul. Unfortunately for us none of father's children inherited a smidgen of his talent. Then you came into his world and at last he had someone he could train and mould, he wants to make you as great as he is. Unfortunately, with your greatness there will come a time were your need to go it on your own will come about. Father realises you're not long for this company and his prodigy will leave and he is desperate to keep you."

"I never made it a secret; your father knew that from day one I always said I wanted my own house of chocolate. Running the House of Hyde was never in my plans. I just wanted to learn at the hands of the master, and I have. I can't and do not want to run a company as big as your family business Jack. I will promise you this; I will not leave the company for the next year. After that, we will discuss things again. I love working for your father and the company, but I don't want to be forever tied to the House of Hyde." He laughed loudly.

"What have I told you about saying, never saying never Anastasia Rose D'Acciaio? What if I wanted to tie you to the House of Hyde, forever?" I laughed.

"What sort of idiot signs their life away to one company?"

"Oh I don't know, how about the marriage kind of company Ana?" I looked over and he was deep in thought, what the hell?

"You can't be serious? You want to marry me to keep me at the House of Hyde. Would it be a marriage or a business deal?" He looked at me.

"Many marriages are built on a far lesser foundation Ana. I mean, yes we like each other right?" I think I am just a little astounded that he has even considered such a step to keeping the House of Hyde together. I am no one's arranged marriage and to do it for business deal is so never happening, I am not a commodity to be brokered.

"There are many things you have to offer Jack, and for now I would appreciate just being your friend. I have promised you a year so can we see where we are in that year?" He looked over at me and smiled.

"I have a year to make you fall in love with me then? I think that's doable. I am such a good catch." He punched my side playfully. Really?

"If you say so, now where are you taking me and my new car?" He wasn't bloody serious, or was he and he's considering a marriage and for the sake of the business? Nope, never happening, if I marry it will be for love only and not I think to Jack.

"We are nearly here Ana and I think you will love it here." I laughed.

"As long as it isn't a justice of the peace, or some poor Mayor you have gotten out of bed to marry us, then you're safe. Jack, I like you as a friend, don't push too hard please." He pulled into a Swiss chalet restaurant.

"I promise we take this, whatever this is at your speed and in whatever direction you want. I know what I want and have done since you gave Fast Freddie, the talking down to. I fell for the girl who gave back as good as she got and one who really was nice to talk to and to watch. In spite of my father's instructions that I am to keep away from you, I will not be keeping away from you because I can't. I tried, and I failed miserably." He has a sliver tongue alright, and he is saying the things he thinks I want and need to hear, unfortunately for him I don't, not from him or from anyone.

He led me into a beautiful lodge type restaurant. We had a wonderful meal and drank some excellent wine, too much in fact. I knocked them back as did Jack, we talked for ages and we drank too much to drive back. I excused myself I needed the toilet. I passed the hotel reception desk and asked for two single rooms, they were nearly full and had just one double left, I looked at the key card offered and passed her my credit card. I may regret this in the morning. I went back to the table.

"We are too drunk to drive, and they have just sold their last room Ana, I can drive and risk it?" I laughed and threw him the card.

"We have a room, but there will be no funny stuff, I really am not interested in going down any road like that, with you Jack or anyone." His eyebrows rose ever so slightly, "I mean it Jack, I am not a girl who need love in her life, and I wouldn't be going down that route with you, so please stop trying. I admire your father and I don't want him to think any less of me. I know the games you are playing Jack and believe it or not I am no fool."

"Never say never Ana."

"Well Jack, lease don't hold your breath waiting for me to change." He laughed. Why he did I don't know. We ordered another bottle of wine and were told when we order the other the bar area was closing, so we grabbed the bottle of the wine and took it and two glasses to our room. As he pressed the lift button, his arm swept around me and I pulled back.

"Never say no without thinking it through, Ana. We both know it's what we both want. The kiss the other day, wasn't a kiss of friendship, it was one leading to this, the more..." I knew he would see it like that, but it wasn't. I was lost and in a heady place when we kissed and the instant it happed I regretted it. Christian was the only kiss before Jack's, and even when I kissed Jack I felt I was being unfaithful to Christian, which is was hysterical really, because he was just a mad bad infatuation I could not shake off... Madness of the mind, that's what Mr Grey was to me, a madness I cannot shake off...

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So, some of you were right, some of you were way off lol but yes they had a baby... Hold off on your hatred of me Ana and Christian there is still a back history to tell... Enjoy your chocoaltes, I wish I had now made batches ready to post lol... S rEad review and tell me what you think xxxorry I don't actually make chocoalates anymore ...


	7. Chapter 7

By now you know this is not fifty shades it is all the letters of the AC, OCC things you guys understand and I do not, you should know how I write. HEA promised, it may take a few chapters to get there but its there...

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Dreaming of Chocolate and Grey:

Christian does make an appearance in this chapter.

Chapter 7:

Anastasia vs. Jack: Part 4:

As I pondered my next move, I get to my over thinking stage, its dangerous for me this phase. I was so unsure of what I wanted and though I wanted Christian Grey out of my head I also wanted to feel something for a real man, not just the one who fucked with me and left me alone and wondering why I wasn't enough, and why he did what he did and forgot about me. I tried so many times to contact him and the stone wall his people erected around him was rock solid. They should have been the ones who built Hadrian's Wall and kept the Sassenachs out of Scotland, that what they should have done and of course fucked up Americans too... I look at Jack and he isn't pushing me, he has been honest with me, he wants me and me, I'm confused? What harm could screwing him do, it could even clear my brain of Christian, but after the last one night stand, do I want to tempt fate with another? My head feels clouded and all of a sudden I feel confused, well more confused than normal, that is. Jack was offering a marraige, not the one I wanted for l;ove, but he wasn't pushing it either and he was a nice person...

"Ana, just think about how good and powerful we would be?" Powerful, me? I wish.

"You don't know me Jack, I don't know you, we, we are strangers, with just this even stranger attraction to each other. Jack I am a hopeless cause, because I gave my heart to another and I don't want more heartache or pain, I don't need more Jack, please believe me, I want friendship, that's all..."

His lips came to mine as the lift doors opened; I slipped backwards into the lift to avoid the kiss, I was followed by Jack, he kissed me as if to prove a point, that I was wrong and he was the one for me... He stopped for just a moment to look at the floor number, he pressed the third floor and continued the kiss, I was suddenly breathless and boy the lust was there. My stupid head told me I needed this, if only to banish Christian from my mind. We stumbled out of the lift and into our room, our clothes we took from each other's bodies quickly, he slid out of his trousers and as they fell to the floor I had to admit it, hell he looked gorgeous out of his clothes too. He wrapped me in his arms and undid my bra, smiling at my breasts as he kissed their curves.

"Say yes Ana, to this and more." I pushed him to the bed. My common sense was nowhere to be had and my inner voice was letting this happen to me, so the stupid and lost me figured it was okay to let him continue. I guess alcohol does free the mind and stops you inhibitions from taking over...

"I'm saying nothing, but I'm not ready for sex with you,something else maybe, but not that yet." He smiled and pulled me towards him.

"We'll see..."

His fingers threaded their way to my panties and he removed them. His fingers traced my hips around to my stomach and I had to admit that yes it felt good as he leaned down and kissed my belly. The warm fuzzy glow of the wine we drank took me to a wondrous place. He smiled as he looked up at me, his dreamy eyes looking into mine, as his fingers found my achingly hot place, they moved within me and I let out a gasp. They moved fiercely within my folds and I begged for more. As he looked up I looked down and watched as his tongue lapped at the space between my belly button and my sex, and as I groaned in sheer pleasure, his tongue suddenly joined his fingers, sending me to an orgasmic head rush. I fingered his hair in my hands and pushed him further into me; I wanted to feel him there and lord did he oblige, he sent me to that place again repeatedly. He pulled himself up my body and kissed me, and as his tongue entwined in mine, his nakedness I felt on my legs. I didn't want to stop, I wanted to try this with someone else, but was afraid to go the whole way. He was hard and as my hand pleasured him, he lay on his back and I panicked as he asked me to ride him.

"Not yet Jack, let me do something for you first I owe you." He watched as I continued to pleasure him, all the time I was thinking no, I can't get pregnant. I can't get pregnant. I moved down his body placing tiny kisses on his skin as I headed to his happy trail, my tongue continued exploring, as he sighed.

"Oh Ana, yes, please finish me with your mouth take me deep and take all of me." I gulped and I hoped the gulp was just my imagination. I then began the onslaught of his very nice and large penis; he was as well built as Christian but a little different? I put my mouth to the end and tentatively kissed the tip and he was already coming I tasted the saltyness of it. The act of putting his shoving his dick in my mouth was not what as I expected and nothing like when Christian and I did this, he was gentle, where as Jack was demanding and rough. When my mouth closed around his length, he slammed my head down on his dick and demanded I suck. The very thought of my doing it this way, it made me gag and my mouth was suddenly lax around him, he cried for me to take him deeper and to fucking suck. He as falling apart and enjoying it, but me? I wasn't enjoying this at all, I was being used and it felt dirty. I looked up at him being pleasured by my mouth, and God I wished this was Christian. I knew then I didn't really know what I wanted, or if Jack was to be Christian's replacement, but he was still there in my head. I think I knew that Jack was just a distraction, not a replacement. I still wanted Christian Grey, damn it.

"Let me fuck you argh, let me, please let me please, argh hell no, no, no, harder, harder yes, god oh, oh, oh, god yes, yes, fuck yes suck me Ana now." I was pushed down to the base, choking on his length. He liked this and as I withdrew, my teeth pulled back and hard too. He then he shivered and shook beneath me, my hair falling around his field of vision was a much needed mask. "Ana do it Baby, do it I'm coming, and I'm coming hard, I want to be in you, sending my seed deep into you, oh baby, please yes please I'm there and oh..." I felt the warmth hit the back of my throat, and he pushed my head down and told me to suck and keep doing it until he was clean and stupidly I did. As he finally emptied himself, he pulled me up to taste himself; I felt like a cheap hooker and dirty. A sober Ana was back in the room, and she was disgusted at drunk Ana.

"I want to do that again Baby that was wonderful, you have an amazing mouth, and nobody has taken me all the way before. I think I owe you; I'm sorry I didn't come prepared. So, as long as you're okay can we do this some more?" I was stunned that I'd allowed it to go so far, so stunned I pulled away. I grabbed the bottle of wine and locked myself in the bathroom, I spat and I washed my teeth gagging on the complementary toothbrush, to rid me from the taste of Jack. I sat on the floor and I wept. I drank the bottle of wine alone, Jack knocked on the door and asked was I ready for more, on hearing that I threw up, and I do believe that put Jack off and we ended up doing nothing else! After I finished the wine I entered the room to find him drinking a bottle of scotch. I lay on the bed and he was then at the side of me, he hugged me tightly, I was feeling really drunk and dirty as he pinned me to his chest and saying goodnight to me with a kiss of my head, he sighed. "Goodnight Christian." I thought I heard myself say, fuck, I had not rid myself of him after all, and all my drunk fuelled night was, was a nightmare of my own making, I paid for the room and came to the room and instead of saying no, the drunk floozy within me had helped ruin me, I had sullied myself with a dark hearted Jack Hyde and now I was filled with drunken remorse.

I woke and he was in the shower and I felt like a cheap and nasty piece of nothingness as I lay holding tightly to the covers. I had done that with Jack and we had slept together, god what must he think of me? His face as he came to sit on the bed said it all for me.

"Good morning Ana, I have ordered breakfast, get a shower and we will eat, and then you tell me who Christian is? I didn't think you were dating Ana?" I oh-ed and then jumped in the shower, as he answered the door. I spent an age in there, and when I came out he was still in his robe waiting for me.

"Did I call you Christian? I thought I had dreamed that bit; I'm sorry really I am, but he was and is the reason I won't go all the way with anyone else." We ate and as we did he fed me some line and I fell for it, I then stupidly told him everything, he was shocked, amazed and shocked again.

"I'm glad you told me, it explains your need for solitude, and your need to be working instead of living. You blame yourself for your son's death, and you blame this Christian for leaving you. You were and are a confused and upset young woman, a brave woman and I'm sorry I pushed you into the rough sex thing I like, but I will wait, really Ana. We can wait, wait until you are ready, and are fully protected in the contraception department. Unless you want children, then I'm good with that too, I can't wait to be a father? However, we take this at your pace, last night was the last time we do that, until you are ready for more, and as fantastic as last night was and it was, I need the more from you, I want to be with you, I want to make you scream my name Ana and for you to love me like you do him."

It was when he said that I realised what we had done was wrong, and that I still wanted Christian. God, what had I done? I had promised Jack a year, and it would now be a very awkward year, because despite what he said, I didn't love him and I don't think that will ever be the case with him, he was too rough and he wanted things that were too dark, yet I had in a drunken state of stupidity I had given him access to my body. What sort of game was I playing? I was confused and in need of someone to talk to. We headed home and I was ashamed at what I had allowed him to do. What the hell would I do now? Jack carried on like that night never happened, something I was actually happy and grateful about. For the next couple of weeks we went for lunch and he escorted me to places, introduced me as his friend, he even came to a couple of competitions I was entered into, but true to his word he never made a pass again. We had a strange sort of friendship, but it was still a friendship, but was it blossoming into the more he wanted? I wasn't as abhorrent to the idea of more as I was after that night in our Swiss Chalet, time would tell I guess? I had feelings for him and he built the friendship up slowly and he could have been wining me over, slowly.

He taught me about the financial side of things too, the things I learnt and the connections I made would be invaluable in business, but with nothing personal happening between us, nothing more than just the odd hug and cheek kiss and yet over those weeks, I found I was actually falling for him, he had worked his way into my stone heart slowly. Such were the new feelings and respect I had for Jack and for honouring his promise to take this at my pace, I had finally decided that I was ready to move on to the next level. I think the time for my trying to finally move on from Christian had arrived. I was on my way to a competition and he was with his parents. I would tell him I was ready to try it his way when we got back, I'd perhaps make him a romantic meal, and then try to seduce him? I had done that once before, and I think I could do it again, this time with the promise of safe and protected sex. I had gone on the contraceptive injection the day Jack and I got back from our Swiss Chalet loved up drunken night out, but he often jokes that it was just the many bottles of wine and it was helped along by the dodgy hot chocolate, we'd drank, he joked that it was full of LSD, and we hadn't done anything, it was just good shit.

Jack was at his father's place in Zurich for the weekend because he was going to tell him we were seeing each other. This was a hard step for Jack, as he had been threatened with being cut off from his trust fund and losing his well-paid job, if he messed me around. I was on my way to a competition in Denmark, however I fell ill at the very last minute and I was escorted from the plane by the ambulance guys and my bags were unloaded, I had passed out after I was violently sick and had covered the seat in a vile smelling vomit, so I had no choice in the matter. I sent Natalia and the others ahead. She was entering the competition in a few of the categories and now would do mine too. I pulled up in my taxi from the hospital, I'd just got a bad case of the stomach flu and I was kept in for the day, but they agreed to let me sleep at home and I arrived just in time to see Jack's back getting into the lift.

Great he was home early. I'd freshen up, and then I'd go down and ask him to come for dinner with me. This would be the start my re-seduction of Jack Hyde. He'd waited patiently for me to come around and I had. I dressed for seduction, I did the hair, the makeup and as I looked in the mirror, I decide I was right and I was ready. I had tried to knock on his door a few times, then finally after several tries at doing it, after walking away and coming back to it I knocked for real. As I waited, I wanted to run away, I wasn't ready at all. I turned to walk away because he wasn't in, just as I turned the door opened and stood there with the smallest of towels around her was Annabelle, wet from the shower and smiling.

"The dinner isn't here darling, the doors for you, but the cooks here though." He came out of his bedroom in a towel, it was so obvious what they had been doing. I had been such a fool. How I stopped myself from crying and ripping him a new one I don't know? She was dripping all over his flat and making herself at home. I didn't want to give her the satisfaction that she had something I wanted. I was a stupid fool and should have gone with my instinct, that he would have never changed. I was just some stupid girl he hoped to screw, a notch in a bedpost and a distraction, and god was I stupid to think of taking that next step with him.

"Oh, I just came to tell you Jack that I am going to ask for a transfer to New York and will be heading there the first thing Monday. I know George wants to come here, so that will mean there's an opening in the school there, and well I think I have learnt as much as I can from you and James." Not though enough to watch my back with you, why did I not listen? His uncle and father had both warned me, yet I still had allowed myself to be led down the garden path, by smooth talking Jack Hyde, damn it.

"Anastasia Baby, this isn't what it seems like." Annabelle looked shocked, nearly as shocked as I was at her opening the door. She came behind him, her dressing gown barely covering her so obviously false boobs, and her trim figure. He had been there and I had been a fool.

"Why, what does it look like? To me it seems like two consenting adults either having an evening of each other's company, finishing or starting it in the shower. What concern is that of mine what you chose to do Jack, you don't need my permission? I noticed you when I got back from the airport and thought I'd come and tell you, before I send my formal request to transfer to your father."

"Ana, I love you; this really isn't what it seems like. I have needs and well Annabelle and well she serves those needs. I want to marry you, just you... Reconsider my offer Ana, please Ana?"

"I wouldn't marry you even if you were the only man left on the planet now, but less than ten minutes ago, you nearly had the answers to saving the House of Hyde, and I so very nearly made an utter fool of myself, again..."

"I want you, I need you, and I need to have what we had again please?"

"You wanted my name added to yours for nothing more than a way of controlling me, I very nearly fell for your crap Jack, thank you Annabelle for seeing to his needs. He is as you say a dark bastard. You make a good pair."

His evening delight wasn't that delighted now. Oh hell he was about to get a double whammy one off me and one off Annabelle. She smacked his head so hard first, and me? I just laughed, turned and went back to my apartment to book a two weeks holiday in Cascina, the family were on holiday at Nonna's old family home. I needed to get some sun and some good old style Nonna cooking in me. I'd nearly made the biggest mistake of my life. With my car packed and I was off. I had become really good at pack and go trips. Jumping in my car and driving this time Q, who was a pleasure to drive and took to the mountains and dirt roads wonderfully. My purchase of this car was one of my better judgment calls; she managed with ease the seven hundred plus miles, and with a straight drive through the night. I arrived in the early hours and well before Nonno. I decided on surprising him. I'd arrived at the bakery before him, and set about baking, when he finally arrived, I had made a great headway into the day's orders.

"Bambino, how long have you been here? Oh, this is such a nice surprise, Nonna was saying we need to come and see you in Brussels, oh my girl you look tired and we need to fatten you up, oh how we have missed you Bambino."

"I have two weeks holiday, and so I came home in my new car, what do you think of her Nonno? I need to re-charge my batteries and what better place to do it than here with my two favourite people in the whole wide world."I had yet more hugs all as we finished baking together, as I had done so many times in the past, word finally reached Nonna I was in the bakery, I'm almost knocked on my ass and kissed to death as she flew in the doors. She cried much to the amusement of the customers. She organised a very large party to welcome me back, there was plenty of food and wine drunk as I lazed around the pool and tried to clear my head of all the crap going on it, I was a fool with a capital F...

I had been there ten days and they were such relaxing days; when the horrible news reached me that John Hyde had died; he'd had a heart attack. James rang and asked for me to be in Zurich, before the end of the week. James was devastated, that his childhood friend and cousin was dead, and it had left him heartbroken. I needed to be there for him above anyone else he and Mr Hyde were like fathers to me. Jack, George, their sister Alice and Beatrice their mother are being comforted at home. My goodbyes are said, and I head for Switzerland and uncharted waters. So after leaving Q with Nonno because the family here needed a new car, I flew back to Switzerland. Surprisingly Jack picked me up at the airport; he took me to my hotel and then to dinner to discuss things. Apparently we had a lot to discuss and it was best doing it away from the family home.

"Thank you for coming back Anastasia. Firstly let me say that I am so ashamed at my actions with you. Annabelle was in the restaurant, and well I'd had a drink..." What's his game? He is up to something and I need to watch my back. He has that look in his eyes.

"...Stop right there, do not try to justify your actions by saying you only did it because you were drunk, admit what it was, admit that you needed sex, and as you weren't getting it from me you looked elsewhere. You are after all a red blooded male who needs it, don't try and justify it that way, simply tell me the truth. I was coming to your apartment that night, to ask you to take us to the next level, so had you waited who knows where we would be now?" He was ignoring me and as I looked at his eyes, there was no love there just greed and hate. Why did he hate me? "Let's not go there at this moment in time Jack; you have more pressing troubles ahead of you in the next weeks. You need to concentrate on that and the business."

"We've already have had the will reading and that was really interesting. Father has given you the rights back to the Lust range," I was shocked, "needless to say we are looking into that, as it is the biggest money earner within the company, and giving you that would be like giving you a big share in the company, hell it would be virtually turning the comapny over to you the fucking old fool has done so much damage doing what he has done, he has virtually ruined, what was our family business, one that has been with us for four generations Anastasia, you were not a part of it and now thanks to his senility you own the rights to our biggest seller."

"Had you been faithful, this would not have been a problem. Had you waited, perhaps we could have been family, as we had discussed in our many, many chats at dinner and in our hours spent together. I enjoyed watching television with you, like an old married couple I enjoyed those nights spent just cuddling, but I knew they weren't enough for you. I knew that and I didn't even think the afternoon romp I caught you in, had actually been the first time you had even strayed." His whole body was stiff and business like, but the words out of his mouth wounded me to my very core.

"It's a good job you were both called Ana... Or could be called Ana, neither of you would be best pleased hearing the others name coming from my lips both of you are two stupid sluts, you are a screwed up freak looking for love with someone who thinks you weren't even worth staying for breakfast with. Miss D'Acciaio I was just using you like you used this Christian guy, I needed a quick fuck and you were on hand; I got off lightly, because you didn't get knocked up again, boy he had a narrow escape and would be glad that the kid died." I hate him.

"To think I actually considered you a friend. I actually thought it could work me marrying you, wow talk about a close call."

"I would have married you to keep you in line, you're correct. The night we spent though enjoyable, it was just my way of getting even with my father. I enjoyed the pleasures you gave me, and you enjoyed what I did to you, but for me it was just that a pleasant night, making you fall in love with me, and one step closer to getting you to sign the damn contract allowing me the rights, as your husband."

Oh hell, he was using me. I was just the same as the other people he screwed for fun, how many times was I warned? Oh god I want to be sick, but I have to stay calm, I have a great deal of money tied up in this business, and though I trusted John, this man I didn't even know... His demands had begun and I needed legal advice and asked for a minute, I needed to regroup my thoughts. I took my purse and went outside. I made a call, after which then I returned to negotiate, armed with my own version of the will. My solicitor, he is a damn good one too and one who blames Jack for his brother's death. Pieter Hyde was only too happy to help me and stay with me as my lead legal counsel.

"So Miss D'Acciaio, we want your rights to the Lust range, because they have to be back with the company we can do way more with them than you. We want and need you to sign them back to the House of Hyde and for that we are willing to pay you what we see as a fair price, we will not pay you what you want for them, though George says you have been paid and once was enough and we shouldn't have to pay you again, this is something I am in agreement with. Alice and our mother though, they wish to honour our father's last wishes and together they hold the majority share so we have been outvoted. You do very well with the deal my father set up and I would like it to continue as before."

I was still shocked from talking to Pieter that I would have my Lust range back again, but Jack was right they had paid me well, and the House of Hyde could do more with the range than I ever could. It was too successful for me to handle, even I wasn't that naive and I knew it was better staying with them, but I also know other chocolate houses would kill for those rights and he knows this too. I also know they intend to re finance the places and the bank want to use the Lust range and rights as collateral, so without them they are screwed.

"I will sign them over to the company, but in return I want an increase in my share of the profits, and I want the House of Hyde and it's board to give their approval for me to negate the clause in my contract that states I cannot set up in or near your chocolate houses, as the four shops I intend to open in the next few months are all near your businesses. I want to open my own shops and run my own chocolate line, oh and I also want a seat on the board, to make sure you don't screw with my Lust range. My chocolate recipes are just that; mine. Now, and thanks to your father owning them and not the company, you have to pay me well to get them back and you will, because no one uses me like you did Jack."

"So you will be leaving us?"

"It was always my intention of doing so. Working for your arse of a brother and you, it isn't what I want, and working for two people I could never trust is never happening. I don't think I would be comfortable working for someone who is going to ruin the House of Hyde and you will. Nor do I want to be working for and with someone who used sex, and me to get what he wanted."

"You enjoyed the sex as much as I did, and I did enjoy the little we did, it was a pleasant way to spend the evening. Don't kid yourself, I was fantastic, even if you were a little immature and prudish, too prudish for me and possibly not as tight as I like my women because of your kids head came down that passage, so fucking you would be like slinging it in a bucket." I would make him pay for that comment and boy will he pay dearly. "You will get four shops, which are too small to meet our needs with the Lust range, should you sign today as a bonus and you will also get a further ten per cent of all profits, bringing you in fifteen per cent, but no seat on the board. You are not wanted." I didn't want to be with him here anymore he was making my skin crawl, and thinking how intimate we were less than two months ago, and what a fool I was for giving myself to someone I didn't love. "The shops are the one in Paris, the smaller one in Belgium and a small Antwerp shop, the one in the old diamond sector there and the old one in London, its hasn't done as well since we opened the large place there, so yeah you see what you can do with it."

"So, you're giving me the shops, in exchange for the chocolate rights? Hahaha try again; cut the bullshit Jack and stop playing lord bountiful, your father has already left me those shops, so you're not giving them me anything that isn't mine to begin with, are we ready to try again Jack?"

"I see me being 'generous' was a little short-sighted of me. I will admit they were to be left to you father. He owned them and not the company. Good work Ana, you were correctly informed, and I wonder who let you know that then, Uncle Pete?" Now he needed to buy the rights, this is where I will make him pay.

"Thank you Uncle Pieter indeed; he had a feeling you would try this, your father, so he made Pieter promise to guide me through your underhand dealings Jack. Now you have to make me a really great offer for the rights, but to save you the trouble of having anything to do with me ever again and for trying ways of swindling me again, this price will be for everything, the rights and no percentages paid to me ever again, because after today I never want to see you again. I want twenty million Swiss Francs putting in my Swiss bank account by close of business and then everything is yours." I knew he was to offer me no more than fifteen; would his pride take such a huge hit?

"Hahaha, I don't think so, five million Miss D'Acciaio, and not a franc more." I laughed.

"The price is now thirty million francs and I am only going to counter upwards on that settlement figure with every stupid offer you make me. You're not the only one to play someone for his or her own gain. You will ruin the company, you are not your father and never will be, so I get what I asked for now, or I take the rights and make myself the millions for myself. You had me believe that I had brought to the company far less than I did. Without my recipes you will be nothing and have nothing. I have my own money and can do what I threaten so don't push me, this little girl has finally grown up I will not be pushed around by you or anyone else again. Pay me for them or I take them with me and walk..."

I sat back and watched him squirm, not bad for a girl who started making chocolates in her grandparent's bakery and sold them off the back of her scooter. He shook my hand and left me a heck of a richer kick arse bitch. After all the legalities were completed and thanks to my kick arse solicitor, Mr Pieter Hyde, I owned four shops outright and for the first time in years I was now in charge of my own life, there were no teachers telling me my routines, no Nonna showing me how to do things. My trust fund days were over and I was my own woman, I was now mistress of my own life and through hard work and being used by Jack, and a nasty twist of fate, I now owned the first steps in my dreams of running my own chocolate creating and selling empire. I had a hit book out and funds to make my empire even bigger. The shop in Paris was the first one I looked at, I would make my base of operations here. I bought a Parisian flat and had my things moved there from Belgium and gave the flat I was given there to Alice Hyde as a thank you for her sticking to her father's wishes.

'The D'Acciaio House of Chocolate' was born in Paris and I got my groove back and I became harder than I was before, and with the help of my Paris shop manager Florence Clancy, I was shown a way to tame the rages I now had about trusting men and hating being used... After I told Kate everything, about Jack she was stunned into silence, a rarity for Kate. I still didn't tell her about Christian, after all I had decided that my stupid dreams were just that, I'd had what I'd had and there would be no more.

"So, the baby's father."

"Yes?"

"Will he, I mean, will he be a problem for you? I mean will Jack be able to hurt him, oh god what does Jack know about him?"

"He knows his first name and that he was drunk when I seduced him and that he doesn't know about my son, our son."

"Hell, not at all? That is some kind of torture Ana, how did you cope?"

"It has been a living hell Kate. I was eighteen and alone..."

"Wait eighteen?"

"Yes, what of it, I know I was young."

"No, I was just wondering, how do you claw back your sanity when a child dies when you are nothing more than a child yourself, your child died and I mean, you still had everything to deal with, your career, your father, your grandparents, shit how are you not a fruit cake?"

"I was already a basket case in regards to the father. I still am. I guess I haven't dealt with any of it, it if truth be told? I doubt I will ever get over the baby's death, just as I can't get over loving his father either. I would have him in my life tomorrow. If I could."

"First loves a fucking pain in the butt. Mine was chocolate, so I will never get over it. I for my sin work with it all day long, I work in the best place ever, first love heaven, well for me anyhow..."

"It is. Now, we have to go down, we have VIP's to show around the place."

"Are you okay Ana?"

"I will be. Now, put those smiles on and I don't have to ask you to keep my news to your self do I Kate?"

"My lips are sealed." We went down to face the press and the invited guests.

The crowd was gathering and they were being schmoozed by Jose, Mareena and Ramon. Kate and I joined them and took a glass of chilled champagne from the tray I was offered. It's a Charles Heidsieck Rosé Champagne, to a champagne connoisseur it is at best a passable drink, and to the non connoisseur it's the good stuff. I make my way around meeting and greeting the people Kate had deemed worthy of an invite. I myself just wanted to be here in the morning to bake bread and really shake today out of my head. I smile and I kiss cheeks, I see they are lusting after my chocolates and then smile because I remember I can have Lust back. Perhaps today was sent to remind me not all that happened back then was sad? I turn the corner into the bakery and the Greys are sipping champagne and looking around. Elliot spots me first and I am swept up and hugged.

"Long time no see Wisp. How are you?"

"I am great actually, I feel like a heavy burden has been lifted from my shoulders."

"Yeah, Chris said he has Otter Island. It's a bummer you had to sell it."

"I didn't have to sell it, but I had to let it go to someone who will love it in a way I cannot, I am not Papa Frank. Otter Island, that was his and Gram's dream not mine. I think it went to a good man, I hope it did anyway?"

"I will take good care of it Anastasia." Christian says.

"Thank you, now, you want to walk around and see where my magic happens I gather Mia?" She is silent. "Okay, have I got chocolate on my nose? Or is this fetching get up I have on Mia?"

"You are really here."

"Yes, it would seem I am. Come on inside, but I am afraid you all have to wear this get up. Those are my kitchen rules. Grace, it was lovely to speak to you earlier. Mrs Trevelyan, you haven't changed in all the time I have known you. How are you?"

"In love with your chocolates, now come and give me a hug. Theo sends his love. Now, have you been eating?" I snort.

"Ewe, you still do that Wisp?"

"I do Elliot. What's the matter with your sister is she ill? Mia are you okay?"

"No, she is awe struck. Mia, Anastasia is talking to you."

"What Mom, I mean pardon. I love the place. Is this the same as Belgium?"

"It is, I learned the best from the best and it seems they knew what they were doing, so I stole their ideas."

"They are failing Miss D'Acciaio; they were doing something iffy when I left."

"I know they were, and it nothing to worry about and please call me Ana. Now, walk with me." I watched Christian and smiled. I had to move on for my sanity, but having him here is hard. I can do this. I pass them their coats and hair nets and they slip out of their shoes into clogs. "They are all new clogs and we have a room where you can redo your hair and makeup, Kate here thinks of everything, I believe you all know Kate, oh and her brother here he is Ethan."

"Ana, it's looking good. Hello Mrs T and Dr Trevelyan, Elliot you goof ball and wow is this Mia?"

"You forgot about Christian." Elliot said and I smiled.

"Hi Chris, we saw each other this afternoon, so it hasn't been that long. Now, are you getting the ten cent tour, how are you sis?"

"Fine Ethan, did you get all the information I sent?"

"I did, we can discuss this later. Now, Mia I believe you are hoping to come and work for Ana?" She blushed. As Ethan turned on his charm.

"If I am good enough, I'd love to, its my dream to work with Ana."

"Well then Mia, you may get your wish, if you carry on being as good as James says you are!" I say as she fawns, this is a little awkward, would that it was her brother than I may be a little happier...

"Really Ana?"

"Yes, really. Now, these are the tempering machines, once upon a time long, long ago I used to do this by hand, now I have these beauties to make it for me."

"Can you still make it as good as you could at the castle Ana?" I looked at Christian, had he remembered the chocolate temptation and the whiskey kiss?

"Yes, in fact you have to learn how to do it manually before you use the machines."

"Wisp have you got a few marshmallows and a stick? Those are one hell of a set of chocolate fountains." Elliot asks.

"Mom, is your mouth watering?" Christian asks Grace.

"A little, Ana what are they making over there?" I look at where she is pointing and smile.

"They used to be called the Elegant Russian, now as I cannot make those particular chocolates anymore, I had to reinvent them, and so those are now called the Romanov Rose. I make them slightly different as you probably know; they are pink inside now and not white. Here, please have one hot off the press as they say." I watch as they all take one and I grin as they make those pleasing sounds. "Over here we are trailing the new Big Apple. Here please try one." Christian takes one and offers it to Mia.

"Well what does it taste like Mia?" He asks as he stares.

"Candy Apples, no wait, it tastes like Mom's Apple Pie. Christian here taste one, you love Mom's Apple pie."

"I do and I happen to know she gets the from the bakery." He says and I stare at him, how childish is this as we sneak looks at each other?

"I do not, well sometimes I do, when I am in a rush, but Mia is right they are wonderful." We are interrupted by Ethan.

"Look, I am sorry to love you and leave you but Kate and I have to go to the office, Ana will you join us later, please?" Ethan seems worried.

"Sure, give me half an hour and will be up." They head off to work out a price for Hyde's. I show the family around, and Elliot has more chocolate around his mouth than a kid in kindergarten. Christian has been right behind me all the way around and for once I am not as swoony as I was before, perhaps I am at last growing up, or could it be I am letting go of the stings of hope I clung to, of there being an us?

"Ana, Papa Frank would have been so proud. You have done it Wisp, you have made it big in chocolate."

"I am about to make myself the number one and I am already the largest artisanal chocolatier in the world. I am about to take over the House of Hyde, my old masters chocolate house and become Miss Mia's boss. That is if..."

"...If I get what I want from the deal this time. Hello D'Acciaio, how is business then?"

"It seems mine is better than yours, how did you get in Jack?"

"I have my name on the door. How else would I get in?"

"Well, our meeting wasn't until later I am showing people around. If you go with Jose here, I will be up presently to discuss the take over."

"If you say so. Lead the way. Oh she didn't introduce me, am her old friend Jack Hyde, we nearly got married once upon a long time ago. Who are you then?"

"We, young man, are the Trevelyan Greys, her grandfathers old friends. I am Grace, this is my mother Faith, this is my daughter Mia and these are my son's..." I jumped in to stop her telling him their names.

"...And they have to be going, the unveil of my new range is being done. I will see Mr Hyde to my office and will be back to join you. Okay?" I say, desperately trying to distance Jack from the Grey's

"Do you want me to come with you Anastasia?" Fuck no Christian, not now.

"No, no I don't Mr Grey, I will be back shortly."

"Christian, he is drunk, go with her." Elliot says.

"Elliot I know, that's why I was offering my help." Christian says.

"You are the one... Interesting... Anastasia, we it seems have business to discuss." I grit my teeth and smile. As Jose takes him to Mareena's office.

"Ana, have I made things worse, he said I was the one, one what?"

"I don't know the one from the paper? You never know with Jack. Especially when he has a drink."

"So you do know him then?"He asks.

"Unfortunately yes. Very unfortunately. Now what more do you want to see?" I showed them the packaging rooms and then escorted them back to change their shoes and remove their aprons and hairnets. I promised to be down as soon as I could and went to see to the fate of The House of Hyde. When I got up there he was cussing, it seems he knows I own his sisters and his mothers interest and since my talk with James Hyde, I own the twenty four percent of George Hyde too. I will not ask how these twins work, but hell they are good.

"So that's the baby's father then, your moo eyes gave it away Ana, so how much is my silence worth?"

"What do you mean?" Kate said.

"That Christian Grey's the father of her dead baby, of course..." I gasped and so too did someone at the back of me. I turned around and see the face of the same said man in the doorway.

" _ **I am what?**_ I can assure you Ms D'Acciaio-Lambert and I have never been together in that way before, I think you have been mistaken Mr Hyde and you owe Anastasia an apology."

"It's okay Christian, he is just being a drunken idiot, please don't take any notice of him, I am fine."

"Yeah I may be drunk, but ask her if what I said is true, she never lies about anything. She can't, it kills her to lie. Ask her go on and ask her..." He laughs as he points between Christian and I.

"I will ruin you Jack, ruin you, you bastard. Ethan get him out of the House of Hyde by any means possible Kate say goodbye to my guests, I have a migraine." I grabbed for my bag and I turned tail and got myself out of there before Christian had chance to realise I was going... I took off the white coat and kicked the clogs into the box and put on my shoes and headed out of dodge. I wouldn't actually be able to lie, Jack was right. I hailed a cab and told him to drive, and to drive anywhere but to drive. He was about to moan when I threw two hundred dollars at him. I picked up my phone and Kate had messaged me.

Katie K: Christian Grey is looking for you. Mad and wants answers. Jack flat on his back and missing a tooth or two.

Katie K: Ethan and I had already ruined him.

Katie K: Come back we need to talk.

Unknown: Anastasia, we need to talk. C.

Unknown: Your anger now makes sense. C

Unknown: We need to talk, I should have known. C

The number flashed on my phone for GEH. I stared out of the window, as the phone rang several times. The cab driver said someone was desperate to talk. I smiled because it was a pity I was not. I needed to let loose, I needed to punish someone and he didn't have to have gray eyes and copper locks, not this time, No, he just had to be willing and able to take my wrath.

"Take me to 8,18th East Street please." He looked at me and drove me to the bar. I looked at the screen and I had a lot of missed calls from, unknown and GEH and a new number and Kate and Ethan. He dropped me off and asked was I sure. I smiled and said I was. I rang the buzzer and a camera zoomed in on me. I heard the door click open and security guard showed me in.

"Welcome back Ms Steel. It has been a while are you checking in on your investment?"

"No, no I need a little more tonight. Can I have a blue leather bracelet please and a red disk?" He handed me the strap and I placed it on my left wrist, and placed the disk on the hook.

The leather and ribbon bracelets were indicators of what you wanted from the club without having to ask. Leather meant you were a member and ribbon meant the wearer was a non member and non members are restricted to the non member rooms.

Blue was the colour of dominance and ascendancy, so were worn by both a Domme and a Dominant. Red was the colour of subjection and servitude, and worn by a Submissive and both were worn by male and female alike.

There are people wearing a green bracelet, meaning they are switchers; they were both dominant and submissive, who liked male and female company and would and could change, dependant on who was asking them to join their party.

The ones wearing white were either here to learn or just to watch.

Orange were staff and are off limits for touching and for playing with...

If a couple were in for fun, they had on a gold leather bracelets meant they were here with their partner... I guess it was a kink thing Florence probably came up with it, much like a marriage band?

The added hook, which all the bracelets have on them to hold disks. The disks let the club members know what else the wearers were into; a red discs mean you were looking for a Submissive, the blue discs meant you were looking for a Domme or Dominant. There wasn't much call for a blue bracelet wanting a blue disc, because the Greedy Greens had that covered. Then there were varying colours of disks too, which indicated what else they wanted for their night, they were speciality discs.

I wore blue leather bracelet for dominant on my right wrist and a red disc. Wearing it on my right wrist meant I wanted a male submissive, if I wanted a woman I'd have worn it on the left. It is easy when you get into the swing of things; I laugh and think to myself, that would be a green bracelet thing, but for the price they pay for membership, and for as long as they abide by my strict club rules they are welcome to the greatest freak show in the world, the great world of erotic understanding and kinky fuckery, my secret world within the walls of Satin and Steel.

"The place is packed tonight, would you like to go through to the office Ms Steel?" Asked John Striker, head of security, he shows me into the main room.

"No, I am here to play not work. Is Florence here?" Florence Clancy is a seasoned Domme, and a friend who introduced me to this wild world and saved my sanity, she now manages New York's Satin and Steel for me.

"No, but she will be in later. Do you want a drink Ms Steel?"

"Yes please, could you get me a vodka and orange John? How is business?" He spoke into his sleeve.

"Improving, we have increased the membership and the new people keep coming back for more." I walked with him to the bar, the waitresses were in black leather skirts or shorts and barley there tops, but still tastefully hiding their assets, unllike some clubs I don't want my staff being a part of the members games. The heavily tattooed barman, Todd Tanner, now he could make a fortune being nude and I think he did, he is my Irish head barman and the bodybuilding ex male stripper, his bare chest was partly covered by a leather waistcoat, his muscles popped from beneath it, and his awesome tight backside is in tight leather pants which leave nothing to the imagination. Even his muscles have muscles and they had their own fan club. His fan club are usually the board housewife types with the rich husband. He still wore the orange, like the girls. I think he is a guy who if he were a member, would be wearing blue leather on his left wrist with a pink disc. He likes the female attention and his pocket must have at least a dozen names at the end of any given night.

"Your drink Ms Steel."

He hands me my drink and gives me that charming smile. I take the drink and turn on my stool. John leaves and Todd sees to the masses. I should go back to my hotel. However, I take my drink for a walk around the club and take it to the lower levels. I fican't find anyone that catches my eye and there are plenty to choose from and plenty with their red bracelets on the left wrist with the dangling pink disk. I head up to the communal rooms, where there are shows and demonstrations taking place. I watch a scene involving the St Andrews Cross and a Dom giving lessons on knots? I can tie a few mean knots and after a while I wander again, my head is in turmoil and I am too wound up to take anybody to a room, I may lose all my control. I came expecting to find some sort of relief from this pent up feeling of hate I had, but the need has left me and I decide to go back to the hotel. I head back up and I am stopped in my tracks, shit. He is here, Christian Grey is here, he has a blue leather bracelet on his left wrist, with a pink disk hooked onto it, well there's a turn up for the books...

"Anastasia..." I don't bow my head and stare at those gray orbs, holy fuck...

"Christian..." Oh crap a doodle my god there is nor Running from him now...

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What the heck... So now the back thing is done you may breathe a sigh of relief lol... He knows and wants answers. I guess you are either hsating me or the story now lol? Jack and Ana were never going to really happen, Ana wanted to get over Christian and failed... Read and review and for a few days I AM HAVING A HOLIDAY LOL I AM WORKING ON THE SUNTAN AND RELAXING A LITTEL XXX Besides I only did fourteen chapters lol...


	8. Chapter 8

By now you know this is not fifty shades it is all the letters of the AU- OCC things you guys understand and I do not, you should know how I write. HEA STORIES… and this will be longer than I was intending lol...

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Dreaming of Chocolate and Grey:

 ** _THERE IS A VERY EMOTIONAL FLASHBACK: TRIGGERS AND A TISSUE MOMENT COMING UP..._**

Chapter 8:

Quiet contemplation:

We meet head on as I am leaving... So what do we do first? Do I punch him on the nose and run again? I figure he is here for the same reason as me; he smiles and drinks his drink. He has the same swagger as the other Dom's in here and he looked relaxed enough for this not to have been his first visit to a dudgeon too. I look at his wrist and I gather from what I am seeing he is a bloody member? Leather means member... I should know that right, he is a member of my own damned club for fucks sake how did I not know this? My head spins as I take this in and that he is here he is right in front of me. Oh hell of all the things that could happen him turning up was never one I imagined…

"Can we talk Anastasia? I think we need to, don't you?" I must admit it is tale that will need some telling.

"It seems we need to. How did you find me are you having me followed Christian?"

"I was able to track your phone Ana, it's easy enough to do, you weren't answering it why?"

"Because I didn't want to face this, this talk, I still don't want to, so you can track phones then?"

"Well my team tracked it."

"And you tracked me here…"

"How do you know about this club Anastasia; I mean…"

"…I own the club. I have several as you know if you are a member, they are my side line to sweetie making, Satin and Steel, and all in the same places I have my shops. I see from your wrist you are not a visitor, are you a member, or were you given the wrong bracelet?" He grins.

"I am a paid up member and you; do you participate in the lifestyle Anastasia?" I smirk.

"No, I bought the club because I wanted to open a zoo, and this was as near to it as I could get." He laughs at my snide comment. "Why do you sound surprised, did you not check who owned it before you bought your very expensive membership here?"

"I have had security checks done on the place, yes, but it is owned by Rose Steel, so my seeing that you had entered the building, I was surprised."

"My name means steel in Italian and Rose is my middle name. It's not rocket science to work out. And as to surprises? I surprise myself all the damned time. Now we need to talk!"

"Yes, as I said that is what I am here for."

"I guess it's pointless my running?"

"You can try, but I will find you, especially now that I need some things explaining."

"Does your mother know you are here?" I ask.

"No, she thinks I have taken you home, due to your headache."

"How very gallant of you, now..." I say with another sneer...

"Now, argh is this with reference to that night we left the castle without saying anything?"

"Sorry, I guess you want to know why I, why I, crap, yes, it was all about that night?" I am struggling to get my words out now, what the hell is it going to be like explaining away his son, our son our baby? Fuck, I guess if I have to move on I need to let go of the past. My bloody expensive charlatan is right.

"I have been racking my brain for answers Anastasia, that's for sure. I did not know what happened that weekend. I was celebrating hard and I swear I do not know what happened I was a happy mess and drunken amnesia is to blame, I know you don't believe me, but I don't remember a thing."

"I gathered as much, despite me wishing you remembered everything you it seems didn't. Drink your drink and come back to my hotel, because we need to talk and I don't want to talk about my baby in a BDSM club." He looks shocked as I mention him, fuck…

"Your baby, so that was true then." I can't look him in the eyes and I don't want to cry in front of him, ever.

"Yes." I hear an oh fuck said under his breath, crap. I am going to have the worst time explaining this to him.

"So the part where he said..."

"...Yes, and yes he was yours, we had a baby boy together who I still do not want to discuss here." He drank the amber liquid in one gulp. "And, I'd prefer you were sober for the chat seeing as you wasn't for the conception." He looked at me like I had sprouted two heads.

"We actually fucked?" Oh hell he can't even remember that, boy you asked for trouble Ana and you got it.

"We did and we were very intimate."

"I don't remember Ana. I am surprised and humiliated that I allowed that to happen, I am a seasoned dominant, I should have known better. I am shocked that I had it in me to fuck anyone, especially you Ana."

"Cheers, I guess I asked for that."

"That's not what I meant. You were and are Ana, Papa Franks granddaughter and off limits and Ana, you were so much younger than me, I am sorry, so deathly sorry."

"I know how drunk you were and for my shame I was sober and took advantage of your drunken state of mind. Come with me please, I can't talk here, it is hard enough as it is."

"My car is outside. My driver will take us to your hotel unless you want to come back to my place? Where are you stopping?"

"The Peninsula." I take off my bracelet and throw it in the box, he does the same and I wonder why it is we are the same, why does he need this place or places like this? He isn't a screw up like me, or is he? He guides me to the black SUV and the guy from the airport opens the door.

"Thank you Taylor."

"Miss Lambert." He nods his head as I get in and Christian gets in at the side of me. Okay, this is not at all awkward. God why did I tell fucking Jack everything, you're a dumb suck Anastasia, because of your loose lips, that never come moment is now here and I am dreading it.

"The Peninsula Taylor." He looks at me and I want to jump out of the car and head for a cave and die. I am so nervous; I have to tell the man I dream of something that may or may not hurt him and impact on his life in a way I have to deal with daily, god I will fuck with Jack so hard he will not have a nickel left when I have finished with him.

"Sir..." We drive in silence to my hotel. When we get there I get out first and head in. Christian follows me in and the car drives off.

"Are you stopping?" I ask.

"I have an apartment on Fifth Avenue. I can walk home when we are finished."

"Okay then." We get to the lift and head in I press for the nineteenth floor."

"The Peninsula suite?" He looks impressed.

"Yes, I stop here all the time. It's sort of nice, I spent a ton of time here when I was searching out buildings, it's sort of a second home here in New York. I may even look at buying a place here when the takeover happens. The biggest of the starting schools is here, and they have a super huge factory. I'm sorry I talk shop when I am nervous. I talk about things I am great at, so's to hide the stuff I am crap at, obviously telling you about the baby, is something I think I will be crap at, it is hard to remember him, but to tell you about him is going to be the hardest thing I will have to do since having him." He sighs, I know that hurt sigh, I use it a lot. He is already wound up and trying hard to remember things, I can at least see that. His eyes do not hide much from me, he looks upset. I slap my imaginary self-upside of my head, he has every reason to be confused Ana…

"Its fine, I think? I'm a little nervous myself. I am sorry Anastasia. Truly sorry, had I known, perhaps things could have been different? I don't know what to say other than sorry and that seems so, I don't know, pitifully inadequate a word and a feeling to cover what I did to you?" He sighs.

"Umm, there were lots of things that should have been done. The things we didn't do and things that were done that shouldn't. Christian, stop apologising, it won't bring him back and apologising for something you didn't even know had happened isn't making you feel any better about this and it's, making me feel even crapper than I was before and that takes some doing. Here we are." We walk in and I take off my shoes. "Make yourself at home, the bar is over there, mines a vodka and orange, please. I just need to shower today off me and change. I won't be long, make yourself..."

"...At home?" I smile.

"Yes." Heading off to change I turn on the shower strip and climb in and quickly wash the icky from my body, dry myself and get into my baggy lounge pants and top and then head in with my hairbrush to tame my hair. He has poured himself some more of the amber liquid and I have a tall vodka and orange. He is sat on the sofa and has taken off his jacket and has rolled up his shirt sleeves. God that man exudes sex, from every pore. He has one arm over the rear of the sofa and the other hand rests around the glass on his crossed legs, he looks relaxed and calm, but how long he stays relaxed is another matter.

"Here you are, sit down here and talk to me, not over there. I want to see you when you talk to me." His voice is very stern like and it is almost an order, this shocks me. I stop walking towards him.

"I'm not a submissive Christian, please do not treat me like one."

"I am sorry, am I treating you like one?"

"Yes, a please and thank you are called for in polite company. I find you make more honey with sugar than you do with vinegar."

"Okay, I am sorry and I am a little nervous, Ana would you please sit by me. Now, where do we start?"

"What do you remember about the trip that year?" I ask, surely he has to remember something?

"It snowed, we saw some sheep I got drunk and when I woke up we were coming into land at Sea-Tac. That really is all I remember, I know you don't believe me, but Elliot told me a few things and still I have this three-day void in my life." I shake my head.

"So you don't remember me seducing you?"

"Nope, but Elliot said you looked hot, if that makes you feel any better?" I shake my head.

"No, not really, but I must remember to thank him at least he appreciated the effort I put in. Do you even remember coming into the kitchen and watching me make the chocolates? Drinking the whiskey, the kiss, my backing away, any of it none of it, all of it what?"

"None of it, Ana would you please care to explain why you felt the need to seduce me first?"

"Okay, well for years and years I had a crush on you and after years of trying to get you to notice me nothing had happened, I'd seen the package after the great screaming fit in the bathroom, after that I watched you and I had fantasised about you more."

"You walked in on me getting out of the bath. I remember that."

"What a pity I was only fifteen then and a mere child and nothing more could be done about it, but because you had morals and were not into children, you didn't do anything about my obvious crush on you." He looked at me oddly. "Sorry, in our world I see it a lot of older men wanting the Lolita thing, or you know women wanting an under aged boy, which to me is a sickness and is wrong and something I do not allow in my clubs, well apart from the baby fetish rooms, and that is something I will never grasp?" He laughs. "Anyway, Oliver and me we dressed to go to the party. I came down in full seduction mode and you couldn't take your eyes off me, you watched as I preened and pouted and it became obvious you at last had seen the adult Ana, you got very possessive when Elliot started to mess around and tease me, and then especially when Elliot mentioned the other guys going to the party, you then insisted on coming with us. You were still a drunken ass but you kept staring at me and giving me the eye and I was a love sick fool desperate to grab your attention."

"I did, how very unlike me."

"I know, Elliot told me you were an in the closet gay."

"I..." He stutters and I giggle. It was funny.

"...You are not gay, not with the kiss and the other things that we shared and you had already told me your family had never seen you with a girl, so Elliot and they presumed you were gay? I guess it's easier than saying you are a sadist and you beat submissive girls for your own pleasure, right?" He frowned.

"Yes, much easier Ana, if you put it like that I guess gay is the better of the options."

"I would guess your touch issues lead to some major trust issues?"

"Yes, you remembered?"

"Pretty hard not to when I peed my pants when you read me a scary story."

"I did?"

"Yes you were narked because you were told you had to look out for me, I was ill and you had to look out for me so Elliot could go to play golf. So you read me Little Red Riding Hood, but added your own words in it."

"It sounds like something I would have done back then. So the party, what happened?"

"You played the part of protective boyfriend, we sat in a cow shed, you told me about Sasha, the girl back home and I was mad as hell. The you said you weren't gay and kissed me to prove it, you then said you wanted to fuck me and fuck me hard and punish me for staring at you and presuming things about you, you turned into a raving sex fiend on the way back to the castle and I was swept up in getting you anyway I could."

"I did what? I said that to you, and why would you allow that sort of talk from me?"

"I wanted you anyway I could have you, so I agreed."

"What the fuck, you aren't kidding I see the look, fuck that was a major screw up on my part it seems. Where did we fuck, in the cow shed?"

"No, we rode the golf buggy back to the hotel and you finger fucked me all the way back and it was really good and we both really enjoyed it. In fact, we had to stop before I crashed the buggy, then I climbed on your lap and we kissed and made out until we both came, I have never been able to look at a golf buggy the same way again..." I was being very crass and hard. There's a surprise!

"No... I wouldn't, I mean could I, I mean did I? I what, fucked you in the open air and you allowed it?"

"No we only did the grinding and heavy petting and kissing, but god yes, my gridding on your dick made for quite the wet patch. You were insistent that I were not to stop, and I really thought I would be losing my virginity in a unique way. When I told you this fact, you sobered up a little. Then you asked which room and we decided on mine. You wanted to claim me, and make me yours, so we went there to continue the romp..."

"Ana, I don't remember anything, just tell me what happened. I may remember something." So I told it him from my point of view, what I did, what he did, the emotions I felt and what he said. My tale began, I told him all about that night, as I remembered it...

"Christian, you stripped for me..." He gulped as I tell him everything, every wonderful detail... That he moved his body in a way I had never seen a man move, he was mesmerised as I tell him I too remember that wonderful night of firsts. As he danced he seduced me with his singing and his stripping...

"You started it in my bedroom Christian when you said… 'You only had to ask Ana, do you want the full show." He hung his head in shame. I smiled, because he looked so sweet. I tell him what happened…

I watched as he removed his clothes, starting with the linen shirt, slowly opening the buttons and teasing me with a glimpse of his chest, and as the next button and the next were undone; I got a glimpse of what was coming my way. He undid his belt and slid it out seductively. Then emptying his pockets onto my dresser, he unzipped them and removed the shirt, which was tossed over the chair, closely followed by the pants and as he turned to face me he smiled and pulled down the underpants he was so very nearly wearing.

"You like, what you see Ana?" I nodded yes. He went to the loo and as he did I stripped quickly and tried to ready myself to seduce him more, I pulled back the sheets on the bed and I tried to strike a sexy pose as he freshened up, and as I laid on the bed naked, I suddenly felt too naked so the sheet came into play, to cover my nakedness. That was until I got my courage to be the vamp. He was at the end of my bed watching me as I flicked the sheet back and he saw me naked. He was stroking his length and I salivated watching him at play. I then flicked the sheets back revealing my body to him.

"Do you like what you see Christian?" He mumbled 'fuck yes' as he got in the bed. The mattress dipped where his knees had landed. He smiled as he looked at my body; he then leant down and kissed me.

"Very much so, you are so beautiful Ana. I will only ask once more. Are you sure this is what you want?" I pulled him on top of me. I think I answered his question, my wanton need for him was obvious, he smiled a nervous smile and he climbed under the sheet with me. The muscles in his arms flexed, as he held me. Then the sudden feeling of intense closeness to a man for the first time ever rocked me to my core, my senses were on overload and I was shaking, perhaps in relief he was there, or in anticipation of the happening or shock that it was happening, I didn't know why? Perhaps, because this man was the only one I had wanted to do this with, and I had dreamed about this very moment for years?

He over whelmed me as he began kissing me it was all so intense, he pulled me towards him closer and as he moved my hair, when he began his onslaught of my neck, the gentle nipping kisses and the tenderness of his touch was so wondrous, all done as his hands explored my body, we were both groaning as he did. I shivered at his touches and I'm soaking in the feelings, this was it, at last it was happening. I could feel him in every sense, his skin next to mine, and his erection against my leg as he lay on top of me; all whilst he was showering my body with those 'give me more kisses' I got lost in the sheer pleasure of being so close to the goal. My hands are in his hair, my tongue was in his mouth and I sucked his lips to mine, I was then hit by the sudden pain, he had begun his onslaught of me and with one sharp and hard thrust, he tore into me, ripping through my virginity.

"Argh Angel, please be gentle." He gathered me into his arms and whilst looking down at me he smiled.

"Shush Ana, this is so nice you're really tight, I need to be here with you. I can't say this is going to be my best effort, I'm a little drunk, but I wanted you when I kissed you in the kitchen this afternoon, I wanted you in my bed and my arms, I wanted my dick here inside you, this feels like its home, where it belongs." I shed a tear in either pain, fear or emotion, it was all going on and wow what a rollercoaster ride. He looked down as he slid in and out of me, each time it hurt just a little bit less. He was now pounding into me, and as he rose and fell into me, he murmured his thanks. Slowing down I'd grab him to me to hold him, so I could smell him, and then I'd try to kiss those lips, all as his pace quickened, the words he spoke turned into groans of satisfaction, he touched a hidden part of me that came alive with sharp tight fireworks exploding and I had the intense need to cry in relief.

I then received my first ever orgasm, I thought the ones in the buggy were it, but these were harsh and painful and well, it was a hard to explain emotion and feeling too. I know my body tightened and as I did, I cried out his name and for him to do it again, and to stop all in the same breath, because this was painful and exhilarating. These were damn strange feelings, they were painful yet pleasurable, and as I did I tightened around his dick, he cried out for me to relax and as I did I came, he smiled as he kissed me, he too liked what I had just experienced. Then more strange and exciting feelings began sweeping through my body, my sweaty hands were clawing at his back and his lips devouring mine, argh hell. Then I got the feeling that my flower was about to burst into flames with the heat he and I were producing, this was both strange and wondrous at the same time. I felt I was at any minute about to combust from within; instead the sounds came in the form of a strange, never spoken words, swear words, dirty words and sexy words that spewed from my mouth as he got quicker, my hands grabbed tighter holding him to me and as my pelvis moved with his.

"Fuck me Angel and hard please, this is fantastic, push into me Christian all the way, take me all the way, hard, argh whatever you just did do again, touch me, yes there…." We turned and rolled I was on top for a just a moment and holding my hands were on his chest, he'd then flick me over and we'd go at it like thunder and lightning, I feel the heat and the emotion, it is fast and furious, wondrous and amazing, it was all I had dreamed of and more. He began kissing my neck, and then he kissed the tip of my hard and sensitive nipples, then taking it in his mouth, he sucked harder. I remember the words like they were spoken yesterday.

"Christian, yes, yes, yes do that harder Angel, argh it's happening again, wow, please keep doing that…"

"Um, like I can stop Ana, you feel great are you all right? Wow, Ana God yes, you're tight, your killing me argh relax, oh hell fuck, who am I kidding this is the best place to be…"

He rose higher, and I got a long hard thrust that I'd asked him for, it rocked me to another crash of an almighty orgasm. Wow, how many of these do you get? It felt so nice, and as he suckled at my breast again, the movement in my flower changed, it was vibrating, and the pleasure I felt made me feel funny, light headed almost and I shook. I came, again and again, it was the strangest feeling and not like Ollie had described at all. It was the most wonderful feeling in the world. My heart raced and my flower heated, my whole body seemed to convulse into him and then I'm suddenly feeling an immense cold rush as though a chilled wave shot throughout my body. My body spasmed and hard again, and he called for me to relax and to feel him, and then a sudden burst of heat and for a few moment total darkness and whoosh my world turned black. I'm back and awake and I began shivering and shaking beneath him. He looked down at me.

"Ana, I'm coming Baby and oh hell hard too, oh hell yes, in or out in or out Baby, argh shit, shit, shit sorry too late, argh hell Ana, that was fucking amazing girl. You were… Hell, what was that?" He collapsed and I presumed he was now empty, from the feelings of warmth I had between my legs anyhow? He smelt so nice and as he held me closer his mouth came towards mine, his tongue in search of mine, he kissed me and I kissed him back, and as he did so he removed himself from my now mussed up flower. God did that hurt, more than the actual taking of me.

"I think that was the best vanilla sex, I have ever had Ana, that was damned amazing, are you all right?"

"That was the only sex I have had vanilla or any other flavour, and yes, it was pretty damn amazing." He turned over to look at me and as he did so the look on his face was one of horror, shit was I that bad?

"You haven't ever had sex before? Hell Ana, you were a virgin, and I was so rough with you, hell are you all right, oh shit?" Lots of swearing and oh fucks did nothing to calm me any!

"I'm sorry but I told you I was, was it bad, did I disappoint you. Christian, was it not what you wanted? I am sorry that I was a virgin, but I wanted you to be my first, did I do something wrong, you said you wanted to make me yours?" He kissed my nose.

"No Ana, but had I known I would have been a little gentler and slower and treated you differently, not that I have ever done that before, been someone's first, it kind of makes you special. No Anastasia, you were wonderful, and it was wonderful, get some sleep and we will do a redo, when you're ready to go again, but this time slower and easier, so you enjoy it more." He pulled me into his arms and held me tightly.

"I'm sort of good to go whenever you are, that was fantastic, thank you, I did enjoy it very much Angel, very much thank you."

"My Scottish goddess, is going to be a hard girl to keep satisfied, really you're ready again? Unfortunately, Ana I need a little bit longer, can we just do this for a little while, let me hold you in my arms and thank God you're here?" He looked at me and looked pained. I fell asleep for a short while as he emptied the scotch bottle we'd snuck from the cow shed...

"That's what happened Christian, believe me I remember everything, you said those words, when I woke up you were looking at me like a starved man and we made love once more, and I touched you and hugged you and we went wild, we had amazing sex, which I assumed we both enjoyed, then that was it, that was the night in a nut shell and yes it happened, I just lay in your arms. The after sex smell on you was amazing and you fell asleep too, when I woke because of the banging of a nearby door and a scream, you were gone. I waited for you to call and tell me what I had done wrong? I needed to know why you were so repulsed by me. I was a virgin and must have been crap at it, that's all went through my mind, that I was I too young, too inexperienced, and that I was just another of the wild oats you wanted to sow? Christian, I was heartbroken. You took something so wonderful and made it dirty."

"Ana, that was what you meant? God, I am sorry none of that makes any sense to me, the lovemaking and the touching especially, because I hate to be touched, yet you say you clawed me and pawed at my chest, you kissed me we made love and you watched me and touched me. You called me Angel and Christian, why would I let you do that?"

"You begged me to, you said I didn't make you burn, and when I kissed your scars you went mad, but in a passionate way, you asked me to kiss them all and with each kiss came a kiss from you and when I traced a heart over yours, and you made love to me again. Then we fell asleep and then when I woke you were gone." He got up and poured another larger whiskey. "It was that which made you drunk, the Whiskey Killer, it's in my Dark Heart range, and named after that night..."

"Ana, I can't believe this. When did you find out about the baby, and why didn't you tell me about what we did and what we made?"

"I tried to. I called Elliot and he gave me the number for Escala, your home in Seattle and your cell phone number. I called them both and the first time Sasha answered the house phone, so I slammed down the phone in disgust. I called you and I called you every weekend for weeks, but she answered all the time, in the end she said to stop calling you and she were living together and planning your wedding. So I stopped calling, she said you'd had your fun with me and she forgave you and she was going to be marrying you, so I stopped calling Christian. I thought you and she were an item and what would me telling you of our baby achieve? Besides catching you and trying to tell you was like catching moths with a tuna net. It was bloody impossible, and I did try."

"Sasha? No, I ended it with her a couple of months after I got back from Scotland, she was just so needy and I was not the type of man for settling down with her or anyone Ana, you really called me?"

"I really did, a lot. I guess fate had decided for us, you were never around to talk a call so, I let it go. I might add Sasha seemed like a fruit loop, if I could just add that, that was another good reason for keeping the baby to myself, if ever I needed a reason, if you had married her she would be my child's step parent and she seemed to have a few screws missing from the porch door." He laughed.

"You went through all that on your own though and I can't begin to imagine what that was like for you Ana?"

"Yes, pretty much alone though Oliver was good she was to be my birthing partner and came to my doctor visits and hospital scans when she could, but she was away travelling with school friends and then she had to start her tour of Europe, but then he came earlier than he should have, I called her and she rushed back from Paris, but she died before she got to the hospital." I sobbed for a while and his arm came in to comfort me, it was much needed comfort too.

"Tell me about it Ana; please, tell me about our son, if you can? I want to know what I missed, tell me what you had to go through, tell me everything and don't hold back I want the anger and the sadness too. I did that to you and I need to suffer too." He seemed to want to be punished too. Poor Christian, I did this to him.

"No you don't; you didn't know. I know that now, you were drunk, you were way past knowing what you were doing to a very strong willed girl. A girl determined to have at least one night with you and I got my damned wish. I blamed you for a long time and now I don't. I blame myself for loving you as I did. I was looking for someone to love me because they wanted to, not because they had to. You were just a crush that I fed with my stupid fantasies Christian, and that wasn't real, it was not real. None of it."

"The baby, he was real though, tell me about my son Ana please? And if it makes you feel any better I did notice you, but you were too young, had you been older had things been different we…"

"No, don't try to make me feel better, it won't work. You and I were never meant to be together like that, that's why I did what I did. I was always used to getting my own way."

"No, I promise you I noticed you. I just didn't think of you in a sexual way, does that feel better?"

"Platitudes do you no justice Mr Grey." He smiled.

"Stop putting off telling me about our baby Ana, please?"

"Okay but I will cry, just let me tell you and then after I have told you every gory detail, you can ask me questions, if you have too, okay?"

"Okay." I drank my vodka and filled it up again and poured him another. He patted the sofa and I sat next to him and felt like the end of the world as I knew it was about to end. "Ana, just tell me, start with when did you find out you were pregnant?" He sipped his whiskey, whilst I chugged at the vodka.

"When I found out I was pregnant it came as a shock, I wasn't feeling well at college and Ollie jokingly said had I been knocked up by the castle's ghost? I of course hadn't told her I'd used you as a drunken one-night stand, and stupidly I figured rather naively actually, that you couldn't get pregnant the first time you had sex, but what do you know, you can? I went to the chemist store when I did my weekly shop and I realised I hadn't restocked on my lady stuff and well I went to the next aisle and grabbed a few tests. I got home and threw them in the drawer. I walked past them for a couple of days and then bit the bullet and took the damned test, all six had the damned lines on them and I sat paralysed in fear. I didn't have a clue who to tell. I carried on at college and then I was throwing up and Ollie guessed. She didn't ask who, I figured she knew it was you. She said to tell the daddy and I bit the bullet, and after hours of trying to get you at work, I got your number from Elliot, the ladies at GEH were none too helpful!" He nodded his head. I guess he has someone fielding his calls as I do?

"I called the house, as I said and Sasha answered, eventually I said I was from work and needed to fax papers through, she said she was making you dinner and when you were able you would ring the office. I didn't ring back for a week or so, because she was very nasty with me about interrupting your romantic dinner, that was after the third call that night. The week after she screamed at me the master was hers and I was to leave you alone, she called me Leila and told me she was your submissive and you loved her. I now know what that means; however, I didn't at the time. All I knew at the time was that I was alone and pregnant with a stranger's child growing in my belly. I couldn't do anything about it, and I certainly wasn't going to get rid of it, because it wasn't to blame. Then I got two text messages from you, and you told me to stop calling you were getting married. The second one said I was getting nothing from you. The third a week later said if I rang the house again you would make me pay? I had put the phone down a lot like a stalker I guess?" He shuddered.

"Let me just say I have no idea what you are talking about, I never heard from you or sent you any messages. Sasha must have copied your number and taken it upon herself to talk for me. I am sorry. Please carry on." I sipped the vodka and sighed. I hated him after those messages and hated myself for being so damned wrong about him...

"I managed to hide the pregnancy from my grandparents, because after Papa Frank had the stroke, they were worried about me giving up everything to care for Papa Frank, so I agreed to open up Papa's home in California and they moved there were the sun was supposed to be better for him and the care he got was brilliant. So they decided to let staff run the bakery and they move to America to care for him for me, so I could carry on with my dreams, they have family there too so were happy. Of course they wanted me with them, but I had to finish college and plan for my trips. It was pretty easy hiding the baby away as I wasn't eating and well didn't look any different for the five months they were around, when I did come to America later to see them, they put my weight gain to my overeating, as I eat when I am stressed?"

"Where did you live whilst this was going on Ana, were you alone?" He asks and he looks worried.

"No, I had my father's home in Soho, the big London house he had before I died, so I lived there, it was gated but even with the gates, it was not the best place in the world, his fans a little erg, lively. I had a housekeeper, Jenny my old nannie at the castle and she then moved to California to help Nonna and Nonno with Papa Frank, I had to send her away the baby was getting bigger each week. I was like an elephant at seven months." He looked at me with pity eyes again.

"I know you said not too, but when did you get a professional opinion on the pregnancy, please tell me you did get some care from someone?"

 ** _(Trigger warning!)_**

"I went to the hospital for scans three weeks prior to my grandparents departing for LA and everything was great, Little Christian was a bruiser and a lively little baby, he was active and made me laugh when I sang to him. I went to see them religiously, that was until I was seven months and half months! I kept all my hospital appointments and was happy doing my chocolate thing at dad's house, I'd just sort of kept myself locked away until I'd finished college, then when I finished, instead of vacationing with the olds, I told them I was on a course. Instead I stopped inside and played the piano and wrote and worked on more recipes, I went to see my grandparents in the beginning, but when it was too hard to hide I had to stop inside, can you imagine the press, Larry Lamb is to be a grandfather? I generally did nothing but go mad with all the what if scenarios. I had a scans done at twelve and twenty weeks at the hospital and the one at thirty, when I found out he was a boy. They were all clear and great. Here I have them." I went to my bag and took out the well fingered scan photos and pictures of him, I passed them to him, he followed my well worn path around his son as I do all the time, and he cried too.

"I went to the doctor on the Monday and all was fine the doctor said I should hear from the hospital in the next couple of days about another scan. I got the damned letter on the Thursday, and on the day it was due too, so was in a mess with timings and stuff, and to be honest with you I was a little more worried than usual, because he usually spent time pissing me off and bouncing on my bladder and he had kept me up doing somersaults all night, but for most of the morning he had been quiet, I figured perhaps he is tired too, I know I was really tired too, he could keep me up a lot your child." He smiled; he won't be for long, I think? "Arriving with the file on my baby's progress, the one I had from my doctor? This one." I passed him that so he could see I had done my due diligence with our son's care! "I was shown into a room, blood works were taken and a whole array of tests were done and my questions answered. I was told to go to the ultrasound department. I sat drinking the required amount of water, and as I rubbed the lump that had sprung from my body I wished it had been different, but it hadn't." I didn't have a heart anymore because you'd broken it Christian. I thought, but did say. I did not want to vent my own anger at him. I was depressed and sad, but not vindictive!

"I was called into get the latest scan done. A warm gel was applied to my belly and after several sweeps of the wand thing and a fiddle with the screen and buttons, the technician smiled and made a phone call. We were joined in the room by another technician, after several looks between themselves, they asked for the doctor who had examined me earlier to be called to the room. I was now worried because nobody had spoken to me in ages. As the doctor looked at the screen she sighed, sat on the bed and held my hand, that's when I knew what was coming wasn't good news." I drank the last of the vodka. I wiped my eyes and took a deep breath.

"Christian it was then I got the news every mother dreads getting... She said, and she said it like it happens all the time," I mimicked the snooty doctor, "Miss Lambert, I couldn't detect a heartbeat when I did the initial examination and it's as I suspected, you have suffered an intrauterine death. I'm afraid your son, has died, the baby you carry has stopped breathing. From the clear picture his cord is tightly wrapped around his neck." I cried again! "Hearing that Christian was the hardest thing I have ever had to hear, I stared into the ceiling and I screamed and cried and I mean really cried. The tears and the stress poured from within me. I got up from the table and as I fell, the other nurse in there caught me." Christian was now hunched over, with his arms laying on his lap, he was staring at the scans and the tears were falling. I wanted to stop and hold him as he wept, but I carried on before I clammed up.

"I remember hearing the words and thinking is it me they are talking to, or some other unlucky bitch, but it was me Christian, I called Ollie and she set off and promised she would be there." I zone out trying hard to fight back my urge to vomit, I calm myself and mimic the doctor again. "The doctor came in and was snotty again with me. 'Miss Lambert, we are going to have to admit you, to deliver the child by induction, you may wish to wait and allow nature to take its course and the baby will deliver naturally in the next couple of weeks." He looks at me and looks shocked! "All that was going through my head was 'I had to do what? I had to do it that way and why?' I was livid that they just couldn't put me under and do what they had too."

"What, what did they do, Ana? Did they did not give you the sleep option an operation a caesarean, they offered you nothing?" I shook my head no. "What did you do Ana, tell me please?"

"I had chosen for them to start right away, I couldn't wait to deliver our dead son naturally, so they said they would drip feed me stuff and I then had to go through the agony of waiting and knowing he is dead inside me, and that I would get nothing at the end of it, because come what may, I still had to deliver our child dead? I asked several times could they not do a caesarean, why would they willingly put me through the agony of that, that it was a thing to do, it was not right, I asked are you all monsters? I screamed; I was afraid and alone. I called Olivia and she said she was on her way. I very nearly called you too." He grabbed me so tightly and cried. I held his copper head and ran my fingers through his hair, he was distraught. Poor Christian, I did this to him.

"What did the doctor say, did they give you drugs or something to help you or were they total monsters Ana?"

"She, the doctor was an old witch and hated single mothers, I was sure of it. She said, and yes, I remember it like yesterday because it felt like a kick in my gut, 'Miss Lambert you are too far advanced for a dilation and evacuation, you are not unwell, and though tough this will help you as part of your grieving process. Many mothers want to deliver and experience child birth, and given that you only felt the child kick a few hours ago, you will be numb and in shock, but we will wait to start the induction, but we do recommend you have it done as soon as possible." Christian, he looked shocked and I was shocked that he was shocked.

"Really? Can I hug you or something I don't think it's even for you but for me, please Ana?" I hugged him and he wept. Had I managed to tell him I was pregnant back then, he would have been far worse, because I was a basket case. I hugged him and as I rubbed his back he took a deep breath in.

"Ana, you are touching me."

"Sorry, but this is what a hug is."

"Okay, but it doesn't hurt me, sorry please carry on with the... You know the tale of his birth..." I withdrew my hands from his back and he looked puzzled, and sad.

"I told her that I wanted it over and done with, I wanted some closure on this, and I begged them to make it go away as painlessly as possible. I let them do what they need to do, and I got on with it. I wanted to get to the grieving part and carry on with my life. I need to do that Christian; I had to, because he needed to be out of me and the sooner the better. The kind nurse sat with me as the induction began; the pains went from gentle to excruciating, all the time whilst feeling those pains, I was hearing babies crying, parents happy laughter in the corridors, the sounds of congratulations from families. The other women's screams of no more no more, their laughter, their tears, their swearing. The night midwife in training, she even went to see if they would move me, just so I didn't hear the babies crying, it was like Chinese Torture. There should be rules about inflicting that sort of mental pain; it was just too cruel, she said so too. Had I known what I would be going through, I would have gone private and done what I wanted, but the doctor, though harsh, she was right, I needed to do it this way, but that took me ages to figure out, but I did eventually see it from her side, eventually!"

"Was it really bad Ana?"

"It wasn't happening to me; the drugs were amazing. I took whatever they threw at me because my natural birth that was planned, it went out the window, because what I went through wasn't anything like natural. I was hardly going to do our baby more harm taking them, so I did. They made everything seem like a dream, very calming, the room was then quiet and surreal, the sounds and sights of my room they were strange. The bright light of the afternoon sunshine changed to the darkening sight of the evening, and then the pitch black of night. The lights were low, and it was eerie, there was a deathly silence, because nothing good was happening in there, and as the pains became worse and more painful, I turned into the pillow and cried, it hurt, it really hurt. I was in pain, delivering my son and it took eighteen long painful hours. Then I heard the words I was dreading... 'Miss Lambert you're ready to push your baby out, the next contraction will be painful, and you will want to stop but push, please push and as hard as you can and we will have this done as soon as we can, you have been so brave.' The pain was horrendous, and I screamed through clenched teeth as I pushed, pushed, and pushed, and then suddenly the pain stopped, but just as I thought it was over, the new pain was like nothing I have ever felt before, and then I started at last to scream at them. Get it out, get it out, please stop this and get it out. Please help me get it out now." I sobbed with Christian and as he hugged me we seemed a little at ease with each other, what I wouldn't have given for this back then?

"Ana I am sorry. Please forgive me?" I combed my fingers through his hair as he hugged me.

"I do forgive you; I think I always blamed myself for his happening, you were just my scapegoat and my punch bag bad guy!"

"What happened next Ana?"

"He arrived, in between a mass of screams and my cursing your name, god I called you so many horrid names and thought about calling you so many times that night, if only to vent at you when I had a bad contraction."

"I wish you had, god how painful was it?"

"Are you serious?"

"Yes deathly." I looked at him and laughed.

"Let's just say try pushing out a melon from the end of your dick and see if you scream." He gulped.

"It hurt that bad?" We had one moment of laughter.

"I have never felt pain like it, or I thought I hadn't until I heard the doctor say, 'Babies head is here, and the next push Ana and it will be all over and done with and you can rest darling girl, you should be feeling the need to push, now.' Her hand was on my belly and she helped push him out and she was right, the scream I let out announced the arrival of our son and believe me that was the melon and penis reference, it hurt like no other pain, but unlike the other mothers I had nothing to look at to easer away that memory as most mothers do. Instead I wept as the nurse took the bundle away with her. As I cried the nurse brought the baby to me, but for some reason I turned away. She told me what had happened like it happened all the time, I guess in their line of work they have to expect the unexpected? 'Your son died because his cord had wrapped too tightly around his neck; there was nothing you could do to prevent this at all Anastasia; he is such a beautiful little boy. Anastasia; do you want to look at your baby?' Instead Christian I turned away and cried; I still needed things done to me to clear away the mess and everything else and as they did that the nurse took pictures on my phone, they are not the best, but she took these pictures of our baby. Loads of them, you have them, here." I'd passed them all to Christian...

"What happened to him, where is he?" I sobbed as he asked the question I feared the most.

"I had to register him as a still birth, because I couldn't have our son buried, not without the paperwork, it was also when she asked, 'does he have a name?' She looked at me with such pity and sadness in her eyes. I just said Christian D'Acciaio-Lambert. I asked would he be all right? Where will they take him? I screamed that I didn't want him alone and cold. I didn't want him alone Christian, I was a confused mess. I screamed at her to please make sure he is not to be alone. I asked her could I register him and take him home, straight away, to be buried with my family so he didn't need to be alone for long. She was very good, she said she would make some calls as the registrar was still in the hospital, she said he may be able to do the paperwork for me. She brought him a teddy bear that was bigger than him so he was not alone, she was an angel and calmed me. People came in and checked him over as I lay there stupefied. It was a bad dream. I was in a living nightmare Christian.

All the while I watched the thing they had him in and hoped as they touched him and looked at him I prayed for a miracle, I waited for him to start crying and to prove them all wrong he was a fighter like me and strong, but he never did, he didn't do anything but be there. The registrar came in and took my details and filled in the paperwork with the name I had chosen. With the certificates and paperwork exchanged I was told I could go home. I lay there for a while and looked lost and though I wanted to look at our baby, my heart would break if I did, I got dressed and packed away my things, but as I turned to leave the room, I saw the lonely little bundle in the cot, wrapped in blue blankets and ran, ran to him to see my son for the first and last time. He was perfect Christian and such a beautiful baby, with everything there... Why is he dead, why did he die, what did I do that meant he had to die, was it because of what I did to you? It's all I think about; he was my punishment for what I did to you?" Christian now hugged me and as he did he stroked my cheek, a tear fell and my heart shattered, it was then we both cried together, hugs and more hugs are given. I felt total comfort for the first time in over seven long years.

"What was going through you head Ana. I mean besides hating me?" He was gently sobbing and my heart broke all over again, it was like reliving a nightmare. Only this time poor Christian was suffering and more than me I think?

"That I was leaving him alone like some forgotten rubbish waiting to be collected, it was then I think I finally realised that he really was not coming home with me, and I was leaving him there alone, I sat there with him for hours and hours touching him and prodding him to wake him. The mortuary and the funeral guys were great, the nurse had called them for me and they treated him like he was the most precious thing in the world. Instead of a bag he was put into a blanket and carried to the room they kept him in. On my way home I brought him the most beautiful christening gown to be buried in, I delivered it the day after to the funeral home and stopped with him a little longer, I went home again and I continued to drift in and out of reality. I slept: I cried, I slept, and I cried some more, then the next day I found out that Olivia had died too and I had to do more crying and lost then lost the plot a little when the people that be said she, Olivia, couldn't be flown to America, and that I had to have her buried in England, and all because bloody Olivia wanted to be buried not burnt. So I made the sad choice to have them buried together. On the day of the funeral I washed and I dressed: I followed Olivier's foster mum and dad around like a lost lamb because we were the only people there, I got in cars, I was spoken to and I cried a lot, that's all I remember. In fact, the whole day was a muddle, until those two white coffins were gently lowered into the ground, my life changed Christian because I'd lost two of the most important people in my life. I sank to my knees and prayed at their graveside. After that I decided never to fall in love again or have another child ever. I couldn't face that again. Losing Christian, it was my punishment, my burden and mine alone, not yours Christian you did nothing wrong it was all my doing."

"Ana how can you be so forgiving of me? I have no words only sorry and even I am fed up of hearing it. I left you with nothing but sad memories. I did turn something beautiful dark and dirty. What else have you but bad memories?"

"Christian stop it, Please? I know the next few days are going to be hard for you, but I have my ways of coping, my locket and the photos, help me."

"Your locket?"

"As I was leaving, to go back to work and to study in Italy, I noticed a box on my bedside table, as I opened it I cried. It was a gold locket with his name engraved on it and in it was Christian's hair, the very tiniest wisp of a dark curl and his photo, in the box were his certificates, along with his foot and handprints and more photos and a note from Olivia's mum and dad, they had done this for me. It was quite short, sweet and loving in fact and as I read it, I knew I was doing the right thing, I got out my locket and the box and he read the letter. 'Never forget you had a child, the days and night will be never ending, but I promise it will get easier, but not right away. Your son is playing with our daughter in god's nursery, and she is now helping with all the other born too early babies. You had a child Ana; remember that and remember that he is just waiting for you on the other side.' You see it turned out they fostered because their children were playing in the same nursery, she promised me it would get easier and each day I ask is today that day, and no its not, one day I will wake and think of him less today is not that day and now you too will have the same thoughts Christian and for that, the hated word I am sorry is said again." I took the locket from him and that led to more tears.

"Ana, I am so fucking sorry."

"Thats an old record and the sorry bit is scratched. I've played that record so many times. Christian when it all comes down to it you only know now because I was stupid and trusted a man who used me. He hurt you and for that I am sorry, because there was never any need for you to know Christian. Had I not been the megalomaniac chocolatier, you would still be in the dark, blissfully unaware of the new sadness in your heart. Are you mad sad and angry like me and with me?"

"No, I am mad at myself for losing control."

"Well I guess we move on and try to put this behind us once and for all and get back that control."

"I can't Ana; I have a son I knew nothing about." He shouts, at last some emotion, an emotion I can handle, anger.

"Blaming me is fine, I can take it. I have strong shoulders and know how to handle disappointment and hate."

"Ana, I am not blaming you and I could never hate you Ana, ever. I am blaming myself, I seem to have changed into someone else, when we, when we..." He struggles to speak.

"When we fucked? I know what you are saying, you were funnier and nicer and you seemed to need to be free from something, I took what I could get from a man with control issues and played him like a fiddle when his defences were down, but I guess alcohol can do that. It's an inhibiter; it's why I can touch you now, because your defences are down. I was shocked you could even do it drunk. But you did. I was also damned jealous of this Sacha getting you all the time too."

"I don't drink when I have sex ever, usually Ana. I guess you know she was my submissive, now?"

"I do now, but back then I didn't I didn't have a clue as to who this blessed Leila was or why the loopy bitch called you master, I know now, now that I am versed in kinky fuckery Mr Grey. I don't drink when before I enter a room or into a scene. If I have a drink inside me, I don't trust myself not to be too harsh, too cruel. Which I can be, but some people like that, but I don't, because I need to be in control all the time."

"I trust you Ana, I think I always have done, because when you were little I didn't hate you being around me and when you touched me it was different, it was a different pain, but I trusted you Ana, but was afraid of you too, you know, because I didn't know why your touch, you know, it made me feel differently? The drinking made me forget everything that was wrong in my life, I'd had a very hectic few months and business was great, but my private life had hit the skids, and to celebrate work and commiserate life I drank with Elliot and that is always a bad thing to do. I have never been as drunk since, because despite all my years of training I lost control, but I think I needed to and for doing that, it led to the forgotten weekend and I am sorry, and so I was to blame Ana, me and a whiskey bottle too many."

"Whoa, you are not to blame, it was nobody's fault but mine, and how and why do you trust me? You don't know me Christian, so why would you trust me now? I stalked you and fantasised about you like a mad woman, I am wackier than the nut jobs who still mourn my father and follow him. I call them when I am worse than them... You and I share nothing other than those moments in my dreams and nightmares, yes, we had an accidental son together, and that was all down to me. You and I are strangers and I'm sorry to say this, it's taken me a long, long time to realise that. For years you were all I wanted, but deep down I knew it was just I don't know, a childish wish for you to notice me, like I noticed you? I guess telling you about him, has just freed up some of my crowded head, because keeping him a secret was hard."

"Why did you not come to see me, you said you called, so why not come and see me Ana?"

"I tried once and the lady on the reception desk, she said you were booked up for months and to go away because I was making a scene. I gave her a card from Otter Island and asked her to take it up to you, that you were a friend of the family, she sneered like she heard that all the time. She still insisted you were away, then I had a hell of a wobble actually and I was escorted from the building. I didn't believe you were not in your office. I waited to see if you left the building and you didn't I got fed up of bothering after a week. After that week in Seattle I didn't bother, what was the point, your people looked after you well and hid you away? So I decided to shield you and the world from my stupidity too."

"Why?"

"I knew you were drunk, and I paid the price for making you do that to me."

"I am surprised by my actions. I was very guarded about women and sex back then. I still am, hence me being a member of your club. I don't do normal Ana. I never have."

"Snap. You and I are so very different, yet so much alike, control freaks and manic ones at that. I do it my way because having sex, it's dangerous, I tried it once and it got me in trouble." He smiled. I made a fucking joke... A bad joke but I made one.

"Ana, what do we do now?"

"Nothing, you go your way and I go mine."

"I still have questions, like where is his grave Ana?"

"Brompton, they are in the royal cemetery at Brompton on Fulham Road, why?"

"I am in London next week, if it's okay with you, I'd like to go?"

"If you want to, I can't stop you. I actually find it very peaceful there and being next to them. I never want to leave if truth be told." He leans in and we hug. I would have welcomed this before, but now, now I think I have finally let go. I have grown up and moved on, and all it took was sitting down with Christian and telling him how I felt and the truth about our baby. Who knew? He looked at his watch and noticed it was late.

"I have to be going Ana. I have a lot to think over. I truly am sorry."

"What the head doesn't know, the heart can't grieve over, or so they say and I am sorry because you feel as shit as I feel and that was never my intention, I swear it wasn't. I will always love you in my own silly arsed way, but we are what we are, old once a year holiday friends, who happened to get into trouble once upon a time." He murmured something I didn't catch and he gave me a business card. Really?

"If you need anything Ana, here is my card and that is my number, nobody else's, it will come straight through to me."

"Thank you, but I think I will be fine. Have a nice trip." I took the card and pocketed it.

"It's business. There is nothing nice about living out of suitcases Ana."

"Been there got the tee shirt or so they say. Here I will see you out. Keep those I have loads. I made copies." He looks at the photo again before placing them in his jacket pocket. I walked him to the door and as he left he gave me a hug and kissed my cheek, this time there were no fireworks, no shooting pains to my flower, nothing. I watched as he headed for the elevator as he got in I shut my door and slid down it and cried... I am finally over Christian Grey...

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thanks for the p.m.'s and reviews, Read review and get back to me on what you think? I now hate the word sorry lol…


	9. Chapter 9

As you all know by now I love Christian and Ana, and that's where the semblance of anything seriously fifty shades ends lol, I also don't do chocolate books but may do at the end of this… I only do HEA, though I do try to tease you with uncertainty, but gave up in like chapter three… this was meant to be a shortish story however it may run longer… Might…

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Dreaming of Chocolate and Grey:

Chapter 9:

Christian's Realisation:

Leaving Ana's hotel room and I am numb, numb with grief and lost in a world so alien to me, that it's terrifying. I am Christian Grey Master of my own damned universe and now I am nothing but a weak mess of hurt and anger. I am having feelings I have never had before and they hurt, what the hell must Ana have gone through alone? Yes, she knew what she was doing and on some level I must have known, hearing her tell me how I took her innocence like that, it floored me on so many levels, one I did it without restraint, two without protection and three drunk. I didn't even know if that were possible, but it must have been... Do I doubt she had my baby? No... Am I angry that I did not know about him? Yes... Do I blame her? I get to the lobby and ponder that thought again; do I blame Ana? No, I do not. I wish I could remember but I cannot. Finally knowing why she felt such annoyance and anger towards me, makes sense, what doesn't make any sense to me are these alien feelings I have, it has me at a loss as to how I feel now I know her reasons. What should I do? What can I do? I can't turn back the clock, would that I could.

She says that she tried to get in touch with me; she tried several times in fact. I don't doubt she spoke to Sasha; she was the clingiest of the women I have employed and by far the most deranged, Suzie and Leila's adventures into getting more from me pale into nothingness compared to some of the things Sasha did to make me terminate our contract. I need to have Sasha traced. When last we did the 'stock check' as Welch calls them, she was in Japan, with her husband and two children. She has her two boys and she robbed me of having mine. Mine... My son... Had I known about him, he could have still been with us, I fucking hate Sasha, so fucking much right now, she is going to pay and when I have finished with her she will be broke and so will her husband, who has made them even more money living of her hush payment. She was bright enough to know the NDA was nothing more than a worrying worthless contract, as she clearly stated when I ended our contract, as she said what was I going to take from her, her used car, clothes, trinkets and jewellery, when all said and done she was right? So after she was warned that the photos I took as an extra insurance would hurt her and her chances of being taken seriously as an attorney, Sasha was silent for a couple of years, then she penned a book, which she sent to Andrea my PA, who gave it to me and I was forced into paying for the rights to the fucking book, she was smart enough to do it all legally, she changed Grey to Silver and Christian to Christopher, big changes indeed, Andrea saw straight away who it was she was describing, she even mentions Aubrey my personal secretary, and coming for her interview at the steely grey and imposing Silver House in downtown Seattle, it didn't take much persuasion from my legal team that her silence had to be bought, and for five million I got it and her silence. I also looked at the others contracts and they happily signed legal gagging orders. I snap out of my hatred of her and wonder what the fuck do I do now, right now, about Ana?

I hit the sidewalk and walk, I know I am putting one foot in front of the other and as I head home I don't know what to do. I have, or had a son. Ana had our child, she had him when she was not more than a child herself and she was alone. I did that to her. I have felt so many raw, new and tearful emotions in the past couple of hours, and they are emotions I do not understand. I look up and I am suddenly outside my home. Looking up I see the brownstone I call home. Home? It is a house not a home, children and family make a house a home; this is just a piece of expensive real estate on Fifth Avenue, it is but mere bricks and mortar. It is not as precious as blood and bones, it is not family, it like everything else I have it is a possession, a trifling and expensive 'look at how rich I am' piece of property. I head in and I go through to the lounge and pour myself even more whiskey to numb the pain I feel. I am almost done with the bottle when Mom and the others get back, loaded down with their goodies and baked goods. It seems Ana has a hit on her hands...

I listen as they talk and they talk, Mom about how great Ana's new chocolate line is, Gram's about how sweet Ana was to them and Mia, she is climbing the walls with her sugar rushed OMG madness. Elliot is out with the Kavagnah Twins, Ethan and Kate. Kate knows I am the father of Ana's baby, our baby and I wonder what she will tell Elliot, if she tells him anything that is, and do I care? I guess I do care how Ana would take the leaking of this sad time in her life, me? I don't know how I feel, I had a son and I am so confused, am I proud to have had him? Did I in fact have him, if I never knew about him or saw him? I drink more wonderful mind numbing liquid; I feel a little proud to have been a father I guess? I would have been prouder still if he had been here, and that thought worries the fuck out of me, I never saw a future with children from my loins in it. In my life there is no room or time for them, what would I have done if he had still been here? Would I have been mad, happy or what? I listen to the chatter and get lost in my scotch.

My mother has been chatting for what seems like an age, I think I have grunted the correct yes and no's at the correct moments in our conversation, but I am not here, I am back with Ana and back going over my son's 'still birth' no wonder she hated me. I did that and I haven't a clue how. I go to grab another tumbler of the whiskey from the now empty bottle by my side and grab another bottle. Mia is in bed, jet lag hit her like a ton of bricks, at least that's what I think she said, or she was hitting someone with a ton of them? I was kissed and she went to her room. Grams went to bed as soon as she took her shoes off and after she gushed a little more about sweet Ana. Mom, Mom is silent and is staring into the fire that's burning in the hearth. She sips her drink and then looks at me; I think I may have sobbed a little over the thoughts running through my booze filled head.

"Christian, what happened tonight Baby Boy? Why is that bottle empty and why the need for the second one?" When she says Baby Boy, the whiskey tear filled flood gates open and I cry, I cry for the longest time. Mom, she sits on the chair arm and pats my arm just like she does her prized Pomerania, Fargo. I want to scream for her to stop, but instead I do the most alien thing I have ever done, I hug her, I actually turned in the chair and hugged my mom for the first time in my life... "Oh my dear boy, tell Momma all about it." She is sobbing as she gingerly hugs me back and I welcome the love she puts into it. I really do. I need a mom hug right now, I missed out on these growing up, and now I have had one of Grace Trevelyan-Grey's mother hugs I know what Mia says when she says they are a cure for all that ails you, god what a fucking idiot I have been. My mother all too willingly hugs me and catches up on the years of being unable to touch me, and with each squeeze she seems to be squeezing the negativity from my pores and my brain, you silly fucker Grey, this is what caring feels like, this is love and this could have been yours for many many years. I guess I am a fool. I breathe in her scent and sob like a child, though this time without the added shit of my temper tantrums and hostility, each caress and hushed shush from her lips soothes me in a wondrous way, my mother is a caring wonderful goddess...

"I can't Mom, I really can't." I sob and she joins me on the chair, she is definitely sitting in the no go area. She holds my free hand and soothes me, she knows this is bad, don't ask me how I know, but she does.

"You can tell me anything and I will not judge you. Christian something is troubling you, that much your silly old mom does know, so tell me please and share the burden, please? This is something I have waited forever for, I can wait a little longer Baby Boy, you were always so special so needy yet so independent and head strong, I knew if I waited long enough you would come around, I just never expected it to take so long. When you are ready I will be here non judgmental and will give my very best mother advice, whatever burdens you Baby Boy, burdens me."

"What if the burden is so horrid, that you need to hit the bottle too?"

"Then we will drink it together. Now, tell Mom all about tonight, what happened when you took Ana home?"

"How did you know it was Ana that made me hit the bottle?"

"Are you serious Christian?"

"Deathly, Ana and me, we are strangers who met up once a year for god knows how long, why is it that week was all I looked forward to, when did it get to be such a fucking mess Mom?" She sighed.

"You have that same look you had every time you came back from Scotland; Ana was always in with your rant and rages about the damned place. Those were your words not mine. I always wondered what it was that had my boys gushing about her, Elliot loved her like he was her big brother, you? You ranted on and on about her and the spell she had put on you, you always came back like that, you were very emotional to say the least, saying she had hit you with some sort of confusion spell. I saw that same confusion and it had me wondering what this girl was like, your father and grandfather were in awe of her, and when finally I met her, I understood why she had you under her spell, if you turned the clock back, she could have been your mother, the similarities were and are striking. I wonder if you saw that resemblance too?" Did I? If I did I didn't realise it, not until right now, but she is right they look identical now, strikingly so. I gulp the whiskey, was I punishing Ana and not my mother all these years? No... No way, because I saw my mother in the girls I take to my chamber... Not Ana, not sweet Little Ana, my Ana, the Wisp who made summers adventurous. God Ana is right this is an defence lowerer, whiskey my killer cure for forgetfulness and for remembering too...

"I always said she was a witch, but until you said she looks like Ella I had no idea of it, she was a baby when we meet and a child growing up. That was the summer of confusion for me Mom it was the summer I learned that not all touches burned and sent a searing pain to my scars, it was what frightened me the unknowing."

"That was the summer of punishments and they worked, you changed, thank god." Little does she know the real reason for the change, I shake off Elena's summer of training. "So I have Ana to thank then?" God no...

"I doubt it, or I wouldn't have nearly killed her that trip would I?"

"Your father, grandfather and Elliot said it was horrid. Still you went back again the year after. So she must have forgiven you the conclusion?" Yeah of course she did and kept her distance. "When did she allow you to touch her again? Or did you allow her to touch you?" Oh hell Grace, ask me another question please? "And was it because she looked like your mother?"

"Mom, that's real funny because I didn't see the resemblance to Ella ever not until you mentioned it and she was not my mother, you are my mother, Ella was Ella. As to Ana I didn't allow her anywhere near me after that summer. I didn't get near enough or allow her to get near. I last saw her when she was eighteen Mom, she was a teenager when we last met that was the next time we touched. Ana, she touched me when I was fifteen and it did not hurt me, she did exactly what Mia did, but unlike Mia touch I didn't grit my teeth and bare it, it felt nice, but afterwards I freaked out at why it was different. That day I was reading her a story, about werewolves and Red Riding Hood." My mother laughs.

"There were no werewolves in Red Riding Hood Christian." I grinned.

"There were in mine, and poor Red had her throat ripped out. Anyway she screamed and grabbed at me for comfort and for the short time I held her it felt so very nice, but it confused me."

"She touched you inappropriately?"

"Just that one time properly, but nothing inappropriate, she was a child mother. And yes, it was the summer you made me work on the Lincoln's, as punishment for hurting her."

"I remember your father said she was afraid of you after that. I wonder why she was different Christian?" I shrug my shoulders.

"She was always running up to me for a hug and I would run away or hide out in a cave or somewhere else in the castle, so she couldn't bewitch me. but she would find me and I'd end up walking her back home and whenever I saw and actually see a green strip of grass playing golf or I see a castle on my travels, it was like she was actually always in here. In my head Mom, in here." I slap my head. "I thought about her all the time." My drunken hand hits my head again and I place my hand over my heart. "It was always the same, she would wait at the door for us to arrive and she stuck to me like glue. She was a mini witch. Then after the wolf incident I avoided her like the plague, I hated seeing her so hurt by my throwing her down, she was a cute kid Mom, how I wish I had done that the last time, instead of doing what I did..."

I stared into the fire and emptied the glass and thought about that night, looking into the fire the dancing flames hypnotise me, I remember her in a red dress... A very tight red dress... I stare and remember the snow, the party and the sheep. I am remembering stuff I had hidden for a reason... I grab another glass of whiskey and though I see Mom's eyes, I need to get wasted and remember. I need to remember the night I had sex with a young girl and created my son... The amber liquid hits my throat and Mom sits and waits for me to talk.

"...Instead of what Christian?" I have polished off another glass of whiskey and stared into the dancing flames. I start to see flashes of skin, I see Ana, I hear her voice, but is it a dream?

"I have a son Mom." I say without thinking. "I mean I had a son, he died, but I still had a son."

"A son?"

"Yes and saying it again, and again isn't going to bring him back. Mom..."

"Back from where Christian, where is he?"

"The clue was in the word died Mom, he died. He was born sleeping, as in stillborn and dead..." She sipped, well slugged back the drink she had and poured another. "Yup, it's a full bottle story Mom. I had a son with Ana."

"How..."

"We had sex Mom, drunken sex and I don't or I didn't remember it. Not until I started drinking this." I shake the bottle.

"I know how babies are made Christian, but why Ana and you, we thought you were..."

"... I was and am gay? Well, I am not and I never have been. I'm just very secretive with my sex life." I drink another glass as Elliot walks in.

"Bro, wow you are wasted, what gives? Mom are you on your way too? Pour me a glass…"

"Elliot, Christian and I are talking." He looks hurt as Mom snaps at him. She needs answers.

"It's fine Mom, Elliot was trying to help me remember what I did to Ana that night."

"Have you remembered yet? Did Wisp tell you?" He asks.

"Oh, she told me alright, boy did she tell me."

"Were you a bad boy Chris, spill, what did you do?" My mom gulps on her drink and I finish off another glass. Ana is right this whiskey is lowering all my defences, including my amnesia, my very convenient amnesia. "Chris you are really drunk, what did you do?"

"Ana and I had sex the night and I left her without saying goodbye, I didn't even say thanks for gifting me your virginity and I will call you... I never called her back and I couldn't remember what I did, but this," I shake my glass at him, "this, this stuff is opening the fucking doors."

"No shit, have you been drinking all night?"

"Umm, like a drunk at a free bar..." I say.

"Have you been drinking again with Ana, and did you have sex with Ana again? I mean, did you?" I laugh, I wish... Really after all we did, I wish we had?

"No, we talked about the reason for her disdain of me, her very legitimate hatred of me Ell..."

"Wisp doesn't hate anyone; she is a hard arse like you but nah she doesn't hate you, she has had a crush on you forever, you were all she talked about..."

"Not everyone is me; the man who fucked an eighteen-year-old took her virginity and left her alone and pregnant." He drank his drink.

"Fuck you Chris, she was Ana, she is our Ana." He then punched me and I took it. I then told the two of them all about my son and Ana's story. After the tears and the gasps and the odd punch to the head I got from Elliot, I felt better than I should.

"So what are you going to do Chris?" Elliot asks.

"About what? I am a billionaire, not Jesus Christ, and as such I am unable to bring my seven year old son back from the dead, would that I fucking could, because I would give up everything I had for that Ell, everything including my own life to stop the pain Ana has had to endure." My mother looks annoyed.

"Christian, he meant what happens with you and Ana?" I suddenly sit up and wonder what she meant by that? Does she want me to marry her? What the fuck did she fucking mean by me and Ana?

"There is no me and Ana. There never was. She and I are fine, for now. I think it was the closure she needed. I can give her that at least. I am in London on Monday I am going to see where he rests."

"The dedication in the book, that was for your son Christian?" Elliot asks. I am impressed he read it.

"Yes, her friend Olivia died too and on the same day, so she feels doubly at fault, had she not called her for help she would be still here too." Elliot slugs his drink, he and she were friendly as I recall.

"Oh god. Poor Ana, poor, poor Ana. I don't know what to say?" My mother cries too.

"Then as the song goes, its better left unsaid and forgotten Mom."

"I am going to bed boys; I feel so emotionally drained and I could have done without tomorrow. We are taking Mia for some clothes to take back to Brussels with her, but please do not worry I am not telling Mia about this, this is your business." She saw my horror face as she mentioned my sister, the internet and social media gossip.

"Thanks Mom, nobody else should feel like we do. Don't tell Dad either, please Mom?" I know what the answer is, but I beg anyway.

"I don't keep secrets from him Baby Boy, but he will be fine, things happen in life and you have to make the best of the things sent to try you, perhaps this was sent to you now for a reason Christian. Perhaps Ana came clean tonight because you are ready to live normally?" What the fuck is she on about? Had I not gone to her shop opening I would not know; she came clean because she had too, not because she wanted to tell me, but I do believe her when she says she kept it from me to not have me feel this horrid pain and emptiness I feel right now. I have had over seven years of being pain free, thanks to her.

"I am far from normal mother and having a son will not change me from the monster I am."

"Christian you are not a monster and one day you will realise this; you were a troubled boy but you were never a monster Baby Boy. You were my sweet troubled Baby Boy and you will always be my baby… I am going to bed; my head will be thick in the morning, as will yours. Elliot see to it he gets to bed and make that your last drink Christian." She kisses us both and I give her another hug. "You have already changed Christian, you have already began to change, goodnight." She leaves Elliot and I staring at the fire.

"Wow Bro. Hugs, confessions, secrets and you are not gay, so what are you then? Not tempted by women, are you into girls? Young girls?" He looks like he is going to thump me again.

"No. I am into women. Ana, Ana was, I don't know what Ana was. I would have said a mistake, but I don't think deep down she was. I would say she was a drunken time I wish I remembered more of than I do. I really was an ass that time Ell?"

"Epic. You were way too drunk for sex though. How the fuck did you even you know?" He does the motions for fucking, yeah really childish Ell...

"I am fucked if I know how either. I it seems am the man who is ever willing and able. I am as you say the man."

"Yeah, but Ana…" He says.

"Yeah, Ana…" I reply.

"Wow, you and Ana had a baby."

"Wow indeed, look turn off the fire I am going to bed. Though I am sorely tempted to fly home now, but I think I need to speak to Ana again first."

"I am taking Kate out for lunch; she can get Wisp to come too, if you want join us for that."

"I know Kate and Ethan know, because the idiot she was in business with or her ex, I can't make my mind up which? He told them at the same time he told me. I gather Ethan can keep even the deepest darkest of secrets financial and personal."

"Kate says he thinks he is gods right hand man. He is a good guy he looks after my finances just fine. In fact, I was going to ask your opinion on this, he says I should expand, whilst there is a down turn in construction, and buy the big properties that have been left to rot whilst their owners go bankrupt, the banks are looking to sell thousands of part finished projects Bro."

"Do it, he always steers me right. I need to sleep. Goodnight Ell." He gives me a hug and I head up to my rooms. I undress shower and sleep and dream drunken dreams about wild and exciting sex with Ana, fuck we did fuck...

Ana unleashed.

I woke with headache at stupid o'clock. I couldn't shift it so dressed for the bakery. I got a taxi and headed in. Turning on the proving ovens and the bake ovens, I go and answer my emails and stuff and then come down and I lose myself baking. The other staff come in at five and I have already been here most of the night. The night was spent making French pastries for me. I love to bake my problems away. I set out the breads I have made onto the boulangerie's wooden shelves and into the baskets and place the day's wares in the cafe. I then go for a tea and a croissant. I sat back and look at the shiny new shop and grin like an idiot, god I love my shop, I love them all, they are my replacement babies... After my breakfast I decide to work on some more ideas for the summer chocolates in the sample kitchen. The staff are already in residence when I get in. I decide that the new lines will be fruit flavoured bon-bons. The local fruit farm has sent me samples of all their goods, fresh dried and frozen and so I lose myself in them.

"Morning Ana..." I don't have to turn around to know who it is, and because of his aftershave, I know it is Ethan. "Can you come to the office, we have news?" He says.

"Let me clear away these, what do you think of the summer cocktail line?" He takes a Mojito and winces.

"Too sour..." I take one and agree they need work. I clear away and go and see what has happened.

"Hi, how was last night after I left?" I ask the twins as the beaver away.

"After Christian high tailed it after you, you mean?" Kate says.

"Yes after that?" She smiles.

"Hyde realised what he had done and that he had used his leverage, he has threatened to go to the newspapers, Uncle Pieter has put him straight, just as your confidentiality agreements stops you from speaking to the press, so too does his. He is willing to take what you offered, now that you have over three quarters of the stock, he has little choice." Kate looks up and signs a bunch of paperwork spewing from the printer.

"How much does he want?" I ask Ethan.

"Fifteen million." He says as Kate cusses the printer for jamming.

"Is that good or bad?" He laughs. "Bad, I did point out the debts would wipe all that out. He wants the same deal as his mother and sister. I offered him the same one as George. He is willing to sell for that, three million, if he gets to keep his seat on The House of Hyde's board, and the salary and bonuses being a board member garners, he also wants you take on the debts they have incurred opening Poland and Romania."

"Fine give it him. He does know that it won't be the House of Hyde surely?" I tell him.

"He thinks you will keep it, as it is the older more established business." Ethan's nimble fingers run over his keyboard.

"A business he has ruined the reputation of. Whatever it takes do it and send my thanks to the board. Give them their payoff and then disband the House of Hyde." He looks up and smiles.

"I have already put the wheels in motion he will be in, in about fifteen minutes to sign. Pieter and his wife want to see to it for you?" He hits a few more keys. "All done…"

"Pieter and Emily have come to New York?" Kate says as she gives the printer a final kick. Her brother leans over presses a few buttons and it whirs into print mode.

"Patience is a gift sister, have some."

"Yes, James sent for them. They are on their way in. I have bloody patience Ethan, bloody loads of it actually, so stick that in your pie hole..."

"If by pie hole you mean mouth, then I find not opening said pie hole with you too much works far better for my sanity Sister dear. You are spending too much time with Ana, Katherine you are not a cockney geezer...So Ana, about last night's opening?" I laugh as they row.

"Thanks for reminding me Ethan, last night was the worst opening ever." I say.

"It was the best; the new lines are going to be great according to Jose?" He counters.

"Have you discussed all this with your husband?"

"I don't have too; my husband knows the line I draw between business and personal affairs."

"Does he know about the two Christian's in my life?"

"No. There is no need to tell him anything, it doesn't pertain to his work and so he has no reason to know about it on a personal level."

"You shouldn't keep secrets from your husband."

"They are not my secrets and he is not your husband Ana, but mine. Now, go and ready yourself, you have damned chocolate on your nose and chocolate on your whites."

"You are so bossy Ethan Kavagnah."

"I pale into nothingness compared to you Ma'am. Off with you little baker..."

"Hey I worked my butt off for the title use it please... It is Maître Pâtissier if you please, I have the paperwork."

"I know you tell me all the time. Now move it or bump into him. Oops too late I hear Jose dragging the Neanderthal up the stairs, hit the back office." I smile kiss his cheek and head into Mareena's office. I set up my laptop earlier and did my emails whilst the ovens warmed. I open it to see the conference room screens and sit back and watch the show. Ethan is sat at the table when Pieter Hyde and his new wife Emily join them. I relax, but not for long as Jack enters the room.

"Uncle, I would say it is a pleasure to see you, alas it is not and Emily, Ms Hoff, how are you?"

"I am fine and its Mrs Hyde." He looks shocked. They waste no time getting down to business. I love how my team work and they work damned well together. I am a very proud Work Mamma…

"Mr Hyde, you will see before you the proposed agreement for the shares you own in The Hyde House of Chocolate and all her subsidiaries, the schools and the legal holding of the established in the main the recipes of both your father Mr John Hyde Senior, and Miss D'Acciaio. Now, I would like to draw your attention to a document you signed when you re-purchased the rights to the Lust recipes, after your father passed away and left them to Miss D'Acciaio…"

"What of it?" He looks at his Uncle Pieter and pushes the paper away.

"Did you sign this or did you not?" Pieter asks.

"You know I did; you were her lawyer. I ask again, what of it?"

"If you turn to page fifty-five, and then note the sub clause, section six paragraph four B. You will clearly see you made a commitment to keeping the recipe as true to the original as was possible."

"And?"

"Your failure in doing that that means this contract you had with Miss Anastasia D'Acciaio is void. You signed the page so you must have seen this clause, it says and I quote, 'failure in keeping to the exacting recipes Miss Anastasia D'Acciaio sold to the House of Hyde, will forfeit your right to keep the original recipes and they would revert back to Miss D'Acciaio immediately should any changes you make to them harm her good name and or her reputation as a chocolatier. You have changed it so much so, that sales have dropped and her good name is being bandied about as the creator of those changes you enforced."

"We had to change; they did not work with the automated machines we got in, the recipes were too thick and the older ingredients did not work. My new head of house Daniel Frost assures me they taste just as the others did."

"We have had them tested and let me assure you they do not, so I have little choice but to put into the action the legal claim Miss D'Acciaio has on the original Lust recipes. Here you can see you agreed to this and here again you signed it here, here and here. Did you not?"

"Again you know I did Uncle."

"The judge agreed too, he has awarded the original patent of the chocolates back to Miss D'Acciaio, as such The House of Hyde is not now worth the asking price."

"So she gets them back again and what, what do I get out of this?"

"You get the three million she offered your brother, for that you walk away from the company and never bother her again. You also forfeit all your rights to the buildings, the businesses and the House of Hyde name."

"So she gets everything for mere peanuts?" Emily opens a file in front of her.

"Actually Mr Hyde, Jack… Mr John Hyde, your father, had me do a codicil to his will that was not there I noticed in the original will? It was only yesterday I realised the discrepancy after seeing the will Pieter had. I noticed the missing parts; here I believe you have seen these have you not?" She passes him a file. "Where it gives Anastasia D'Acciaio-Lambert fifty-five percent controlling interest in your father's business and the rest was shared between you, your siblings and your mother gets an extra five percent more."

"I never saw those." I'm just as shocked as I sit and watch. Pieter takes over.

"How convenient, in fact because of this legal codicil, she is owed many more millions in back sales and profits and as such you do not have a say in what she does and does not do with the business, the three million she is giving you is to walk away. Out of respect for your father she is willing to gift you three million. Legally she owns the majority stake in the house, she has your siblings shares and your mothers too, so sign and get three million, or choose to fight this and you will end up owning nothing but your debts."

"Give me the damned papers. I still get my seat on the board yes?" Is he fucking serious?

"No. The House of Hyde is no longer in business, so Miss D'Acciaio has no need for a board, Ana owns the company she created and as such she does not have nor need to answer to anyone else concerning her business. The other members of the board accepted her offer and stepped down; you were voted off a couple of hours before she actually saw fit to offer you three million... Now sign the papers and walk away with what she is generously offering you. before you get nothing. That is the best deal you will get Jack. You shame me with your actions and dragging my brother's good name into the realms of the cheap chocolate maker's hell."

"He was nothing to me..." He signs and walks towards the door. "She is welcome to it. I fucking hate chocolate..." He slams the door and I can't believe I own The House of Hyde, what a day, from being a back of the bakery chocolate maker to the being the biggest, finest chocolate maker ever, I have done it and I have everything I wanted. I am top of the world, and Christian D'Acciaio-Lambert, I did it for you. My Baby Boy... Momma did it... I am crying as the trio head in...

"Ethan how did you do that?"

"I have my ways, and Kate can take credit for finding the clause, she is like a termite, she eats away at the paperwork until she finds what she wants and needs, she was so sure that Mr John Hyde would protect your recipes, so sure in fact that she enlisted Pieter and Emily here to search through the will again and their own paperwork Emily here, she noticed there was a distinct lack of the codicil added the day they had the row that eventually killed John Hyde Senior." I give Ethan a hug.

"Thank you... Thank you... Now, shut down the cheap factories, then send the Frosts their termination papers and get me my recipes back. Ramón was right, hiding a piece of each recipe worked, thankfully Mr Hyde kept them secret as he promised he would, bless him."

"He did, the actual recipes were lost last year in the fire at head office and Frost promised to recreate it. He failed. So if you have what you need Ana, Emily and I are off the Hawaii to learn to surf. You need to relax too. So give me that hug I know I deserve and remember I am but a phone call away, in two weeks..."

"Thanks for diverting to New York to help me."

"You are family, why would we not? Now my bill is in the post."

"You work for me..."

"I do? Oh god I do..." They gave me a hug and disappeared. I looked at the contract and he had signed his name and written watch out bitch at the bottom, oh I'm shaking in my boots. Ethan was at my side with a hug.

"He has a flare for the dramatics. Now, how did Chris take the baby news?"

"Badly I think? I don't know he looked like I had taken his legs from under him."

"He never knew?" Ethan looks as shocked as Kate was reading my dedication.

"No, the only people who knew about my baby were Jack, because we were close at the time and well, that was a lie too. Then there was Papa, because I told him, but he didn't know who I was after the stroke, then the foster parents of Olivia, and the doctors. I kept him a secret for a reason. Heartbreak is not a good thing to inherit and poor Christian Grey is now having to live with the knowledge he never knew his son. He didn't ever have to know, he should never have known Ethan, and but for Jack he wouldn't have. He was so sad and I felt all my anger and hate go away, in an instant, because I had no reason to be mad at him he was an innocent in all this."

"Christian Grey is no innocent and if I know Chris, he will be hurt and not know how to cope with it. He is a very strange man, very taciturn and private."

"You know more about him than I do, I purposely never wanted to know more about him, the little I did know has haunted my dreams for many, many years, but last night as he walked away, I finally felt free from the curse of loving him as I did. I never thought the day would come, the day that I would stop loving him came, but it did and now I gave let go of my childhood fantasies, I think we will both be fine."

"So, what do we do with the House of Hyde and the business?" Kate says as she types away.

"Put out a press statement that it has ceased trading and is now a part of The House of D'Acciaio and normal production will be resumed. I want Uncle Marco and the teams in and I want all the shops overhauled to look like mine and I want the place in Poland and Romania and wherever else he those chocolates made shut down and sold. I don't want them. Everyone is to receive their wages though. Apart from Frost. He can rot. Now I may go and tell Ramon he is the head of the new school's division of The House of D'Acciaio. I have to call James and thank him and beg him to stay on in Switzerland, because Uncle Ray can't handle the Hyde's businesses too. Do you like Switzerland Ethan?"

"I love their watches and skilling."

"God you are shallow..."

"I am gay of course I like the bling, but I am very deep, very caring and very hungry. Now go and sweeten those bon-bons, I like my candy sweet like my man, so I am taking Jose for breakfast; do you think he would mind the cafe?" I am hugged.

"Did I tell you, you are cheap too?" I say as I bat his arm.

"Hey I get free food here and why pay for crap when your pastries are soooooo divine."

"Stop being camp, you are not normally so in your face, and I don't know, gay? Why are you so damned happy, working for me is a ball ache, those were your words not mine?" Kate flies out of the room, like she is on a mission. Her phone rang and she went to take it in private, both Ethan and I smile. She has a man…

"I'm happy and in love, and I shouldn't tell you this, but Jose and I are pregnant." I sat down. "Obviously, our surrogate is having the baby, but she confirmed it this morning."

"I am so happy for you both; of course I am expecting to be the godmother!"

"Without question Godmother status number one is for my Ana, shush do not tell Kate, because she was second choice and still is, however we have decided, he or she will have two fabulous godmothers to balance out having two dads'. I figured Aunt Kate the flighty one and Aunty Ana the sensible one... Are you okay with it, I mean after your baby thing?"

"Hey, the world moves on and babies are born each and every day. I do have the odd cry when I see a little boy with copper curls, you know happily playing in the parks as I jog, but other than that I am at peace with what happened and after last night, more so. So, you relish every single moment, they are amazing moments you will remember forever. Get the best camera, take shots of every step of the way and, you know be happy. I am very happy for you both; my best friends are having a baby yeah..." He hugs me and I hug him back...

Christian needs to talk.

I wake with the hangover from hell. No amount of whiskey numbed the news I got last night, but it did open me up to the memories that were hidden deep within me. I shower the booze from my pores and try to brush the whiskey taste from my mouth. Several squirts of toothpaste later and several gargles of mouthwash, a good floss and a couple more brushes with the toothpaste again, just for good measure and my mouth feels slightly better than the mouth I woke up with. I dress casually, as I am doing nothing today only rescheduling the London trip to include a couple of days there. I know she didn't lie to me, but until I see it for myself I don't think it will feel real to me. I head down. Mia, my mother, who looks as rough as me, my grandmother and brother are eating lunch. I guess I slept through breakfast? I enter and sit down, and the housekeeper, Mrs Travis lays a plate of food before me and a very large mug of black coffee.

"Thank you." I say as drink the coffee and pray to someone, anyone, to stop the idiot playing the drums in my head. "What is everyone doing today? Mom?"

"Shopping for me silly. I am flying back to Belgium tomorrow. It was just a flying visit you know?"

"I didn't, but thank you I do now. Mother, have you spoken to father?"

"Chris, stop with the stick up your butt thing, its Mom and Dad." I smile, or I think I am smiling.

"Mom, did you call Dad today?" She looks at me and shakes her fragile head.

"No, I didn't have anything to say to him, besides we are home tomorrow."

"Taylor and I are in Europe for the month tomorrow, will you all be alright?"

"Yes dear boy we will be fine."

"Christian, you have to come and see me in Belgium. Say you will please say you will try this time and mean it?"

"I will come and see you, and I promise, in fact you can fly back with me in my jet, how's that?"

"Great, good and a promise can't be broken Christian." I then wonder what I promised Ana that night. Did I break a promise to her, as well as her heart? I drink the coffee and play with my food, all the time Elliot watches me. Gran is on her phone gushing about her new chocolates to Gramps. They are madly in love still and I am glad for them. Mom and Dad have a strong marriage too, so why am I such a fuck up? Elliot nudges my arm.

"Are you okay Bro?"

"Yes, but opening the second bottle of whiskey was a mistake, Ell."

"No drinking it was. Did you sleep well?" He asks.

"Yes I think being drunk helped. So what are you doing?"

"Going for dinner with Kate. She had to call off lunch because of some work crisis."

"Anything bad?"

"No I think it was a press release thing. Ana is now the biggest chocolate producer in the world, I think?" Mia looks at me and stops texting.

"No, not yet, but if she bought The House of Hyde she would be, did she? Elliot did she buy them out?"

"I can't say the news embargo is in place until she changes some of the staff and changes the locks and stuff. Oh shit you know more than you should and do not text anything Mia, there are people who need to know first they have no place in the new company."

"I bet Daniel Frost senior and junior are the ones she is firing. Not before time either; they are plebes the pair of them. Senior, he is a letch and junior is a half wit. They both hate me because Ana got me the job. They think I am super spy. Ha, I didn't even know Ana was in control, how good a spy am I?"

"Mouthy and loud and being a social media drone does not equate to being a good spy Mia. Now go clothes shopping, and give my head a rest there's a good little sister." She pulls her tongue out and puts her damned phone away. I hand her my card...

"Are you ready Mom, Grammy, I am a billionaire for the day, lunch is on me?" They all leave and I discard my lunch. Elliot tops up my coffee and I drink it with gusto.

"Peace and quiet is what I need. Elliot, please don't ask Ana to join you tonight, I want to go and see her. I think I owe her some sort of apology."

"No shit."

"I can't apologise for the baby, because I did not know about him, but can apologise for the actions leading up to his conception."

"Crap, Chris think about rephrasing your apology that sounded none too sincere."

"I don't know how to apologise sincerely, as I have never had to apologise for my actions, not those actions anyway."

"So you are not gay then?"

"No."

"And yet you sleep with women right?"

"No."

"How the fuck does that work? How are you not gay then?"

"I fuck women I do not sleep with them."

"Way to go, my brother is a man whore."

"I am nothing like a man whore. I employ women to service my needs with no romance and no emotions getting in the way."

"You pay prostitutes, escorts or call girls, what and why? Any girl at Mom's fiascos would fuck you in an instant. I get Christian Greys off casts all the time."

"I don't want to discuss my sex life. I like my privacy. I am emotionally disconnected from the girls who service my needs and that's how I like it. The others, they want the man and the lifestyle and I am afraid I can't be what they need and they are definitely not what I need. My arrangement suits me."

"Okay, I won't ask. I get it you want control and a woman takes some of that from you, you cannot control women they are a law unto themselves." I have to disagree I can control any woman.

"So, you and Kate?"

"What of me and Kate?"

"How did yesterday go after we left?"

"She was cagey at first and then we warmed to each other. Did you know Ethan is married to one of Ana's guys, Jose?"

"Yes, but we talk business, not personal issues, we have more important thing to discuss."

"I bet, now I have to be going I am meeting up with a few old buddies for a beer, are you coming?"

"No, I think I will go for a walk and clear my head. Thanks for asking."

"No problems. Will I see you before I leave?"

"Probably, it depends on flights. I need the jet for Europe."

"We can fly back coach."

"I have ordered the other smaller jet be readied and Mia; she is flying back with me back to Belgium."

"Crap, good luck all those hours with Mia are you mad?"

"I am going the same way as her. Besides I will be working, when she gets on board, she eats and then she sleeps." He thumps my shoulder and goes to find his drinking buddies. He has always been able to make friends so easily, as can Mia, me? I don't even like myself very much, so making friends has always been alien to me. The only friend I have is Elena, and even she pisses me off ninety-nine percent of the time. I drink coffee and take a stab at finishing my lunch and fail, I am not into food right now. I call for Taylor.

"Taylor, can you ready the car I would like to go to Ana's chocolate shop, please?" He seems shocked; I guess he hasn't heard me say please very often or in fact at all. I get in the back of the car we head to see Ana.

"Sir, would you like me to pull into the back? There seems to be a queue out of the front door?" I look up and nod. We enter by the back and I see Ethan, he sees me and smiles. He is throwing hoops with Jose. I tell Taylor to wait for me and I go to talk to Ethan.

"Hi, how are you Christian?"

"Better than I deserve to be after drinking over two bottles of whiskey, I was so stupid."

"We have all been there. Are you here to see Ana?"

"Yes, where is she?"

"In the back kitchen, wash your hands and change your shoes put on the hairnet and the dashing coat and go see her. She is inventing her summer time Bon-bons."

"Does she ever stop?"

"No, go through, she may stop for you. Call me later." I wave at Jose and head in...

* * *

So, he knows and he is remembering some of the night, he really feels like shit even though Ana took the blame for it all. He has opened up to his mother and his brother, which for him was a hard thing to do…

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Thanks you for all the new followers and the new readers please will you read and review xx


	10. Chapter 10

Yadda, yadda usual disclaimers this is my story using the lifestyle and some of the names in the fifty shades books…

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Dreaming of Chocolate and Grey:

Chapter 10:

A handshake and a goodbye:

I change into the chef gear and head into see Ana hard at work. She is tasting something that looks chocolaty in its appearance. I watch her work for a while and as she bites into the candy and grimaces. I seem to have been standing and watching her for a while, I think of the old Ana and this vision before me, fuck was she always so beautiful?

"Are you going to stand at the door all day or come in and talk?" She doesn't even look back at me.

"You saw me?" _Busted..._

"You have a distinctive aftershave Christian. You stopped using the one I sent you then?"

"I did, a long time ago." How the fuck did she know this, is she stalking me?

"I have a very keen knows for smells, if you were wondering how I knew it was you Christian? I like this new fragrance on you though and I guess that shows things cannot stay the same forever? Pull up a stool and we can talk as I get this new line started. I am struggling to get the correct balance of lime and coconut. I don't want it too sweet and I don't want it too tart." I am momentarily puzzled by her apparent ability to forget about our past? I only found about my boy last night and I am struggling. She seems to be able to be so normal and I guess this takes me by surprise.

"How can you just carry on like nothing happened Ana?" I ask.

"Christian I have had over seven years to get over this, it was hard for me in the beginning and the old cliché, that time heals everything? Well it is a lie, it doesn't but it does get easier. I know you don't believe me, but I think about him every day. I have got used to the epic and heart wrenching loss you are now feeling and I am sorry for your having to go through that!"

"Last night Ana it was hard for me to hear those things, but worse still not knowing how it happened, I mean I can't believe it really happened."

"Oh it happened Christian, believe me it happened."

"I do believe you; some of it came back to me last night, just short flashes. I got drunk and tiny fragments came back to me, I believe you Ana, and I really do believe I knew what I was doing. The things I saw lead me to believe I wanted you in my bed. I just can't remember more without getting drunker than I was last night and it's something I think I will not be doing again in a hurry. I do not drink to excess anymore, and I haven't since that night actually. Last night was the first time in seven years that I passed out drunk."

"I drove you to drink again?" She says with a beautiful smile and I laugh too.

"No, I just wanted to numb the pain. I talked for ages with Mom and she was very good about it. I mean she didn't kill me as I expected. She says what you went through alone was horrid."

"You spoke to your mother about us?"

"I did, and I didn't sugar coat my actions, and I got a black eye off Elliot." She turns and looks at my very red eye, she runs her fingers over it and I feel that fucking feeling as she does, it is her she is a witch, I feel as I did way back then, safe and yet strange? God what have you sent this woman to me for, she is unlike anyone I have ever met and it is fucking annoying me that I seem to lose all control around her, because my dick wants to pitch a fucking tent in my trousers. I think of seeing Elena naked and my dick shrivels back into nothingness, it works all the time… I laugh and Ana looks at me like I have two heads. Okay I zoned out I guess?

"So he knows too?"

"He what, who?" I ask stupidly.

"Elliot knows about Little Christian?" She says his name and my heart swells with a strange pride.

"Yes, he was the person I went to see after you signed over Otter Island to me. I needed a few answers Ana."

"After I had my epic nonsensical rant at you? All this is my fault, had I not done that you would not have come here yesterday and Jack would not have said anything, well he would, but you wouldn't have heard him. I would have paid the idiot off and you would have been none the wiser."

"He would have come back for more, take it from me Ana people like him do it all the time."

"I have my ways of sorting out scum like him. I know how to deal with them. He is nothing." She has a look of sheer hatred in her eyes, the same look she gave me when the wolf ripped out Red's throat as I recall.

"He and you, were you an item?" I ask and my heart feels tight waiting for the answer.

"No, not like that, well we were, he and I became close when I started working in Switzerland, things between me and him were all part of his master plan to get his hands on my shares in the House of Hyde. He used me, his father had already told the boys I would take over the firm, so he, well he used me. I got drunk and we did things, some of which I had only ever done with you and during the 'thing' I must have called out your name and he asked me in the morning about you. I was very hesitant at first, but he wheedled it out of me by saying all the right things. I had to explain why I would not have sex with him and why I never wanted children, because he'd gushed about having a family and all the crap he thought I wanted to hear, so I had to tell him I would never have another child ever, just in case we took it further and yes at the time I guess I wanted to banish you and he was so cunning and vile how he used me, I mean saying he one day wanted a family was an eye opener for me and its then the realisation set in, I didn't want the same things as him, ever."

"Do you still feel like that Ana?"

"Yes. I never want to experience that again, once was hard enough but to go through all that again, no I can't."

"So I robbed you of being a mother Ana?"

"No, I am a mother; he just isn't here with me right now. Christian you didn't rob me of anything, he just wasn't meant to be here. You didn't do anything Christian, so please stop blaming yourself, and try to forget he existed, it may be easier for you, in the long run anyway."

"Oh I don't think I will ever forget Ana and nor will I ever want to."

"So, what do you want to do? Reminisce about the good times, because we still don't have any of those memories?"

"No, I don't know what I want, other than to stop feeling so fucking useless."

"Me too, because I can't now take that pain away, I was keeping it away from you and I have failed."

"I'm glad I know. I will get over this and I think I am getting the easy out actually, you had to actually give birth."

"I know; I was there. Here taste this and tell me what you think?" She hands me a chocolate and as I take it off the fork I hold her hand. She pulls back and I am left with the chocolate in my mouth. I taste it and groan.

"This is amazing, if you added mint to it would be a Coconut Mojito, there's rum in there yes?" I do not believe I am discussing fucking chocolates.

"Yes, they are for my new summer line, my cheeky Bon-bon Summertime Cocktails. Girls stop eating chocolates when bathing suit time comes around, so I am figuring out how to get them back in the stores sneakily. Here taste the Piña Colada, and tell me if that isn't just like the ones you get in St Bart's, if you go there that is?" I taste the chocolate and I have to admit it's damned nice, but how the hell does she know about St Bart's?

"Well you know your market; Mom and Mia would love these."

"Oh crap, you shouldn't be in here, not without sighing my super strict NDA. Can I trust you?"

"Yes Ana, you can trust me. So I leave later today, could we perhaps go for something to eat? A girl can't live on chocolate alone?"

"I very rarely eat chocolate. I taste what I have to and that's it. I only ever ate chocolate in earnest when I was having Christian. He liked the chocolate, so I may have overindulged, until I realised the amount of sugar he was having." She laughed and then drifted off again. That lost look is in her eyes again as it was last night as she told me her secret.

"So, dinner?"

"I'd like that, but I have to work late, perhaps some other time, if and when our paths cross again?"

"I'd like that Ana, I really would. So you will eat then?"

"Yes, I like my food. I am a chef after all, and I can cook a little bit!"

"I remember your game pies; they were really good." I remember your game pies, fuck Christian talk about your damned feelings, do something and don't be a dick about a fucking game pie. I think, but do not say, then I think what feelings are these feelings, am I having a new emotion?

"Fresh kills from the shoots. They were good times on the island, look after her and she will look after you Papa Frank always reminded me of that, the need to care for everything on his island, don't you slip in its care Christian, for some reason he liked you nearly as much as I did."

"You don't care anymore Ana?" She blushed.

"I think I will always care about the island."

"I meant…"

"…I know what you meant and I don't know, we are strangers Christian." I feel gutted. "Let me walk you out, oh and do you want Mia here or in Belgium? I am re opening the school here in New York, today actually? I am shutting the Belgium school down as of today, so she can come here or go to Switzerland."

"Really, as in I wouldn't have to have her on the flight to Europe? I could kiss you for taking that horror away from me, but it's up to her. I know she loves working for the man she works with, sorry I zone out after ten minutes with her, Frasier? Is that his name?"

"Yes, James Frasier. My adopted uncle. He is moving to Switzerland to run the school the factory and the shops there and I am sending Natalia Gordon, to head up the Belgium factory stores. I did note they didn't get on very well in a recent competition. Mia forgot who the more experienced chocolatier was and they had words."

"Mia would. Call her; I know Mom would be grateful for her daughter being here. Thanks for thinking about her."

"I like her; she is very devoted to chocolate and her studies and that is a quality I look for in my budding chocolatiers. I can tell you something though, I only hear good things from James and that is high praise indeed, you should be proud of her. Let me call her and see."

"That would be a good idea, and not having her with me for the start of my European visits would be most welcoming."

"Are you going to see the other GEH places you have?"

"You know I have them Ana?"

"I do because I like to keep an eye on my old crush. Occasionally, it's not like I stalk you or anything, I am far too busy with my life to be that sad." I laugh. "So where are you going first Christian?"

"To London and to pay my respects to Olivier and her travelling companion. I have a hotelier there who wants to sell his late father's golfing estates to GEH. I seem to be hooked on acquiring more of them."

"Oh, I hope that you succeed in swinging the deal your way, and I am glad you worked out who I dedicated my book to? He actually gets another mention in the second book out soon; I will send you a copy."

"Thanks I look forward to the forward..."

"Are you trying your hand at humour Mr Grey?"

"No, I fail at anything emotional. So I need to rid myself of these fancy clothes and bid you farewell." I took off the chef trappings and put my jacket and shoes back on. "Until we meet again Anastasia. Perhaps we could have a meal?"

"Perhaps, and Christian don't let this bog you down, take it from me it will if you let it, try not to let it." I leaned forward and kissed her cheek, her hands go to stop me and land on my chest and yet again, there is nothing but this nice feeling when she does, fuck me witch... She allows the kiss and pulls away. I walk to the car and climb in at the side of Taylor. She has gone when I look over. My heart tightens in my chest and I feel so damned awkward and strange, she is the only one ever to me feel this way, no matter my age, she and she alone. I then wonder what that means? I wonder what it is she has? I wonder why it matters?

"Where to Sir?"

"Home, and then later to the airport." I turn around as we head through the exit of the car park and wonder where do we go from here? I feel differently about her now. I am drawn to her almost. Like a moth to a damned flame.

Ana gets a head ache.

After Christian leaves, I go to the office and call Mia and she answers almost immediately.

"Mia, there has been a change of plans; I am calling to tell you that you are moving to the New York School, I am reopening it, where Ramón will be the head of school. Would you do me the honour of transferring here? Natalia Gordon's taking over the shop from Mr Frasier, the school there will close and the students shared between Switzerland and New York, as Mr Fraser is going to Switzerland."

"You want me here, and not to be with Mr Frasier? Why did I do something wrong?"

"No, far from it, Ramón will be training you, he trained me and I hope you can learn from him too."

"So, I haven't done anything wrong?"

"No, no you haven't. The place needs an all and out cleaning, and the crew will be in for a couple of days doing that, the first students will be here within the week. I will have your things packed and brought here. If you want?"

"I want, god yes I'd love too. Oh I will have to tell Chris he is going to London alone. I will also have to ask if I can stop in his apartment here too. Oh yes I would love to start here. When do you think I can take the examinations Ana?"

"When we talk in school or about business I expect Chef, Ma'am or Miss D'Acciaio. I don't want you to be accused of favouritism, it hinders your progress Mia, believe me it never helps you. That said I hear from James that three of you have about eight months of hard work to do before you are able to take the board examinations, but have no doubt Ramón will teach you well. Now, have you any questions?"

"No Ma'am, other than when do I start here?"

"Tomorrow is Sunday, so Monday, be in the school for eight." We end the call with pleasant goodbyes. I head in to see Ramón. He is packing his things. "You can't wait to take over and leave me in the lurch here?"

"Hey you were the one who wanted me at the school. I have Lana Lomas, stepping into my shoes here. She is one of the best students I have ever had."

"I thought I was the best student you had?"

"You were and are Ana, now stop getting in my way and clear away the cocktails you are making in there. Do I have to tell you chocolate is a pain to clear away...?"

"...When set. I cleared away and I am going back. I may make Coconut Mojitos and maybe add mint to the mix." He smiles and heads out; probably to inspect the school he left three years ago, Daniels son was running it, and into the ground I bet?

I should really go and see my old stomping ground but instead I grab my journal and write in the ingredients for the Coconut Mojito. I sit at the stool vacated by Christian and smile. He and I could be friends I guess? I clear away the Piña Colada; they are wonderful and had his seal of approval, mine too as it happens. I finally get the mix for the Coconut Mojito correct; it is sweet and tastes like how summer should be, refreshing. I make a rather nice and light Strawberry Mousse Daiquiri. A tasty Bellini, the sweet peach slices are so juicy too. Then an Aviator, the maraschino liqueur and the Crème de Violette and the gin are mixed into a white truffle mixture, purely to allow for the ultra violet of the Violette to give the chocolate is distinctive purple centre. I think these could and should be finished in pale lilac chocolate and decorated with crystallised violet, but decide against it, as it could be too much Violet instead I plummet for white chocolate coating and as I do, I drop a chocolate on the floor and bend to pick it up. I see another calling card on the floor, picking it up I see it was from Christian. His number is again on the back. This one I pocket, as the other I rather stupidly threw away.

After an afternoon of perfecting just six chocolates, I clear away and leave my cocktails for Lana to try for me. I change clothes and head across to the school. It shouldn't be listed New York City as it is in North Bergen, quite the way from the bright lights of Fifth Avenue. Mia will have to travel through the Lincoln Tunnel every day, unless she wishes to take up rooms here? I will ask. I take a cab there and as I ride the familiar road I smile, this place made me. This place helped cure some of what made me sad. Heading in I see the changes they made are drastic, the pictures of Daniel Frost can be ripped up and shredded for a start and the garish colours here are a tad too much and I hate the whole thing. The arrogant ass, he must have had the things in storage, when the Hyde's took over the school... I head towards the kitchens and I see Ramón is in heading up the cleaning crew.

"He let standards go. However, there is little that needs doing in the kitchens apart from cleaning and a little reorganisation, the decorators need to be in, who has red in a working kitchen, and have you seen the lobby, it looks like you are coming to a nightclub." I agree.

"Good, I thought it was just me, now how long before we can get students in again?"

"A week perhaps, the decorators are coming in to coat this crap in god knows how many coats of white. We can go through the applications we have and perhaps stretch to thirty students per class, the classes are in popular demand and we have been getting them for years?"

"No, three classes of twelve is plenty, I don't want more, not until I get more good licenced Maître Pâtissiers in. It will stretch you too thinly, but eventually we will add in more classes. We have Mia Grey from Belgium coming here on Monday and enough will follow her to fill the senior classes; we just need the spaces for the three new intake classes filling."

"She is already here, Mia? She is cleaning out the flour bins. Do you want to bring back the brown vest thing?" Good god she is as keen as I was, which bodes well for her, Ramón will notice this too, he appreciates hard work and dedication.

"No, that was Frosts idea. John Hyde never did that and neither will I, it is just a lesson in spite and breeds hate and contempt, so no, we have the same uniform as the factories and keep them all white. Do they still have the student accommodation here?"

"No, Jack sold the accommodation block as soon as his father died."

"So where do the students stop?" He grimaced.

"In the top floor roof space."

"What, how many did you find in there?"

"Too many, they were all turned out yesterday by security. I have had a couple leave their names with me. They want to come back."

"I don't know, what are their students like, are there any gems worth keeping?"

"They were not students; they were low paid illegal's; they were just factory workers. They have not done any teaching here since I left. They only taught their students properly in Belgium, because of James. The idiots father was in Switzerland, this whole school thing is a clusterfuck of doing things on the cheap and cashing in on the Lust branding. Ana they were making bootleg chocolates for god sake. You may need to go and sooth James down he walked in on chaos there, because apparently Daniel was none too happy about being let go by him."

"I can't, I still have the shop to see through the first hectic week."

"We can manage Ana, go and see to the new head office. This place just needs actual students and the artisans we trained back. The ones that Jack got rid of would come back; in fact, we have employed some here in New York."

"Find them Ramón and offer them back their places. Now what to do with the brand new bloody factory we just put in across the water?"

"Why not bring the equipment here, we can use them they are great pieces and would fit in the room he had as some sort of recording studio for his daily blogs, he was a fucking idiot and so was the damned son, and egotistical nightmare." I Laugh Ramon does not normally swear, ever! "then we could extend the cafe into the factory there and do the stock for the New York store here too, it makes total sense to use the space for that, the cafe is way too small, they queued for an hour to get in for lunch and not one complaint was to be heard?" He is right and it is what I wanted, my own large factory here and now we have it.

"We need accommodation too. The students come from all over the world; they are not sleeping in a roof space, so Ramón any ideas?"

"What about the old place? It could be bought back, I happen to know the new owner is struggling to rent out the rooms, he even does them by the hour now?" Oh god not my old room, I can't face the thought of my old room now being a working girls paid by the hour office.

"I will get Ethan on it and the sooner the better. What else did they let go?"

"We won't know until we get in the shops and if this place is anything to go by cleaning is top getting rid of the crap they call inventory and well getting back to Artisanal chocolates and use local and fresh sourced ingredients, I mean this fucking chocolate he has in, it comes from fucking Poland they don't even produce cacao there. I mean it Ana it's going to cost thousands to re stock the place. The only one of us getting the easy transfer is Natalia Gordon, it was the only place you could actually buy the Lust brand proper, James saw to that and his standards never slipped. You are closing the school there yes?"

"Yes, it was only like the finishing school anyway, with James in Switzerland we haven't got enough licensed Maître Pâtissiers, not with just you, me, Natalia and James we need to look into employing a couple more there too. I would rather use the school in Belgium to enlarge the factory there. Then perhaps look at reorganising my European houses, it's all such a mess."

"I never thought you would have too many shops and schools, but you are right. Perhaps you could enlarge the cafe's and bakeries in your smaller buildings and get Uncle Sonny to work out delivery from the massive factories that John Hyde had, it worked for them and your shops are in much the same locations?"

"I will see Ethan and Kate and will head to Switzerland tomorrow, or the day after to begin looking at the older shops the House of Hyde had, some of those could close, especially if they are no longer up to my codes and those of John Hyde."

"Go today, we can see to the mess here, go visit your empire."

"I would like to see James and pay the old place a visit and go and see Mrs Hyde and Alice. I wonder; did they kept the trophy cabinets?" He laughs. No, I hardly think Daniel Frost would want my name anywhere near his school. "Make sure Mia isn't here all night Ramón, she will be if you let her, she reminds me of me sometimes." I smile and head out. They could have ruined the whole set up. The factory here was run with and by illegal workers and they passed it off as an international school. I guess we got lucky they didn't have time to swap the machinery over to the crap things they have in Poland. One less thing to worry about, I guess? I head back to the new place to catch Kate and or Ethan. I am in luck and they are both in.

"Hello you two how are you, and do you not have a fancy office of your own in the good part of good ole New York Ethan?"

"Hello you... Again, I have as you know, and I am here to help Kate settle in to looking out for our father's best client!"

"And there's me thinking Christian was your best client?"

"He is the best looking one…" I fain hurt, and he laughs.

"Umm, bested by Grey again. What are we to do? No, but seriously folks, what are we doing about Hyde and where are we up to?"

"We are running through the cost of paying of the Polish and Romanian sites but I'd hold off for a little while Ana, because we have had a very interesting offer for them off Daniel Frost, he wants to buy them. Kate rang me this morning and after some investigation he is serious. He has the backing of someone with money behind him." I turn and stare, who but a moron would back Frost? I think Jack is behind this, but he wouldn't waste his last three million on chocolate factories, or would he?

"Really? I suppose we could sell him them as long as he only makes his own chocolates and ceases in using the Lust branding, he may bootleg it though and that is something we cannot allow to happen. I don't know that I would trust him not to be honest Ethan. Though we do need to claw back some money from somewhere to buy back the old school dormitory house and upgrade the older shops. Do you know the bastards had people sleeping in the roof?"

"Nothing he did surprises me Ana. So, I will look into both things, he pays the top price yes?" Kate asks.

"Damn right Kate, they are both new factories, full of his automated crap. Alas they are not old school handcrafting artisanal factories that we could use, my clients pay for the best and modern machines are not good for quality chocolate making, but still they need to be paid for. I guess as a plus he will be needing the staff? Make it a clause that he keeps on all the remaining staff, he needs them and he hired them anyway. One less huge payout, their wages, not that they compare with our wages I guess? Also disturb Pieter and get his advice on their bootlegging my brands, we need to ensure they don't before I go any deeper into it, please." They nod their heads.

"Anything else Ana?"

"Yes Kate, expect a large amount of cleaning receipts, decorating costs and new inventory requests, to allow him to get the school as it was back in the day. Ramón will need a lot of help over there Kate, he hates paperwork... Oh and I am heading to Switzerland as soon as I can, will you two be okay?"

"Yes, we know what you want, so leave us to it. Lana is in charge here right?"

"No, just of production. Mareena will be eventually, but Jose is still running this place for now Kate, also Mia Grey is transferring here, hopefully with the other students in Belgium, can you arrange with Natalia to have her personal things shipped over? I will get back to my hotel and pack. If you are sure you can manage Kate?"

"I can, besides Ethan is only a phone call away. Jose is here and well as you say Mareena is here too. Go and boss the others around? give me a break please." I hug Kate and Ethan. When I get to the hotel I have a message to call Christian. I look at my phone and it has died. Great... As soon as I get to my room I call him.

"Christian, what can I do for you?"

"Yes sorry let me finish this email, hold on for one tiny minute. Right that's that. Ana, I am so sorry to call and this may sound kind of stupid I know, but how do I find our son's resting place, the place is massive I looked on line for it?" I laughed.

"God Christian, I am so sorry I didn't think. There is an onsite office, if you ask in there and they will tell you where it is, it's quite the nice drive and it's very relaxing too. I have to go to Switzerland today, as a matter of urgency or I would have gone with you. Buying Hyde's House of Chocolate is turning out to be a bloody logistical nightmare."

"It has?" He asks and I hear him typing.

"I may regret it in a few weeks, given I have other things on the go too, the book, the damned concert and other stuff." I like talking to him.

"I am going to London later today, fly with me? If you want to that is?"

"London? I guess I could hop on the shuttle from Heathrow. Are you sure? I could sort out the London stores, now that I have two new ones there."

"Yes I am sure. I have to work so I will not be very sociable I'm afraid."

"Snap, I have a lot to do too."

"Well we will be able to eat dinner together as I will be holding you captive for a few hours at least." I know I grinned at the thought of being held anyway I could. Then I stopped and smiled. Like hell I was over this enigma of a man…

"So, you get your way to feed me then?"

"It seems I do, Taylor and I will pick you up from your hotel in an hour, but will you be ready?"

"I am already packing. I will see you in an hour then, and thank you Christian."

"It really is my pleasure Ana."

I end the call and pack. I place my things away and call Jenny and Holly in London to ready two rooms and get in some food, I can at least offer him the freedom of my house whilst he is in London. I pack my paperwork and make sure the files I have are locked in my briefcase. I pack my laptop and my gadgetry and head down to settle my bill. As I am doing so he arrives to help me with my luggage. After settling the bill, I turn and smile. He has a goofy grin on his face.

"Sorry my life has been lived in suitcases for the past three months. I need some down time. I may have to take some time off and visit my villa in St Bart's. My father had a really nice pad there and I had it made over for my twenty-first birthday, a damned expensive present to myself. I love it when I get the chance that is..."

"I rent a villa there sometimes, when Mom tells me that I need to relax all the time, so I have it on doctors orders to take some vacation time and soon." I saw him there once, but being the reformed stalker I avoided him like the plague and got the hell out of there.

"How is Grace?"

"Happy that Mia is here, so she and Grams are stopping for a while to settle her back in."

"So she will be stopping at your place?"

"It would seem so, and she has the car she needs to get there too. Now, let's get these in the car Taylor, thank you." He looks shocked that Christian said thank you. Christian helps me to my seat and then rounds the car and sits by my side.

"How long are you in London for Christian?"

"Four days or so, if all goes well, if not longer."

"Okay, have you booked your hotel?"

"No, we were doing London on the return journey, so that's up in the air; however, there are plenty of nice hotels to chose from. Why?"

"I have a place in London; it's another of my father's places actually, where I lived when Mimi died? I asked the housekeeper to ready two rooms, for you and Taylor. I will only be there long enough to dump my clothes, repack others, see to the two stores and perhaps say a quick hello to my, sorry to our baby and Olivier and then head to Switzerland."

"I'd hate to put you out, but I think I like the idea of you and I sharing at least the first of my visits to see him..." First of more? God I could fall in love with him all over again, would that I hadn't actually ever fallen out of love with the man…

"It's no bother; it stands empty most of the time. I can't sell it, though I really should look into it, but it's hard. His room hasn't been touched since he left and it's the only place I feel close to him, now that Otter Island has gone."

"As in it is full of dust and old clothes?"

"No silly, his old housekeeper had cleaned away before he left for the American tour; but his things are as they were back then and I know its morbid, but it was his room. I have changed the rest of the house over the years to accommodate Nonna, Nonno and the rest, I had too as they didn't care much for the nudes he had everywhere, it was quite the eye opener for me too, Papa released funds from my trust and it was made grandparent approved friendly, I am updating it again slowly, but that room hasn't ever been touched."

"You seem very switched on to finance and things, how did you get so wise?"

"Me wise?"

"Yes, you are very wise and way above your meagre twenty- four years Ana."

"Old before my time you mean and boring?"

"No. I mean you are wiser than most twenty-year olds I meet..."

"I don't know you were wealthy at my age, were you wise?"

"Obviously…" He smirked. "You have a point. Now what artwork did your grandmother not approve of, and did you use it in your clubs?" I laugh.

"Even at twelve I knew they were some serious pieces of art, but they were of nude women and you know erotic fantasies, he was a little eclectic in his art choices. I was a little shocked to see them when we moved from the bakery flat to the massive house there, Nonna, she crossed her chest so many times we had to sit her in the garden it was so funny, my uncles who still lived with us did not help the matter any either. I have them in storage, and actually they are too expensive for my clubs."

"I bet he was a real rock and roll star, do they all live like that?"

"I don't know about the others, Uncle Wolfe, he lives in a cottage with roses around the door and has normal pictures of horses and animals on his walls. His drinks cupboard is filled with tonic water ginger ale and cola. He was never very rock and roll, that was Dad's thing."

"Okay then, so do you see him a lot Uncle Wolfe?"

"As much as I can, and when I need him he is there in a flash if I do need him."

"Was he about when Christian died?"

"No, I didn't tell anyone other than Ollie, even my grandparents do not know about him. They would hate me and I can't have that."

"I am sure they wouldn't." We had been driving ages when we pulled into the airport. "We use smaller airports, it's easier and quicker. Welcome to my jet."

"Boys and their toys."

"Do you not have one?"

"No, I fly commercial and drive between my European places. I use the Euro tunnel and roads when I am in Europe, I hate fannying around with planes, my cars are my weakness. I have my dad's jet, or rather the jet is still around, but it's a rock and roll museum. In the desert somewhere in Nevada. Apparently the heat is good for it?"

"Okay, so first explain this fannying, is it the same as a backside? And secondly I guess she hasn't flown in a while then?"

"Yeah sorry about that it means messing about and can't be arsed is the same. I use it a lot in London, sorry. As to the plane nope, it's been nearly twenty-five years all told. I doubt she is able to fly, is there a time expiry thing on planes? Because the last flight she made was to take me and my grandparents back to Scotland and then Wolfe flew back in her to sort out their concert cancelations and crap and then he put her in the desert in mothballs. It was a who fan came up with the idea of using it as a museum, they like that sort of shit. I find it a little strange that they want to see where he sat, where he slept and where he wrote his songs, most of his time on the plane he was asleep, screwing a woman or women and or drunk, or so Uncle Wolfe says, still they pay for its upkeep. Two fans got married on it, and they paid a fortune to spend their wedding night on it, as I said his fans do some wacky stuff."

"Fans, it seems do in fact do the funniest things."

"Wait till you see what they leave on the gates at home? We have to paint it three or four times a year and just recently more, especially with Uncle Wolfe releasing the new album."

"New album?"

"Yeah, I found some unreleased work when I cleared out his rooms at Otter Island, I sat on them for ages and a couple of months ago I gave them to Uncle Wolfe. He says it was the last album they worked on, it should have been a double album, but they rushed it out to... To well..."

"... Make his fans happy?"

"Yes, the one album was already finished, they just added Hallelujah at the last minute and the rest they say made history and my trust fund was richer by a few million and it increases yearly thanks to the sales too, so I should be thankful I guess, that he didn't gamble and drink it all away." He was at least good with his money and investments.

"Here Ana let me help you up, customs will be in to clear us and we can then relax. This is the Captain, Stephan and this is his first officer Bagley. This is today's cabin staff Nadine, this everyone is Anastasia Lambert, my guest for the flight." They all nodded, though Nadine seemed to be slightly offended that I was there. I take the seat Christian offers up and put my bags away. He orders himself a coffee and I ask for a tea.

"My how the rich folks live." Customs had been and gone in the blink of an eye.

"Ana, it makes for good business sense. I hate commercial flights and being at their beck and call."

"Where as I love it."

"Really?"

"Yes, I know I have always been loaded and could, if I wanted have been the pampered princess people always presume me to be. But, and this is the big but, I was raised by a canny Scot to save money. I mean seriously, Mimi she didn't spoil me at all. I know I was wild and free, but not with my money, the chocolates I made they paid for a lot of my things, so much so that I didn't touch my trust fund until I bought more shops and even then it was only used for surety, they have to pay their own way within the year if not they go, I don't carry any baggage. I have changed a lot over the years. Uncle Wolfe says I am sometimes too hard and cold..."

"I remember the wild and free Anastasia, the Wisp who Elliot adored."

"The fucking pain in the arse who bugged you to death, you mean?"

"That too. Now fasten up Ana."

"Wow, that was a quick airport stop, I didn't get any magazines."

"We have a selection. The girls always see to it..."

"...Thanks but I wasn't kidding I have a mass of paperwork and I still have to look for the Seattle premises I need, Mia is stoked we are opening there and says your mother will throw me a massive opening bash." He nods in agreement.

"Where in Seattle?" He asks as he organises himself in the seat opposite.

"The Pike District? I hear that's the place to be?"

"I have several rentals there. I live close by too."

"I don't rent I buy. I hate throwing good money after bad, as to my living where I work it would be a hard choice for me to make, the nearest thing I have to a base is London. Though Nonna and Nonno, they still live in California, so I guess it's between the two of them or Paris, as it was my own first grown up place that I bought."

"I will have Ros send you the list and you can negotiate with her." Apparently, we can be civil. I grab my case and look through it and I grab my laptop and we both settle down to work. I would glance up occasionally and he would be lost in thought, no doubt thinking of Christian. I went through lists of shops I had now to revisit and slim line my newly expanded empire. It seems I have a few doubles. Two shops in the same places, one of which will have to close, unless the town is like Belgium and London who can easily accommodate two?

"Ana, would you like dinner?" I look at my watch.

"God, is that the time, where did it go? Yes, please and whatever you have will be fine with me."

"Do you want a drink?"

"Umm, I have done the paperwork, so yes a vodka and orange, if you have it?"

"We do. Nadine I would like a scotch please and Ana would like a vodka and orange."

"Sir, dinner is either Beef Wellington or a salmon salad?"

"Ana?"

"Either or is fine by me."

"We will have the Beef and did they get the cheesecake I ordered sent to the plane?"

"It has arrived Sir. Blueberry or strawberry?"

"Ana, it's from your bakery?"

"Umm the blueberry please." She bobbed off wherever she goes and I packed away some of my papers. "You ordered cheesecake, why?"

"I get it everywhere you have a bakery. I have become partial to it." I blush. Really I feel my face warm slightly. I can't even blame the alcoholic flush as the damned girl is taking her sweet time with my drink.

"I think I am pleased, if not a little shocked you know where my shops are."

"Your Parisian place is near to GEH, we send out for your pastries all the time. Many a deal has been brokered for us over your baked goods Miss Lambert."

"Well, you live and learn." Our drinks are brought to the table and I thank Nadine, she smiles and bobs back to wherever it is she bobs off too.

"Ana, why do you keep looking at Nadine like that?" Busted…

"Do you keep her on board for entertainment?"

"No... I have a very strict no workplace fraternisation policy in place. My other world doesn't impact on this my working one."

"Okay, it's just she is seizing me up like I am the competition."

"I doubt it."

"I don't... Christian, can I ask how you got into that world?"

"I had special needs because of the touch issues I had, someone introduced me to a world that gave me control of who could and couldn't touch me and the world allowed me to restrain a person, thus taking away the stress of them touching me."

"Okay, by person, do you..."

"...Women. I only see women." We stop talking as Nadine sets the table for dinner. I smile as she heads back.

"Sorry, but I was just a little shocked to see you in one of my clubs."

"As I was at finding you in one and owning it. That is an unusual sideline for a pastry chef."

"That's Maître Pâtissièr if you please, I worked hard for the title."

"So how did you start? In our alternate world, not baking…"

"Umm, well after Jack, I had a great deal of anger and off the chart trust issues and a crap load more going on in my head. A friend and I, whilst in Paris, we visited a very different sort of club. Club Noir, and it was like nothing I had seen before and I liked it. The whole hiding behind a mask and a costume concept was very freeing."

"I have visited Noir a time or two; it is a haunt of mine, when I am not in an arrangement."

"Oh, you have subs?" I stupidly ask…

"Do you not?"

"No, I am never in one place long enough. I have the clubs instead and a have free pass at anything I want within their walls."

"I am a member there too."

"I know I had you checked out, really you use a non-de-plume?"

"I do; I am very secretive in that world too."

"Christopher Black? Very clever hiding. It took me all of three seconds to suss you out."

"Yes, but you knew I had been scanned in that night, thus making it easier."

"The most surprising thing I found out whilst scanning your membership was that we have been in several of my clubs at the same time."

"We would not have met because we wear the same colour. I have long since stopped being a submissive Ana, but I find it interesting to note that we have been within touching distance a time or two."

"As you say I would be looking for the red, not the blue, I have never been a sub and I do not intend to be one ever."

"So you didn't train to be a submissive first?"

"No, I am very good at what I do, I give orders like a bitch and I am able to be masterful with great ease and with a very pleasing sense of authority, or so I am told, but I think I am different to you, because unlike you I don't go to clubs for sex, I go to calm my urges and curb the angst I let build up. I have never had sex with a submissive."

"Oh..."

"Which leads me to believe you do?"

"I..." Nadine comes with the dinner and he is silent. How could I think he wouldn't want those needs quenching, I never liked it after what Jack and I did? I have only ever had sex with the one man and he is sitting opposite me looking like he has been stung by a wasp. Nadine disappears again. I sip my vodka and look towards Taylor; he is eating his dinner and has ear buds in. "Ana, eat please."

"Just as things were getting good too." I say with a smile. "Continue I like this side of you, the side I knew nothing about. So sex, you like having it with the subs I guess?"

"I don't have to have the finish, not always. Sometimes the things I do to my submissive are enough, but yes sometimes I fuck them. That is all it is though. I don't sleep with them I don't make love to them, I fuck them and leave or they leave me and go and wait around until I need more."

"A true dominant. This looks great, thank you. It seems we are even different in our sexual desires too."

"Do you really not allow them to fuck you Ana?"

"No, no. No I don't."

"How? Why not I mean?"

"I have only had sex once and with one person and I guess that marred me."

"I was the last person you had sex with Ana? Really, I find that very hard to believe, what about Jack Hyde? You surely did things with him?" I ate my meal.

"I did one or two of things we did and I regretted it as soon as I did and we never went all the way, we had horrid oral sex. Which was more than enough at the time, and then he played the long con and lured me in and I really thought I was over my crush on you and I caught him with someone, I was meant to be away at a competition and I was sick at the last minute, I shocked him by knocking on the door and catching his girlfriend and him fresh from the shower. After that I didn't bother to look, I immersed myself in work. My friend Florence Clancy, she was into this alternate life style, she said there was no love involved, there was sex if I wanted it and discipline if I needed it or to inflict it. I went with her to Noir and loved it, it was perfect for me." We ate for a while. Then he asked me a rather peculiar question.

"Do you have a type?"

"As in brainless himbo, muscled and well hung?" He laughed. "I do, but as I am a sadist, the men I whip are generally, and I say generally, I mean they sort of have to look like you, I punish men who have your build, your colouring and if he has gray eyes it is an added bonus."

"Wow..." He looks shocked by my admission. "I am your type?"

"No, well I mean yes sort of, they are the type I go for now, I guess to punish you for making me feel so shit about myself and life in general. I changed my preference for a short time to mirror Jack, but those poor boys and men couldn't stand the heat of my hatred for the man, I had to change so went back to whipping a Grey Boy look alike. And I will admit this to you Christian, you were the only man who has ever interested me in the normal world."

"Wow, so you whip my lookalikes. I guess my Mom could have a point after all, she says I was attracted to you that night because you reminded me of Ella."

"Ewe Grey, you fucked me because I looked like your mother, that is sick?" He turned a reddish colour.

"I have been told that yes, and by many expensive therapists. I don't however think I did think of you as a mother replacement, you were just so fucking bewitching." I laugh.

"And yes, before you say anything, I know I am your type, you told me, and I was exactly your type and that you fuck and hard, I knew that going to my room, that there was going to be no love involved in what we did. You made that very clear Christian."

"I did?"

"You did. Now eat this dessert. I think we know a little more about each other Mr Grey."

"We do. Though I would like to know more?"

"What like?"

"Why were you drawn to me?"

"I don't know, you were kind of funny and like nobody I had met before, you were very serious and you looked lonely, I guess that's what we had in common, I was lonely too. I guess you were fucked up in other ways too, but back then I thought I could be your friend and stop you being so down on yourself." I sighed.

"I think I was very lonely Ana, and I guess that little girl just fell for the wrong lonely idiot, some first crush you picked Ana." He smiled.

"First crushes are hard to get over, it's the same with your first love you never get over them either and you were my first and only love. When I was little you were a shy sulky boy and made me laugh. Not like Elliot laugh, but a more curious sort of laugh, I wondered why you and Elliot were so different. I saw you as a challenge, when I was little everything to me was something I could master. I wanted you to be my friend and then I wanted to be more as I got older, but when I was fifteen, that when the thing I had got way out of control, you know when I first saw your naked body. I lost it, and I did more than was normal just to attract your attention. But you, you would not have touched me, a mere fifteen-year-old, but that was what I wanted. Each year it got worse. Then it finally happened and you noticed the changes I had gone through and you wanted me. I just played it cool and you chased me."

"It seems I did."

"We did make love that night, the second time. After you realised you had taken my virginity, that time we spent together was pretty amazing, I kissed each of your scars and you cried, you were a wreck and I was a bitch and used you."

"You touched me and I didn't hit you or fight?"

"No, at first you were hesitant, but you were so drunk and emotional. I did everything you asked of me and more. Then I woke up to find you had gone and Papa had had a damned stroke, so Christian Grey, a truly memorable night was had by me."

"I bet it was. I told Mom you were a witch."

"You did, why?"

"Because, when you touch me Ana, I don't freak out. You have always been able to do that and I don't know why."

"It's not always been the case, you near on scared the crap out of me one time reading me a story and gave me a serious concussion if I remember rightly?"

"No, I freaked out because I liked you touching me. It didn't hurt; you are the only one who has ever been able to do that to me."

"Wow, so we have a thing then, a touch thing and a none fuck thing?"

"Ana are you mocking me?"

"No, not really, but you and I are a damned mystery that's for sure Christian Grey."

"We have something that's for sure. When you find out what you think it is, let me know Ana."

"I will, now thank you for dinner, when do we land, because I may get my head down, if that's alright?"

"We have a couple of hours, go and grab some sleep I will wake you, my cabin is through there. Make yourself at home."

"Thanks, I only seem to be able to cat nap these days... Can I ask you, do you still have nightmares, like you did when you were little?"

"Sometimes... Fuck Ana, in the spirit of truth telling, then yes I still get them, all of the time actually."

"Good to know. Through here?"

"Yes. Sleep well Ana." I smile and head in; wow that man has style... I take off my shoes and fall on his bed, my head hits the pillow and I sleep.

* * *

They realise they are similar, they are talking and they are friendly, they seem to be a good match and both head strong an opinionated, good or bad?

I have had a case of sun induced headaches, okay sunstroke, I may have had too much Greek sun…

AS USUAL READ AND REVIEW... And I may post again before I fly home xx


	11. Chapter 11

So, you know how I write or if you read my other completed stories you do, anyway I do HEA and I only use Ms James's character names and lifestyle and some places. I figure if you want large chunks of cut copy and paste then you are better off reading the four books again…

* * *

Still on Holibobs for a few more days enjoying the zero coke and hot weather. 

Oh and this will now be a little longer than the anticipated fourteen chapters too xx

* * *

Dreaming of Chocolate and Grey:

Chapter 11:

Crying games:

Ana heads into my bedroom and I hang around doing my paperwork, like I can concentrate with all that's going on in my overcrowded brain! Taylor is in his room sleeping, and apart from Nadine annoying the crap out of me I am alone with my thoughts. I wander to the bedroom door and hang around in the seating area opposite, wondering why am I feeling like this, so agitated and restless? I read a few reports and then I hear her cry, she mustn't have locked the door, as the cabin is usually soundproofed because of those damned nightmares I have. I stand at the door and she is sobbing, I knock and enter.

"Ana, are you okay, Ana you are crying, why Ana, what's the matter?"

"The pain won't go away, and I need it to stop I want it to leave me in peace. Christian make it go away." She is sleeping, so she is either dreaming of me, or our son. I sit on the bed and she turns and hugs my waist, I sit ridged, does she even know I am here acting like a peeping tom? She snuggles in and I feel comforted and safe. I sit on the bed and then take off my shoes and put my feet up. She continues to hold me and I let it continue. Strange behaviour from me... I close my eyes for just a second, my hand is running through her hair and I find so much peace in this, this the simplest of actions that my brain shuts down, my thoughts are calmed and I drift off into the warmth of my thoughts.

Taylor's panic...

I wake from my power nap to find Grey has vanished and so too has Ms Lambert. I looked everywhere apart from his cabin... He is one fast acting son of a bitch. The fucking fool hasn't had me check her out properly, nor have her fill in the paperwork. I hope he doesn't blame this on me. I call Barney and Welch and have them start the usual checks and I am told they are not necessary; he has all he needs on Anastasia D'Acciaio-Lambert already and she is not like the others. I am shocked. So if she is not his usual type, though the looks say differently, then how does he know her? I do my own checks. I run through her past and I am stunned she is not the same as the others. She is rich for a start and doesn't need a helping hand. Everything I thought I knew about the cold hearted bastard seems not to be the case where this woman is concerned. This one is different, he is doing the running, whether he knows it or not this one is different. This one has me confused and oddly I felt no instant hatred of this woman as I did his other whipping girls he has or has had in the past. This one looks like she could kick the shit out of him, for a change.

I am wondering too why we are going to London first, this has my detective hackles raised. The Flintstones are being none too forth coming with their information on her either. I have ways and means boys, ways and means of finding things out without you, but and this is the odd thing, I don't want to pry. Nadine comes to inform us they need to be back in their seats as we are landing in half an hour. She looks pissed off too, she isn't his type and she is being far too forward.

"Button the blouse to the top, or we will be looking for a new flight assistant."

"Sir." She fucks off and goes back to her bat cave. I get up from my seat and gently knock on the door. I hear nothing, fuck do I go in? God knows I have seen his women at work and as a consequence I have become immune to his depraved activities. However, this seems different... I open the door slightly, coughing as I enter and what I see is fucking amazing, he and she are hugging, they are asleep and spooning, fully clothed and he is sleeping like a normal person. I tap him lightly on the shoulder and he wakes.

"Sir, we are coming into land, you and Ms Lambert have to return to your seats Sir... Wake up..."

"I am awake thank you Taylor, we will be out shortly." I guess I have been dismissed and I happily go and sit the fuck in my own space. I may just have to let Gail know the boy is being normal. I doubt she will believe me. She has witnessed far more than I have of his girls, she cleans their torture chamber and washes the surfaces they play on. They treat her like a servant and always look down on her, something I have had to remind them off frequently, of their correct place in everyday life with Grey... They can be replaced, and two of them were in fact replaced for smacking her. Gail Jones however, she is irreplaceable and he has stated so openly. They don't always like it, but they get told. I then wonder what she has on the fucker. I smile perhaps the roles are reversed with this one and she wields the whip? Yeah right...

Tell me we didn't...

"Ana, we need to wake up and you are sleeping on my arm." She stirs. "Ana, we are coming into land, please Ana can you get up?" She stretches and turns suddenly and I have her in my arms. Her body is touching mine and yes I definitely have her in my arms.

"Can you please tell me why you are in your bed with me, because I don't remember you asking to be my bed buddy?" She is still in my arms and she is smiling.

"You were crying out in your sleep, the door was open and when I came in to see to you, you seemed to need to want to hold me, and for whatever reason I allowed it to continue and I seemed to like it. You are still one hell of a bewitching woman Anastasia Lambert."

"So, you climbed up and we slept together?"

"Fully clothed but shoeless, yes. I have never done this before; I'd love to discuss this now, here with you, but Ana we have to get up."

"It would seem we do, are you going to let go of me then?" She says as she smiles. Her mouth comes really close to mine and suddenly I let loose my grip and get off the bed. I very nearly crossed into that place. She stretches and gets off the bed. "Next time wake me. I have nightmares all the time, I generally get up have a drink and wander around. How very strange I allowed you to get so close, I never imagined I would allow that to happen again." I think she is joking; she's that hard to read.

"I am sorry, but it won't happen again, I will make sure of it. Freshen up and join me in our seats, the bathroom is through there. It has the usual amenities."

"I will make use of them. Thank you, but can I just say that I have never awakened so refreshed and happy?"

"Funnily enough I feel very different too; it's that witchcraft of yours."

"I put a spell on you and your mine?" She sings little. "Ha, back in the day Christian I may have wished for that, but now it's not what I need. You are better off staying well away from me and my crazy life Christian, for your own sanity I am told by my therapist I am many shades of fucked up."

"Me too, mine tells me I am or I have Fifty Shades of Grey hidden within, most of which are the dark and menacing shades." I drift off and wonder if it was my doing, her being so fucked up, stupid ass Grey; of course it was you she was fucked up about.

"Okay, so we have something else in common, we pay expensive charlatans to tell us what we already know. So, do you want to freshen up first? Christian? Christian, where did you just go to?" She is tapping my face when I get back in the room.

"I zoned out didn't I?" She will hate me if she knows what has just flashed through my head; I think I was the one to cause Papa Frank, to have his stroke.

"For a moment. Are you okay?"

"I don't know is the honest truth. I really don't know what it is. I just need to use the facilities, please?"

"That's what I asked you before you freaked out." I can't tell her what I remembered, or can I?

"I remembered leaving the room after we, after we..."

"You left the room; we know you did, but why?" She asks...

"I left your room to be sick, because I'd had drank way too much. I think I had words with Papa Frank, because I just remembered that he called me a charlatan, I think I laughed and went back to my room."

"Okay, so he saw you coming out of my room, that explains them finding him alone, and in the corridor outside my room, he saw you and the rest they say is history. I shocked him into having a stroke, by having you in my room. Fuck..." She is so calm as I use the toilet, I wash my hands and face and return to the cabin.

"I don't remember, so it would be a lie to tell you something that may or may not be true. I let him down, he trusted me and Elliot with you and I screwed his granddaughter. My actions could have lead to the stroke too." She disappears into the bathroom and I hear the water running. She returns and sighs.

"He never spoke again, and he wasn't ever the same, so I guess we will never know? I know he drank too much and ate too many fine meals, but I guess us doing what we did, it could have been a factor? Did you say we are coming into land?" Why is she so, I don't know, more angry with me?

"We are, this way. Now to need to do the walk of shame, because Taylor had to wake me. I don't know who was more shocked, him or me?"

"Oh lord. We will have all the guilt yet had none of the pleasure. It is so unfair..." She laughs.

"I had a very nice rest, and I liked waking up next to you Ana."

"Be careful, I may have to report you as having a heart after all Grey..."

"I don't have one."

"You do, you just fight hard to keep it bubble wrapped in callousness and self loathing. I know because mine is wrapped in the same mesh like things. I know that you have a heart Christian, because you too cried in your sleep. I lied I knew you were there hugging me, and I liked it too."

"You did?"

"I did, now to the seats, before they have to circle London a time or two..." Wow, what happened there? We land and customs do their thing and I am shocked to see a new red and black Bentley at the plane's steps. Ana waves and the girl gets out of the car and opens the trunk.

"Hi Holly, you got my message then? Be a darling and throw the bags in the boot."

"I will help her Ma'am..." Taylor says as he steps forward.

"Thanks Taylor, but she is a body builder and lift's double her weight with ease." Ana says.

"You employ a woman as your security Ana?" I say like an idiot.

"No, she is my driver, my friend and sort of mad sister from another mother, she is Uncle Wolfe's daughter, she is handy to have around, but I can stand up for myself Christian and she blends when we attend functions."

"How come she wasn't with you in New York?"

"I don't need security, or I didn't, however I am looking into it because of Hyde and Frost. I have a feeling I pushed my luck too far with them. Holly Wolfenden, please meet Christian Grey and this is Taylor, his security. This gents, is my shadow and friend Holly. She lives in the house here and annoys the crap out of me when we drive through Europe most of the time."

"I have the rooms ready and there's some food in. I thought I was meeting you next week, what have you done?"

"Nothing too much... I've finally got the House of Hyde; Holly I've done it..."

"Oh hell. He's not gonna be pleased Annie, he is a phsyco at the best of times with you."

"I know, but we can deal with him later. Don't change your plans on my account I am only saying hello to the washing machine and my room."

"You need to go to the Soho bakery; it was damaged last night, when the roof collapsed Ana."

"Was anyone hurt?"

"No it was after midnight and it was empty. They tried to get hold of you, but you must have been mid-flight?"

"Sorry please get in; Holly is a killer on the roads here. Not literally but she is an expert in the evasion course's that you and your fellow security folks love so much Taylor, and she likes the rough and tumble. She is a stunt woman and body double for a few of the big stars."

"Okay, remind me not to piss you off then. I notice you have just switched your vocals Ana, you sound different?"

"My London accent is stronger here than anywhere else and the Scottish accent is a killer in the islands. However, I normally speak French most of the time. I can't say anyone else has ever said anything about it before, trust it to be you Christian." I sit to the side of Ana at the back, whilst Taylor makes do with being a front seat passenger. He is not used to being driven. Especially by a woman. This could be fun.

"This is a nice car Ana..."

"She is, she's new, we do a lot of driving Holly and I. I saw her in the showroom and I had to have her, I was going with Mercurial, but I am glad I went with Red Mercury, the colours I mean? She is a Mulsanne Speed; I have yet to find a more comfortable ride to be driven in. I have a couple of Audi's too; you can use those Taylor. This baby is coming with me..."

"Thank you Ma'am."

"There's an A8 and a R8, they are nice cars, and though Holly here hates me driving myself, apparently I am a little too heavy on the accelerator pedal. Now, any news from your dad Holly?"

"He is in Cali with the olds and was expecting you to be there to rehearse Ana."

"I will go next week, or the week after. Did he say how Nonna and Nonno are?"

"They are spoiling dad as usual and he is being fed night and day. You have been saying you were going to go for a month. Its nearly that time Ana, you won't have much time to rehearse with the band."

"I have the song down pat. I will be fine. They play it enough to know their parts; I will take my lead from them..." I hear Taylor muttering and he looks pale.

"Okay, Mr Taylor, please refrain from swearing I have been driving since I was ten, and know these roads like the back of my hand. Oh crap Ana, look I have freckles on my hand..."

"Stop it Holly, you have always had them you redheaded Sassenach, stop scaring the fudge out of poor Taylor..."

"It was a joke you mad Jock..."

"Miss, keep your eyes on the damned road..." Taylor screams as the two of them joke.

"The cars are all equipped with the latest gadgetry, including a bitchy voice that tells me when I cross the line, she has anti collision crap in too, and they all have Oyster cards in them for the other pain in arse, traffic wardens, meters and toll roads. So, what do you do then, for Mr Grey here?" He looks pale and if he grabs the seatbelt any tighter he could pull it off, I have found the ride amusing. She reminds me of Elliot.

"Pray a lot when being driven by a manic woman."

"Oh heck, was I hitting the high speeds? She drives like a dream and I forget. I know where all the speed cameras are, hence my erratic fast and slow, I am not doing it to kill you, just to save my licence. I love the German and Austrian roads, don't I Ana?"

"She does, and only because she can drive at speeds, as long as the car is under control. I only have great cars, solid cars and she is a great driver, with awards coming out of her yahoo-hole, so relax Mr Taylor, she is a pretty good driver." He grunts and before long we are heading down a long road. We come to a giant gate and it has all manner of crap on it.

"Did you not take the gifts off it this morning Holly?"

"Yes, this lot are the offerings from a coach tour, that were here as I left. They thought I was you, so I photo bombed their pictures." Ana looks at the teddies and lambs and sighs.

"Is this normal?" I ask, as Holly drives through the automated gates. These girls seem to be best friends almost. Though Holly seems a little rowdier than Ana. Taylor is not liking being driven about by a stunt driver. I loved it.

"Umm, we clear the gifts daily and they are put in the garage, in the donation tubs. We send god knows how many to charity shops. One came complete with a gold wedding ring and the fan had written their wedding vows on it. I get all sorts of weird and wonderful offerings left to Lenny Lamb. We dispose of the underwear, for obvious reasons and we have a burning bag collected once a week. This lot, as you can see they are mainly cute lambs, sheep and the odd Wolf."

"My dad being the very odd Wolf... Here we are, I will grab that lot and then bring in your luggage. Then shut you in for the time being. You need to get some sleep Ana, have you been having the usual nightmares?"

"A few, I will be fine please stop worrying and get off to your film location."

"I am diving off a high wall and into icy water in Vancouver, after the damned long flight to get there that is; I can wait a while before I freeze my tits off thanks a lot Ana."

"You're working?" I say, of course she is, are you a moron?

"Hu? Sorry yes I am flying to Canada tomorrow, I am working on the tv series Arrow..."

"Are you not going with Ana? Ana how will you be safe on your own?"

"I have other people Christian. Holly has to work. I am interviewing in Switzerland actually. A man called Luke Sawyer called me; he comes highly recommended by Ethan, he was to have started work for their father, but I nabbed him before Eamon could." Taylor grins. He actually works for me and I had asked Ethan to have him watch Ana. I am not sure how this Hyde guy is wired, but there are a few crossed wires from what I could see. With her wealth and her attachment to me, though flimsy, he knows of it and could be a threat and from what I have learned from Ethan, the Frost men are just as deranged. Ana has made a few enemies and is ruthless in business. I want and need her protected, it's the least I can do, see that she is safe.

"You were zoning out again Christian. Is there anything troubling you?"

"No, I am admiring the place, this is amazing."

"It could do with a major face lift, but it isn't used much and it doesn't warrant the time and effort, it's a perfectly good home as is. I could sell it tomorrow, as people are crying out for property around here, but it was dad's so I won't ever sell it. Have a look around. There are pieces from Otter Island here too. I need to see to some business, so I will show you to your rooms on my way up. I have a housekeeper who comes in when I need her and when Holly is away, just to keep the fans at bay. I once came home to find a woman in my dad's clothes walking around as high as a kite."

"What did you do?"

"I offered her a sweet tea and called the police. I then upped security, got in a live in friend and a housekeeper and ramped security to presidential levels. In here is the security room Taylor, fill your boots." He goes in and I follow Ana. "That was my dad's office and is now mine and in there is a secure internet and phone lines and all the modern communication devises you will ever need, I did a lot of work from here, and I still do actually. There are conference facilities too. Feel free to run your world from there."

"Ana. This is amazing."

"Don't sound so shocked, there is money in chocolate if you are good, and I am amazing and yes a big headed bitch."

"I would say driven."

"I am very strong willed. I proved that getting you to sleep with me..."

"Yes, well we know how that ended Ana." She smiles and I don't know why but it makes me feel happy?

"Umm, this is the kitchen, the dining room, family lounge and that leads onto a patio area and there is a pool. You can get to it through the garage too. There is a gym, a cinema and a music studio and music room in the basement. These are the stairs, obviously. Follow me, do you want Taylor close, as in the next room or do you value your space?"

"Space. They live on the other side of the apartment in Seattle."

"I don't have another side, just another floor. Holly takes up two rooms; her crap is in one she dosses in the other. That is my father's room, since the incident its kept locked. Do you want a squiz?"

"A Squiz?"

"You know; do you want to take a look at the room? It's Ozzie slang Christian." I look like an idiot. I am an idiot it seems.

"As in Osborne?" I add a little more to my humiliation.

"No, silly as in Australian. My Uncle Raimondo, Uncle Ray, is my mother's oldest brother and the big family man. He runs my businesses over there for me, with his own branch of the family, and my many cousins."

"You have a large family then Ana?"

"I do, the Italians like big families; la mia famiglia. We branch out all over the globe including Italy. I employ my three actual uncles, all of whom I might add are the best bakers in the world. Nonno and Nonna have six sisters and four brothers too, so between them I have a lot of 'mia famiglia' and quite a few of them work for me, nephertism is alive and thriving within the D'Acciaio clan oh and it's so huge its confusing too."

"You really have done well for yourself Ana, really well, your family must be proud of you?"

"I look out for those I love and I love my family, they saw I had a dream and were with me all the way. My dreams then became a reality and I got what I wanted from it. To be the best I could possibly be. So do you want a squiz?"

"Yes, Elliot says his rooms at the castle were amazing."

"I asked you did you want to see them once and you told me to take a run and jump in the moat."

"How very not nice of me. How old was I?"

"Eighteen..."

"Oh, so I wasn't a child then?"

"No, but I was at my peak of annoying you and I did it a lot that holiday, fall out I mean when I annoyed you, which I did and a lot. I was pre pubescent for many years and a sulky Wisp, who wanted you to notice me and kiss me." She opened the door and it was like an Aladdin's cave of memorabilia. "I had to put it somewhere and this is the safest place I know. His gold disks are in the studio down stairs and this lot was from Otter Island. I haven't got around to placing it yet. I may need to use the next room and use that store room there too."

"It's an amazing thing to have to remember him by. Ros is a big fan."

"She is? Well here this is a signed photo of the mock up album cover, the last one before he died, and it is the one we will be using for the new album." She hands me one over and I take it. "Don't worry there are a few more. I haven't been good at sending them out as I should have been."

"You were a baby when he died how the hell could you send anything out?" I am puzzled.

"I still have requests for things every day, I employed a member of staff just to deal with his stuff a while ago and with the anniversary coming up its got a lot busier and so a member of his fan club helps out too."

"Here?"

"God no, they have an office in Birmingham, I keep them away from here, the last one was a little whack-a- doodle, he would come for the fan mail and keep the knickers we got sent, he was creepy and looked at me like I was a reincarnate of my dad, so now it is picked up by couriers, if it has not been successfully diverted to the fan office, it's a big undertaking keeping them happy and I swear most of them think I am still that baby he left alone and fatherless. I get celebration cards off loads of them every year, for my birthday and Christmas."

"I bet that gets a little weird, thanks for this though Ana, Ros will love this."

"It's nothing, as you can see I have a lot of his stuff. Now your room is here and its next to mine." She opens the door and wow its nice. "Its comfy or so Nonno says."

"I have their room?"

"No, well yes they had this room when they lived here with me full time, but now they stop or stopped in the old bakery flat, it has been re-done recently and I think its charming, but they have only been once since it was done up, we meet up in California mostly, as they like the heat and the slots in Vegas. The first bakery I ever stepped into was theirs; it is the one with the damaged and it's also the place where I learned to bake and is where my mother Carla was born and my one of my three uncles was born, the youngest pain, Sonny. Uncles Ray and Marco were born in Australia though. Now, do you want anything to eat, but as it is gone three in the morning it may be too late, and I have a busy day tomorrow, as do you, but I can whip you something up?"

"No, I am not hungry Ana, but can I wander if I get restless?"

"Yes, I will set the alarms for the outside only, don't open the door without first turning it off, the remote is by the bed, if not you will trip it, and it sounds a silent alarm at the station and they get fed up of coming out as it is, the fans mistake next door for here and they get pissed off with me too."

"I will promise to stay in. Did I see a piano downstairs?"

"I have three here, one in the studio and one in the music room and one in my room, would you care to see it?"

"Your piano?"

"Yes, my piano, in my room, what did you think I meant, come in for coffee?" She winked.

"I would like to see your room, and your piano, do you play?"

"Yes, what do you think I have it for, putting my clothes on?"

"Okay snarky pants… You never played at the castle."

"I did, you just never heard me."

"Sorry."

"Stop apologising. I stalked you like mad when you came to visit, so I didn't have time to play that old thing when you were around, and as you drank in the bar as you got older, it was way past my bedtime." She winked again.

"You weren't that bad really, but I must have told you, you were because I told you to get lost often enough." We laugh and as she opens her door I am blown away. It is like my rooms at Escala. Freakily identical, except for the white piano.

"Do you like it I am not sure about it? I employed an interior designer, again recommended by Ethan and she said a client of hers had just had their rooms done in the way I wanted my room to look, she showed me the plans and it looked okay so I went with it? I like the masculinity of it. It's very simple and calming. Of course I had to have the piano, and the rooms soundproofed, as I play at all hours."

"You do?"

"It soothes me. Now you have seen the room, is yours okay?"

"Its fine thank you. Taylor is where?" Speaking of Taylor, he comes in behind me and stares at Ana and the room...

"Hello Taylor, your rooms are next to Holly's, let me show you. Are those your bags?"

"Yes, here you are Sir, yours... Wow, this room is exactly like yours at Escala Sir."

"Ana, it seems we could share the same designer, one feisty blonde, called Gia Matteo, who assured me my room was a one of a kind Matteo Original?"

"Yes that was her name. Ethan said she did his loft. I liked that too, but not for here. The bathroom will be well stocked, if you need anything give my door a knock. Taylor let's get you settled, did you like the security suite?"

"Impressive. I like it very much." It seems she has won him over with gadgetry. She has won me over with how brilliantly she handles all that life throws at her, I'm included in that too. I see a lot of myself in her and that's the frightening thing about all this, my baby's mother is so similar to me, its freaky. I turn and head into my room and wonder how the fuck we ended up with the same design of bedroom? Is she still being a super stalker? I get ready for bed and will try to grab a few hours. I have the day to myself; I figured I would need it after the visit to the cemetery. I may go alone, or even ask Ana to join me. I feel oddly calm here and I think it's because I am being treated normally. She doesn't walk on egg shells or pander to my moods nor to me; she is however, defiantly over her crush on me mores the pity, but she isn't a submissive kind of a girl, that could have been fun...

Ana plays...

"Taylor, will this be okay for you? It has its own bathroom?" He looks inside and smiles. "It's a very man type bedroom, with the Super King sized leather bed and black ebony furniture and a massive plasma tv on the wall, the killer game system, apparently Uncle Sonny has great man tastes? I think it's just missing the lad-mags under the bed; I think they are all gone anyway? Yeah I remember the row when Nonno ditched them..." He laughs... What do I know about men's rooms, other than my own is exactly like Christian's I would say my stalking knows no boundaries, but it was a fluke, a nice one but still a fluke of the greedy designer?

"It will be perfect, thank you for this. Your bedroom was it done because of..." I cut him off.

"...No, I really liked the design she sent me, it seems she likes to use the same exclusive designs, on more than one client. I swear I chose her as a designer because she came recommended, my usual designer was unable to do it with all the other work he had on. I can change it, if it offends him, me having his exclusive two of a kind bedroom?" He laughs.

"He will be fine. As will this bedroom, I may get my head down too, good night Ma'am."

"Goodnight Taylor. The fridge is full if you get peckish and the bars fully stocked too."

"Thank you and once again goodnight."

I sigh and head down to my room. Having slept on the plane I doubt sleep will come easy for me right now. I head down and grab a warm mug of sweetened milk with a sprinkling of cinnamon... It tastes nice and I head back to my room, where I undress and have a shower. I lay out my clothes for tomorrow, take out my locket and give it its usual goodnight kiss and try to sleep. I can't sleep so I play the piano. I open the doors to my veranda and catch the gentle breeze blowing in and listen to the rain as it falls off the roof and makes its own calming noise. I sit and play, I only play softly, but as my fingers run across the keys I realise I am playing the piece called Arms, by Christina Perry, I must have been going through my twilight phase the last time I played this piano, I smile and play. After a while, I look up and Christian is watching me play from the shared veranda along the back of the house. Shared that is with my room and that room.

"Sorry Ana I didn't mean to scare you, I opened the doors to listen to the rain, because it calms me for some reason? I still couldn't sleep and then I heard you playing. You weren't joking you can play."

"My daddy was a rock god after all; I inherited his natural ability apparently? Well according to Uncle Wolfe I did? I am sorry I will try to get to sleep. It's just that something feels weird; I mean I feel weird about having you here in my home."

"We can go to a hotel Ana, just say the word."

"Don't be silly I mean you here in my house, it feels weird. I never thought you and I would ever be this close again."

"We were even closer earlier Ana."

"I know and that's what has me worried, I slept better than I have in years and it felt good."

"It was good for me too. I survive off a couple of hours a night and powernaps on flights. It was a little unsettling how easily I did sleep with you in my arms."

"You too? We are so alike, yet worlds apart too, Christian?"

"How are we worlds apart Ana?"

"We just are I guess?"

"We are strangely similar and actually, if I were a woman, I think I would be exactly like you."

"Bossy and a bitchy you mean?"

"No, knowledgeable and organised. I don't know what it is about you Anastasia Lambert, but from the first day I met you, you have moved me in ways I did not realise, not until we were in the cabin of the plane."

"What?"

"Mom said something funny when I was telling her about the baby, she said every time we boys came back from Scotland, Elliot would be full of tales about your adventures and I would cuss and storm off and be moody for weeks and you were in every single rant."

"So?"

"So, don't you see? Even way back then you and I had something, something I haven't seen or witnessed before or since, nobody does the thing you do to me, you bewitch me and annoy me at the same time, apparently my mother knows best, and says you are good for me. I am sorry for being a complete bastard with you."

"So, you what cared for me in a thug about town sort of way?"

"If you put it like that, then yes. You frightened me, I think? I have always been closer to Mia than to Elliot, she, like you, was presented to me as a fait accompli, like this is your sister you have to be good to her and not shout and scream, because she needs you to love her Christian she is small and helpless. Until I went to live with the Greys I hadn't a clue what that this family love thing was all about, I don't think I have ever told them I love them Ana, I didn't know what love was, I knew I was thankful for the food, the clean clothes and the pretty houses we lived in and I liked how they were never cross with me. I think I tested that all the time, that endearing or enduring love they have for me, despite my many fuck ups?"

"You are easy to love Christian; and just as hard to understand too. You have both Yin and Yang within you, good versus bad and hate and love, good and evil. I could go on and on, but you know this your good battles your bad all the time. You are too afraid to let good into your life and calmed by all the wrong things you do allow into your life!"

"Mom says that all the time."

"You don't do love, I get that. I did and it hurt, I do understand that part of you, the pain is horrendous being rejected, so you don't even try to put it into any equation or scenario for fear of being hurt again. You have locked away that part of you; it's now locked so deep it is masked by all the barriers you throw around it."

"I was once told love is for fools..."

"No doubt by a foolish person? No doubt they too have serious relationship issues? It is foolish not to love someone at least once in your life, or how do you know what you are missing? I think you loved your mother once upon a time and she let you down and this is how you cope, you build your walls high and throw up barriers."

"You loved me, so tell me Ana, how did that work out for you?"

"Touché Christian... I wouldn't change a thing, apart from the obvious of course. I grew up surrounded by love, so I have loved and been loved, it's what makes you tick right. The capacity to love is tantamount to being human Christian, understanding it though, that is a whole new ball game. Out here in the real world there are so many degrees of love for you yet to encounter. For example, you love your family, it's a given they love you and yet you can't show them love, or is it you don't know how to love them for fear of them hating you like your birth mother did? Christian, you don't know how to be in love because you are afraid."

"Surely that's all love is, a confusing emotion and my having the fear of the unknown, is a wise thing to have Ana, why walk blindly into something only to be hurt?"

"I never do anything blindly either, I went into romancing you with my eyes wide open, I knew I would get hurt, I'm not stupid, but I was willing to step into the unknown and take a risk, I hoped you would stay and love me forever, alas I was not wise enough to understand you and I got hurt, but for that fleeting moment in time, I was the happiest I have ever been and I would do it again to feel as good as I did that night. The hurt the morning after, wow you are right it did hurt to be rejected. I was hurt and I still hurt, but I had the good too."

"You had the love of your grandparents, and whilst I had the love of my family, it was not a romantic love, parents and family they have to love you, it's the law or something and they can make your life hell that's the law too." I laugh.

"That's very child like Christian, you know that's not true. You and I both had mothers who were self obsessed, mine with her career and money and yours, yours was screwed up with the drugs. You can still have shit parents, parents who are incapable of loving their children in a normal family dynamic, but we were a couple of the lucky ones, ones who got to go and live with a better family, you should have put what she did behind you, and taken all the love the Greys had for you and flourished, as I did. But Christian someone, and I don't know who, but someone vile has allowed you to fester on that hatred you had of your mother, and it wasn't well founded hatred either, she was just some poor woman who was hurt herself, that's why you are twisted and dark, because that person liked the dark you. You will tell me who it is, if you want to, but I know there is love in your heart Grey, you just have to let it out and put the truly evil person, this freak who told you love is for fools, behind you. She is evil one not your mother."

"How do you know all that?"

"When we 'fucked' you told me I looked like her, your mother Ella? Your eyes said that you hated me for being like her and it scared me being there with you. I asked why you hated her and you said and I quote, 'Because you are a crack whore mother' it was then when you fucked me hard and with such hate, that I thought wow, I certainly picked a real fruit loop to love."

"I told you that and did all that and yet you let me fuck you, do you not think that's a little fucked up in itself and you were as fucked up as me?"

"You did all that and more, but that first time, though hard, it was an amazing fuck that confused me, and I say fuck because you told me that's all it was. I took it yes, but to be close to you and with a hope of changing your mind. It wasn't until years after, whilst undergoing a hard session with my trainer, that I figured you were not screwing your mother as such, you were punishing her in the only way you could. You were getting your revenge by hurting the women you fucked."

"Wow and what sort of trainer was this? A life coach?"

"Nah, my Krav Maga Master..."

"Okay so you can kick butt too?"

"Major Kickass at your service. Now, you are saying what, that you think you love me?"

"No, I don't do love..."

"You do Christian, but as yet you just don't know how to experience it."

"I don't want to either."

"Yeah you do or you wouldn't seek out help. You get your kicks and dish out your punishment fucks aimed at your mother with your subs, when you release the caged beast within for a while, but to understand why you need more, you see someone to help you and I gather they all tell you the same thing, but you choose to ignore them and look for a less annoying one to tell you what you want to hear, that there is no cure for what you have and the treatment is whip a butt, fuck a sub and do it until you feel better, but and this is the big but here, is it working for you Christian, ignoring them?"

"I thought so until I saw you again. Ana I don't know how to love so don't waste your time on me."

"I like challenges Christian Grey, but don't worry about there being a you and me, I doubt we would work even if we both were fixed and not two broken souls. Speaking of subs and no love, how long has it been since you punished a sub?"

"Three weeks, thanks for asking."

"So, do you want to punish me?"

"Are you offering?"

"Fuck no... I am no mans submissive, I see the look in your eyes, that's all. I myself can go months without punishing a man. I guess that night in the club I went to find a faux you to beat the crap out of, because I was afraid about seeing you again and that the emotions would overwhelm me again and I would be back in that dark place of wanting to join my baby Christian, and be at peace from my demons."

"You have contemplated suicide Ana?"

"I have, but I am too afraid to die because I am a coward. I guess that's a good thing really, being too chicken to do that to the people around me who do love me. It would hurt them and I am not that type of a monster."

"All because of me and our son."

"No, because I had too much love for a lost soul and didn't know how to cope without it. I loved you too with an obsessive heart and mind, and I loved our son because he would be mine to love and be with forever, I would have a part of you and that was an amazing feeling, and having him was like having you, but someone up there figured I didn't deserve him and took him away."

"Ana why are we so fucked up?"

"I blame the mothers..." He smiled and sat on the bed. I got up shut the window and sat with him on the bed edge. "So..."

"So..."

"How about we use each other, without the emotion attached?" I shocked myself too, by suggesting it.

"Ana, what do you mean?"

"Fuck buddies, I mean you do your thing and I do mine, but together?"

"I have never done that. I am monogamous Ana and a dominant; I couldn't fuck you and a submissive. How would that work, you hate to be beaten and I am not willing to be beaten, and would you want fucking by a man who fucked you and ruined you?"

"It was just a suggestion. We'd have no contracts just an understanding. If you meet someone then that's fine, because it's not like we are ever going to be in the same place for any considerable length of time to work on the more you are so deathly afraid of and to be honest with you, I don't know about being fucked by you, I still love you Christian, but now it's a different love, it is not a hearts and flowers thing anymore, it's just something I think I need, I need to do it to move on I think?"

"What about you, will this not confuse the crap out of you and give you false hope of changing me, I am not hearts and flowers and I will never be that Ana?"

"Hey I have already changed you Grey, you just don't know how I managed it and what those changes are, when you suss them out, come and find me. So, if that's all I think I would like to sleep, thank you?"

"You don't want me to fuck you?"

"Hell yes, but only when you are ready to face those demons head on, I am just being honest with you, I said a long time ago that I would never fall in love again and I meant it. Fucking is not making love and we both know you understand that particular need..."

"I..." I leaned over and kissed him. "I..." He stammered and looked confused.

"You need to go to bed, your own bed and figure out what those feelings you have just felt are. Goodnight Christian." He got off the bed and walked towards the door.

"What happened Ana?"

"I don't know what's happening, but welcome to my world Christian Grey, where there is confusion a plenty. I am maddening I know, I'm forward too and I get under your skin in a way you have never experienced before and you have to admit it, it's confusing you to think about me that way isn't it?"

He headed to his room and I heard him cuss as he shut his door. I'm falling into that deep rabbit hole of an emotional void in my life called Christian Grey, and once again I am Alice, will you ever learn Ana? Did I ever stop loving him? No, would I ever stop loving him? No! But I can hide the feelings I have, I can mask them with my work and my new life, but deep down the scab that scars my heart is still being picked at, and I guess it will always fester inside me. When you love someone like I loved him it never goes away, first loves are the darkest and hardest to forget... I tried and failed, maybe this time he will want me as much as I want and need him. Now, there's a thought, but that ball is in his court now I am not running after him, he can do the chasing now...

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So... I will be back to the land of the ace internet and be back posting. I have two weeks of holiday washing and no doubt a house to clean...

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Now, what do you think? Read and review I am off the try and write the next Bough Breaks... Love you all xxx


	12. Chapter 12

So, you know how I write or if you read my other completed stories you do, anyway I do HEA and I only use Ms James's character names and lifestyle and some places. I figure if you want large chunks of cut copy and paste then you are better off reading the four books again…

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Dreaming of Chocolate and Grey:

Chapter 12:

Confusion? Try mayhem...

I head into my room and I seriously contemplate running as far away as I can. Ana is confusing, but she is right about one thing, I do feel differently about her. I as much as admitted that to her too, but for her then to suggest we become 'Fuck Buddies' was something I never expected to hear from her and something I do not think could work. Could I even be that kind of a man? If I have to ask myself that then I guess it's something I'm considering, but before she uttered those words I would have said she was over me. Before she said those words though I wanted to fuck her and desperately so. However, I wanted to do it the contracted and safe way, because I know if we go down the path she wants, she will expect more. Much more than I know how to give her. Then again would I have to give her the more I think she needs? She clearly said she was not a hearts and flowers kind of a girl, but do I believe her? I think I do. Good god above what's happening to me? Is it the madness of the baby affecting me or has the witch put a spell on me again? I get a call and it's Elena, great a real witch bitch.

"Christian, how are you darling?"

"Fine Elena, are you calling me for a reason?"

"I have sent you a file of girls I thought you might be interested in seeing."

"I have told you I am not interested."

"You have needs Christian."

"No, I had needs. I am a grown assed man, normal and quite capable of adapting my needs and finding out what real life has to offer all by myself, I told you I was not interested and Elena, I have not changed my mind."

"Christian, don't be foolish, you are not normal. Whoever told you you're capable of being normal are wrong, because they obviously don't know you, not like I do?"

"I know my capabilities Elena, I run a large, profitable and successful multi-billion dollar empire, so I think I know what I can and cannot do. As to you knowing me, you don't. You think you do, but let me tell you Elena, you don't."

"Have you been talking to that shrink of yours, again?"

"No, I have not seen him in a while."

"Where are you?"

"At work."

"Don't be smart with me Christian."

"Heaven forbid... Have the accountants told you that you need to replace the missing two hundred thousand by Monday? Is that why you are calling to ask for more time?"

"It is my money, my company and I will do as I see fit with my money, I do not need to replace anything, my money is that mine..."

"I think you will find you do and that you have been removed from cashing checks and paying bills. And for you information Elena that money is ours and the majority share Elena is mine. Everything financial will now go through GEH's accountants, all the suppliers have been informed of this and staff will be paid via the company payroll. You see we have had to do a staff overhaul too, I wasn't aware we had so many staff, nor was I aware we had three creative directors? Two of the names given to me, I swear were cleaners at Escalava one and two before you dismissed them or had them sent somewhere else, because they do not work in any salons we own, we checked, so Elena, your next move best be a good one?"

"You bastard."

"I have been called a lot worse, so unless you want to transfer the 'wages' you have paid these three creative people and the third ghost we seem to employ to haunt the salons, back into the company account right now, then we have nothing else to discuss. Stop calling me and stop insisting on meeting me, I am in Europe for a month, so Elena you have that long to find another backer, I am officially giving you 28 days notice to find the funds to buy me out of Esclave. I have had enough of you and your insane notion I owe you anything, your free ride as my friend is over too."

"You will be back with your tail between your legs, you always come back. You cannot be you without my help. I made you I can break you Christian, do you hear me?"

"I think you will find out that I am more than capable of being me Elena and I always have been, it has just taken me a long time to realise that the world you offered up as a solution to my needs was not my only option. You broke me Elena; you did not make me or fix me, you preyed on a vulnerable child and used me for your own pleasures, you have seen and heard from me for the last time. This business I built up on my own and as such I owe you nothing, other than my thanks for the start up loan, which you have been repaid for handsomely, ten times over. Do not threaten me, because if you do Mrs Lincoln it will be me that breaks you. I will admit it was an experience knowing you, not all good it has to be said, but it served a purpose, whilst it was needed, but I do not need you or what you taught me in my life anymore, we are now finished. Goodbye." I end the call and head to bed.

Sorrow...

I listened to Christian's call last night and I now have an inkling of who is to blame for the life he leads, this woman, Elena Lincoln, she was the one in the photos I saw in a magazine. I should have closed the doors, but hearing him speak of the changes he is making in his life was a step in the right direction for his own sanity. Those steps need not be taken with me, but I still hope they will be. I can but hope. She broke him, and he is finally realising there are other ways to live. I don't need the life I have, but it's something I chose to partake in because I could. I don't know if I can do normal either, but I am willing to try, if he is willing to try too. I wash and dress and head down. Today will be hard going, I know that and I am ready for it. Ha, say that enough Anastasia and you might be able to kid yourself he is going to be all accepting; somehow I think I know deep down, that this will be hard on us both.

"Annie, these gentlemen say they are to be your guests, is that so?"

"Yes Jenny it is... You remember Mr Grey from the castle? He was a mighty bit younger when you and I left Scotland. This is Jenny, my nanny from the castle Christian?"

"I thought you looked familiar, Mrs Logan is it not? I'm Christian, the sulky teenager who made your life miserable for a week each summer. You had a very difficult job keeping Ana inline when Elliot and I were at the castle?"

"Nay laddie, she was an angel compared to thee. You were a snarky young man who needed a firm hand, a tongue lashing and a wallop from ma tha back of ma hand. Annie, you invited him into your home, are you sure?" She looks shocked he is here.

"I'm sure, they are only here for a few days, so anything they want see to it they get it please Jenny?"

"Aye, if you say it has to be lassie, then I will see to their needs, but I am watching you Master Christian, one step out of line and you will be getting that missing wallop I always wanted to swing around yer heed, you ken, one step and you will be sorry?"

"I will be on my best behaviour. This porridge is just how I remember it, and at the castle was the only time I had it."

"It keeps you regular, perhaps that's yer problem laddie, you're full of kershankie?"

"Jenny..." I say as I choke on my porridge. "Mr Grey is not a child anymore and he is not full of kershankie."

"If you ken..." She left the kitchen and Christian is at a loss to know what the hell she has just said.

"She thinks you are full of shit." Taylor laughs as I explain the kershankie thing. Christian shrugs his shoulders and continues to eat his porridge. "So, today, what are we doing then?" I ask.

"I thought you and I could go and pay our respects to Olivia and take it from there. Taylor here has agreed to take the day off. All be it begrudgingly."

"We will be fine, once we get out of the gates that is. Do you want anything else to eat Taylor; Jenny does the best fry up?"

"She offered us the 'Full Monty' Ma'am, but we were fine with the porridge oats and toast thank you." I grab some fruit and throw it in my bag.

"The keys for the Audi's are over in my office, help yourself to either of the rides. I am taking Red with me."

"I may take the R8 for a spin; Mr Grey is rather territorial over his."

"I bet he is. Holly is too. She left this morning at daybreak then?"

"She did Ma'am. I took her to the airport, or rather she took me and I brought back the car, it is a pleasure to drive. Sir, if you were thinking of upgrading the fleet to the Bentley's I wouldn't mind?"

"I may do just that. Ana are we ready? Is that all you are having, toast?"

"Yes, I will grab breakfast in one of the cafe's I have to check on. We will be well fed Christian. Do you want to drive?"

"Please..." We head off and pass Jenny, she knows of my crush and I suspect she knows I was hiding out here for a reason, and that my grandparents did not really need help with Papa Frank, but she went anyway. We get in the car and as the gates open the are a few diehard fans who come a lot, some of them I know the names of. I press the button and the window comes down and they wave, hand me there gifts and tell me how like my father I am, I know I look like my mother too, but they seem to need to tell me I am his double all the time. As we pull out, the doors shut and they place their gifts and offerings to The Lamb. Christian is at a loss as to what to say.

"So they are the super fans then?"

"They are. I have placed the flower shop into the Sat-Nav, and the cemetery, are you ready for this?"

"I guess as ready as I will ever be. I mean I am ready yes..."

"It's not the worst place in the world to be. At least it's not raining, but because I have opened my big mouth it will do." We drive and I am impressed he can drive the car as well as he does. "Do you like the car?"

"I do, and its brand new right?"

"Yes it was picked up three days ago and this is my first time in her. I like it." We pull up to the florists and I jump out and grab the flowers I'd ordered. A bunch of white daisies and a sunflower for Oliver and white miniature roses and babies breathe for Christian. I get the same flowers for each visit and I come as much as I can, it is the only place that brings me total peace and calm. I place them in the boot and Christian taps the Sat-Nav.

"It's straight down the road, you can't miss it really. Once you have been it is easier to find. It looks beautiful in Spring with all the daffodils and bluebells. The snow hides everything in winter, but it is then that the place is truly peaceful; the snow seems to cushion the place from the world. Summer is nice too, I bring a book and sit on a rug and eat my lunch, Autumn, is the untidiest of months, but is strangely beautiful too, with the differing leaves and their colours, the russets, the yellows and the dirty brown leaves scattered all over the green of the grass, it's like a changing carpet."

"You come here a lot then Ana?"

"I do, if I need some simple me time and if ever I am really worried about anything, I can be found here. I sometimes wish I had him cremated, just so I could take him everywhere with me. But that was a little too crazy, even for me."

"We are here, where now?" I guide him to the road that takes us to the graveside and I tell him to pull over.

"Christian, it's that one over there, we are here. Do you want me to stay in the car?"

"No, please come with me. Ana, please?"

"The first time is the worst. If you are sure?" He nods.

 ** _(Tissue Moment Coming up)_**

I get the flowers and the rug from the boot of the car and as I walk past Christian, he grabs and holds my hand. I am shocked at first and then I feel relieved and incredibly close to him. We walk along the path and we see the gray marble headstone and Christian then holds my hand even tighter as I stand before the plot before us. Olivia 'Ollie' Douglas, my best friend and keeper of my soul...

"Ana, his name is missing."

"No, it's not missing; I only had Olivia's put on it. The words are for our baby, I know where he is and who is sleeping beneath the slate, I don't need to see his name there and nobody else needs to know he is here, this is his place of rest, not somewhere else for the fans of my father to lay their teddy bears and crap."

"He doesn't have my name anywhere Ana."

"It's different here, he had to have my name because we were not married, he has the name that matters, he has the name you were given, your name Christian." He looks oddly misplaced and out of sorts, confused and sad. Poor Christian, he is lost.

"Ana, what do I do?"

"Whatever you want, there is nothing too stupid you can do, I have danced and sang to him, read him stories, cried and laughed even screamed and shouted, you do and say whatever you want, say a silent prayer or whatever makes you feel a little better. I will place these and go and sit over there, so you can have your time with him..." I place down the rug and remove the dead flowers then place the fresh flowers in the vases already there.

"Why this verse Ana?" He reads it and I weep as his voice strains to read it through his tears.

"The mention of my child's name may bring tears to my eyes, but it never fails to bring music to my ears. If you are really my friend, then let me hear the beautiful music of your name. It soothes my broken heart and sings to my soul. Your life may have lasted for just a moment, but my memory will make that moment and that song last forever." He sits at the graveside on the rug I placed there and I kiss the stone and stand to go and sit on the bench.

"It seemed fitting, and not too mushy. I am going to give you some alone time Christian."

"Stay with me Ana, this is harder than I thought it would be. Much harder. Ana it hurts. It hurts like nothing I have ever felt before, the pain, the pain is stabbing at my cold dark heart. He is here because of me. He is dead because I was a drunk who..."

"...Who what, gave his mother the best night of her life and left her a miracle? He just wasn't meant to be with us Christian, he was meant for a better place, or so I am told, I don't know what place is better for a baby than in his mother's arms though."

"I am sorry Ana, if I knew..."

"...You would have made the world a better place for us?"

"I could have, yes, oh god Ana I don't know, back then I was..."

"...You, you were you and never forget that, never say you could have changed things, it happened and no matter what we could have done differently, this was what him up there had planned for our baby. I don't go to church anymore, because the god I worshipped, him up there, is a cruel man for taking my child away. Christian you finding out and riding to my rescue, wasn't needed, because I had everything at my disposal to make our sons life perfect, I didn't need you to make my world different Christian! Money I have plenty and support was there should I have needed it. I could have done things so differently, but this is what the hand of fate dealt me, us and him, I hated myself for a long time Christian, please, don't hate yourself, it's a fucking big pity party you don't need. Believe me you don't.

Ollie used to say shit happens for the stupidest of reasons, and until this happened I never knew what she meant when she said it, but she was right shit happens. I may never know the reasons why our son died, I can guess blindly, like was it the sudden loss of chocolates I ate and he was on a sugar high, and all the bouncing he did inside me because of it, did I give him too many hugs and rubs and kill him, did I run down the stairs to quickly, did I roll over in bed and tangle him up, or did he simply try to get comfortable and the cord killed him? We will never know how and why it happened, it just did, that shit happened."

"Ana, will it get easier?"

"Yes, much easier, you may even go a whole hour without thinking about him..."

"No wonder you have nightmares and cannot sleep."

"I sleep as much as I need to Christian and I dream if I am lucky and have nightmares if I am not." He sighs.

We sit on the rug and Christian plays with the pieces of slate, he takes away a dead flower heads that came loose and he sighs, he then cries and I don't know what to do, do I leave him to his own grief or do I wait for him to open up to me again? He pulls me towards him and he hugs me. We sit for while just holding each other and as the predicted rain starts to fall, we grab the rug and get into the car.

"Ana..."

"Christian..."

He leans over and kisses me. Wow fireworks and explosions begin as he deepens the kiss, I melt into his chest and the world continues to turn as ours stops, the rain belts down and we make out like kids. Hands roam and touch those forbidden places. Groans and murmurs of delight are all that I hear. He suddenly stops and pulls away.

"I am so sorry Ana..."

"Did you not want to kiss me Christian?"

"Yes... I think I did, was it not okay to kiss you Ana?"

"It was more than alright to kiss me. We were lost in the moment, but if you regret it that's fine too, this was a unique and testing time for you."

"I wanted to kiss you; I wanted to give you a happy memory Ana."

"Wow..."

"What?" He says stupidly.

"I have happy memory's Christian."

"I've fucked up again haven't I?"

"No, you haven't, our emotions were high."

"I did it because I wanted to kiss you Ana; I still want to kiss you, I want more than a kiss too."

"Christian, think about it, you are feeling strange and helpless right now and you are sitting on unsure ground, new ground and you think you have to comfort me and you didn't, you think I want sex and I don't. You are confused and think you are giving me something I want, but you are wrong I don't need pity Christian. I do not need a pity fuck from anyone, especially the man who I loved for such a long, long time. But if you still want to be friends with me, or be with me like I suggested this morning, then we can discuss it, but doing it, having sex, because you are sad and confused is the wrong reasons to be doing anything and it is dangerous too."

"I want to try Ana. I mean we will need to discuss it. It's not going to be easy, we have the same needs."

"We can discuss our needs over lunch Christian, do you want to go and sit with them a while longer?"

"No, not today Ana. We need to talk." He looks into the distance and then back at the small piece of England that now will haunt his dreams, as it does mine. I was so stupid trusting Jack Hyde with my secret, stupid and feckless. Now, Christian is hurting too.

"I have my business to sort out, I know I am being really heartless, but life has to carry on." I keyed in the address of the bakery and he drove us there as we continued our discussion on how this would actually work out, or if it would work out even.

"Ana, help me understand how this will work? It seems we are entering into something alien to both of us."

"Um, discussions are essential then. I mean do you like being whipped?"

"Not really, I didn't enjoy being a submissive too much; they were not happy times for me."

"Why?"

"Let's just say my Domme didn't like to hear no or red. She had her own rules and being as I was new to it I blindly followed her rules."

"She didn't allow you to use your safe words?"

"Oh she did, but she chose to ignore my pleas."

"She was not a true Domme then, not if she broke those most sacred of rules. How old were you, when you started?"

"Fifteen..."

"What? The same age I was when I saw you naked and you kicked up a fuss?"

"It would seem so."

"Now remind me again why did you not want to indulge me back then?"

"You were far too young. Yes Ana, that was not lost on me when you confessed your feelings for me. I picked up on fifteen straight away Ana, straight away, but what she offered me at the time was what I needed, it worked for me."

"Did you love her?"

"Love and me are not bed buddies Ana, I feared her, but then again they do say there is a fine line between love and hate do they not?"

"They do, but hate and fear are not bed buddies Christian. I mean I hate cabbage, but I do not fear it."

"A cabbage allegory, whatever next Ana?" I see the sight before me and this conversation is over, fuck...

"Not now Christian, I'm sorry but my grandparents bakery is ruined. Fuck, the fire brigade is here too."

"Why?" He looks out and looks like a kid at Christmas staring the shiny red engines and the firemen on display, all I see is the rubble and the mess that was my families bakery, it's gone, well nearly all gone. I swear again.

"What are they doing Ana, I don't see a fire?"

"The structure is probably unsound. They won't want it falling on the public, nor do I!" We park over the way and I go and see what the damage is. The empty record shop at the side is fully collapsed and the dry cleaners, like the bakery has lost its roof and the second floor is eerily too close to the first. I get out of my car and I head to see what the hell caused all this mayhem.

"Stand back Miss."The fireman says as I approach the barrier.

"These are my buildings. What happened?"

"Miss D'Acciaio?"

"Yes, what happened officer?"

"The roof collapsed on the record store and it acted like a domino effect the bakery and then the drycleaners followed closely after. The heavy rain added to the weight of the structure during the night we got a call from a worried neighbour, she heard creaking and when we got here the roof of the record shop collapsed onto Mamma's Bakery and it fell against Super dry and now I am afraid all three buildings will have to come down and today, they are old and weak and cannot be saved..."

"They are listed, they cannot be knocked down. I had plans in to redo them to their former glory. Who do I have to see to make that happen?"

"You are talking to him, my decision is final. I am afraid they are just too unstable to stay. I am pulling my men out now and we have a team waiting to go on the demolition."

"How does that work, there is machinery in both the bakery and the cleaners, they were meant to be stripped yesterday?"

"If it is salvageable when the building comes down then good luck retrieving them but it's a matter of knock down and clear away. You will have my report to give to the insurance people. You do have insurance don't you?"

"What, yes, insurance yes I have it on all my buildings, it really cannot be saved, nothing not even the papers and things in the flat above the bakery?"

"No Miss, nothing the demo crew are here now. You may want to stand behind the barrier at the bottom of the road and take your shiny new car with you?"

"I would rather lose the damned car than my grandparents bakery."

"It will be missed, their breads are the best. Mamma's pastries are the reason I put on a stone over winter." I'd smile but I am at a loss as to what I need to do.

"Ana, come to me Baby, come to me and let's leave them to it. Can I leave you my card?" Christian pulls me toward him as I am seconds from running and seeing what I can save.

"Yes, thank you Sir, you may want to take your wife away it will be a sorry mess for a while. The place will be rubble within the hour and cleared away before the end of day. I will have the boys save what they can. The dry cleaners Miss do you know if they are insured?" Wife, ha I think not officer.

"I rented the shop to the Dillon Family, they are over there. I pay the insurance on all three buildings the dry cleaners is in the process of moving across here to this empty place," I turn and see the new drycleaners, I must have missed the memo that they'd brought it forward, "oh they have the machines in already. Good, they didn't lose everything... God it's a mess. My grandparents will be devastated. Christian, can you take me home? I need to call them; Nonna will be so upset."

"Yes Ana come away with me, if you need me call me but anything that has to be done do it officer. Thank your men for me and I hope all goes well." I hear him talking but as I watch the building, we hear a rumble like thunder and a groaning crack of wood and a strange and loud creak and then there is a sudden and massive crash of wood, then bricks and a cloud of choking brick dust hits the air around us, it all happens in the blink of an eye and the second and first floor are heading towards the ground. Holy fuck I am hit by darkness.

"Ana, Ana wake up, Ana, you are safe please Ana please wake up."

"What happened? Where am I? Christian, what the hell happened?"

"It's all gone; it is a tangled mass of brick, wood and metal. They are demolishing the back and clearing it away now, luckily nobody has been hurt, but I am taking you home, oh and Red may need a wash, because she got herself covered in brick dust. You have some on your nose Ana." He wipes my nose and kisses the end of it, what the fuck did I wake in an alternate universe?

"What happened Christian?"

"You saw it, the building imploded on itself."

"No, I mean this," my finger flits between the two of us, "the kiss, this sudden need to care for me, is this a new you or what?"

"Hey, you went down like the shops and I just caught you, I am looking out for a friend."

"Okay, so what happens now?"

"They are going to tidy it up and send in the guys to clear it. Nobody was hurt and..."

"...I meant with us, that is an easy fix. I mean Christian Grey, what is going to happen with us, between us?"

"We talk I guess? We see if the friends who fuck thing is workable. I mean as you mentioned, you and I are hardly ever on the same continent, let alone in the same city, we could take turns or see how it unfolds I guess?"

"There is that and other things..."

"Other things, like who gets to do their thing first?"

"There is that too."

"Lunch?"

"I'd love lunch Christian. We can go to the Lexington Street House."

"As in your place there?"

"Yes, as in my house of chocolate. I still have to look at Hyde's of London. It's very dated, it was back in the day and I hardly doubt it has improved."

"How do you do that? Flick from discussing us, to work matters in the same breathe?"

"Easily it seems, Christian I am sorry, how about we go eat and then go home. Perhaps over lunch we can put our worlds to right?"

"I'd like that. So, I like driving your car Ana."

"Switching?"

"Well yes, of course I was."

"No, we switch, we each wear green bracelets, and we interchange our preferences, only with each other." He has sat me in the car somehow and I lean over and program Lexington into the car. "One of us may want their needs quenching more than the other and vice versa?"

"Maybe, one of us may like being a submissive?" He says.

"Aww, that's cute your willing to do that for me." I mock.

"I meant..."

"I know what you meant, but I have never been one. How would I know what you want? I mean it's totally different to what I want and expect."

"You want to punish my lookalikes, why do that when you can fuck with the real thing?" He says and I am shocked.

"Fuck, or be fucked? Interesting. I have never had sex with anyone but you and I mean I hardly think what Hyde and I indulged in could be classed as sex, so you have the unfair advantage. You know what women like, I only know what the freaky ones want, to be beaten, this woman sat here likes to yield the whip not take it."

"No sex took place ever?" He says and I nod.

"Oh they got off but never in me. They never complained either, I am very good at what I do, or so I am told." I laugh, because I have never had a complaint in all the times I have been a Domme.

"I look forward to trying it with you Miss Lambert. Now, how the hell do you understand this woman, her voice is very plumy? I hate driving in London too, its murder." Her annoying sat-nav automated voice is rather plumy and English and grating. Sorry Joanna Lumley, but Mr Grey does not like your sat nav voice.

"It's not the best place, but it is far from the worst, that award goes to New Deli, it is the manic capitol of India, I went there looking for spices and natural sugars for my spiced collection of chocolates. Mile End here is the worst and Oxford Street at Christmas is a nightmare. I love seeing the big red London busses and the red pillar boxes, its then I know I am home. Everything about London is red, white and blue. Patriotism, tourism, parks, fancy homes, designer outlets, theatres, bars and shopping, all in one borough."

"Every place has them Ana."

"Yeah, but not as old and as quaint as dear old London Town? I love it here and if I had to, I would choose here as home. If I had too I mean, but I don't."

"You have a club here too, I have visited it twice."

"Twice when I was there too. It's undergoing changes at the moment. I bought the flats above it. So I now own the whole building, it was a very expensive investment. I am on a tight dead line for that to be open before summers end."

"You are going to be busy here, especially with your grandparents shops collapsing?"

"That, that was a blessing in disguise, they were listed buildings. Now, I can get the plans I had originally put before the borough planners, they were approved until the Heritage people got involved. They wanted the whole block to be replaced like for like, everything from windows to bricks. Now, I get the three plots and can put up the new building I wanted, and save money into the bargain. The only blip is losing all the original machinery and the things in the flat above it."

"If I didn't know better I would say you planned this?"

"Me? I never break the law or tell a lie, and I had a grant to help bring back the shops and help doing it from their experts, But you are right, of course, it does sound fortuitous their collapsing the same week we begin the remodel. I will make my lawyer aware of the immanent questions that could arise from this. Thanks I hadn't thought they might think me complicit in their destruction." I think about what he has just said and my head goes to its clinical place, as it always does when I have stresses to work out, like what to do next. I need to be calm and I need to stop thinking of Christian as a sexual object. God this is hard so hard.

"Wow, you do sound like me. I may be a little turned on Ana? Really turned on." Was I given a green light?

"Okay, we need to work on your mouth control boy."

"Okay then and so it begins." We pull up and I tell him to take a right and head into the service entrance. Which he does and as he kills the car, I unbuckle my seat belt and straddle his lap.

"No Christian, now it begins..." I kiss his lush lips and grind on his lap. "Are you waiting for an invite Christian?"

"God no... Do what you wish with me Mistress..."

"No, call me Ana. I am not your mistress; I am your friend who you fuck. I am not a mad Domme who wants to beat you; I want this to be fun. You know how to have fun don't you?"

"No I am a fucking novice at having fun Ana. Fuck me this is hot. You do know we are in a car, in a parking lot about to fuck right?"

"Oh I'm having fun, but if you want to fuck me you will have to work for it Christian, do you want to work hard for it?" I grind against him and he growls that he does, and as he gets harder, I slow right down and unzip his fly. "Harder Christian, make it harder for me."

"God, any harder and it would be made of steel."

"Well it will be inside steel in a second, if you think you need this that is?"

"Yes, god yes..." He pleads; I wonder how long it has been since he had sex? God why did I think of him and another woman? I must be mad...

"God I think you will find has nothing to do with what I am about to do to you Mr Grey, this is nothing at all godlike, the devil sat on your lap is wearing Prada and I am about to lose a button or two, undo them nicely there's a good boy, this is a nice blouse."

I take out his dick and slide my knickers across, before he rips them from my body, and then begin slowly lowering myself onto him. God he is better than he was before, way better. He opens my blouse, finds my breast and slides it out of the cup and suckles on the hard nipples. Fuck, I have miss this sort of intimacy, doing this was the first and only time he told me he loved me, but admittedly he was drunk when I rode him like a hooker, much as I am doing now, but back then we were ensconced in my bed at the castle, not fucking like a prostitute and her client in a car costing three hundred thousand pounds. I submit to his needs as he bites and sucks, yes it feels great and no god has nothing to do with this, this is all down to madness, my madness...

"Yes Ana, yes..."

"Oh I think I know what you need, sit back and enjoy the show."

"I already am. Impromptu has never been my thing before.""

"My needs got the better of me. It won't happen like this again."

"It won't?"

"No... I, oh god, I can't do this Christian, oh hell no..." Something clicks inside me and I start to get a heady feeling and my body seems to remember it's been here before. I bounce hard and slow, my sex is lubricated and makes a sound that Christian seems to like, he grapples my hips to hold the feelings he seems to be having, he grunts and he swears as I fight him for control.

"Oh hell yes Baby, move your butt on me now. Ana do me now." I grind harder and harder into him, my arms push on his chest and with each push he grips my backside tighter and tighter until he is squeezing my ass cheeks tightly and as he does my thrusts get fiercer and fiercer, the steering wheel in stopping me from giving him more, but what he gets he needs. He needs me and I just have to make him see he can be more. My more...

"Ana I am coming, fuck condoms we need them oh god stop, stop..."

"I am well and truly covered thanks for asking, I get shot in my backside to make sure should a moment like this happen again, then I am covered, now shut the fuck up and fuck me hard." His arms come over my shoulders and he kisses me and thrusts hard as I requested and as he does the sparks I felt back then are happening again, my huhar is a tinderbox awaiting the signal to spark my body to action, dormant sex muscles remember this feeling and they begin battling with my flower, she's wet and she's hot, so hot I am afraid there will be an explosion before the fire takes hold. He thrust grunts and grips and as he does he is kissing me, oh hell oh hell yes, yes fucking, yes...

"Come for me Baby, come for me now Ana, now oh hell now... Now, now, now fucking come now!" As I come, he sends his milk into me, I shake and I calm and as I loosen the tight grip I have him in, he collapses back into the car seat. "Fuck me and I thought the car was fun to ride."

"I think I may love this car a whole lot more right now. Reach into the glove box and grab the kit in there please; there should be wipes and tissues."

"You came prepared?"

"We eat a lot in the car, of course I come prepared. Clean up is clean up Mr Grey..."

"Here let me clean you first, I made a mess."

"You did? I hadn't noticed, much..."

"How come that just happened?"

"It needed to. I do believe you liked it too."

"I fucking loved it Ana, it is liberating and strangely erotic fucking in a parking lot."

"I am not usually and an exhibitionist, but as you can see the windows are tinted and there are no windows at the back of the property. So I think we fucked in relative secrecy. Thanks for the cleanup it was well done."

"Is this what it's going to be like, secret fucks?"

"No, not all the time, but secret yes, and this time was unplanned and not very well thought out, I bet my ass is covered in bruises, from those hands of yours and the damned steering wheel?"

"Sorry but the feeling of having you touch my chest was amazing; the spell you cast is still working Anastasia."

"Good, now wipe your dick and shut up. I bet I look like I have got a bad case of bad bed hair."

"You have just fucked hair, would you care to climb off me, because I need to see to business."

"My apologies, I was comfortable in my seat thank you."

"I liked having you in that seat, Ana, that was great."

"I was wasn't I?"

"Hahahaha, you kill me Ana."

"Fucked to death, there are worse ways to go, and at least you had a smile on your sulky face." I sigh and then wonder what the fuck I just allowed to happen, allowed I bloody well started it...

"Ana, can we make this work? What do we do next?"

"We eat and talk, that was the last time that happens. I think we needed it though."

"We did, we certainly did. I think I like this new arrangement already."

"It will take some working on; I mean I fly off to Switzerland later today. So we best make plans and coordinate our diaries."

"We best talk then."

"We'd better. Come..."

"I just did thank you Ms Lambert."

"Hahahaha, the spell on humour I cast needs work. I mean it too, about the names, we are not Sub and Dom or vice versa, we are..."

"...Friends who fuck and we are not lovers."

"I want exclusivity though Christian, until you find someone who is a suitable candidate for being your next submissive at least."

"And the same goes for you Ana, no whipping men with gray eyes."

"Okay and we are clear on that right Christian? Christian are we clear on that?"

"Ana, Ana wake up I think we are here, the plumy lady says we are, so who am I to argue?" I open my eyes. Crapolla, I'd had a bloody sex dream about Christian-Fucking-Grey again... I haven't had one of those in a while. I check myself over and there are no signs of wear and tear and though my sex is warm and wet, I guess we didn't just fuck like a couple possessed? Mores the pity...

"I am awake, stop shouting at me. Are we okay I mean if we are not then say something now Christian?"

"Say something about what? The baby, you me and your fuck buddy proposal? Because that one is going to take some thinking about Ana, it's not something I have ever done before, or have ever thought of doing."

"I'm sorry I mentioned it, I wasn't thinking straight. I wasn't thinking at all. I guess we should leave things as they are. Besides we may not see each other for another few years."

"No, you are attending mothers charity event and I will be in attendance and I would like to see you in concert too, if that's okay?"

"I guess we will meet in a month then and I am officially withdrawing the silly notion of us being fuck buddies, am I making myself clear that it was a stupid notion Christian?"

"As crystal Ana. Now, I am famished, we could go to a restaurant as I have a few of your English pounds in my pocket?" I laugh. I wonder if I spoke in my sleep, because he seems in a very friendly mood.

"I am working Christian, so it's a paid for lunch. Follow me; I need to eat now because I have a flight to catch later."

"I thought you were driving to Switzerland in Red?" Oh god Christian, I can't think straight, let alone drive straight. I had dream sex with you Christian Grey and the longer I spend in this damned car, the more I want real sex.

"What, oh flying, yes right, I thought I'd fly over is quicker and I could leave Red here for you, besides Holly will be over in a week and she can drive her over." We head in and the place is spotless and running well, "My staff from Mamma's Bakery are here and are filling the shelves. It was indeed fortuitous that it was undergoing a refit or they could have been in the damned building." I say as I flick between watching Christian and seeing what my staff are doing and then I see him, my sodding Uncle Sunny is here and he gives Christian the eye. Oh crap, I'd forgotten about him.

"Anastasia, who is this and why are you here?"

"Uncle Sunny, were you aware that the old bakery has collapsed? I had to come to deal with that, and see to another new property we have."

"It collapsed, how and why, did those builders seeing to the record shop roof screw up, because I told them yesterday when we emptied the flat and the bakery, to use plenty more of those props and make sure they are wedged in good and tight?"

"Well it didn't work your chat, because the damned thing brought down the row of three and the one on the end for good measure. It is a sorry mess."

"Why Marco employed them is beyond belief, they're as useless as a set of chocolate teacups. Is he schlepping their boss?" I laugh.

"He didn't employ them, the Heritage recommended them and I went with their decision. So, it seems their men were the cause of the buildings demise." Uncle Sunny then makes Christian his next topic up for discussion.

"So you, who are you?" He points at poor Christian. "What are your intentions towards my beloved niece, oh, and I have a gun, so tell me the truth and you can hang on to your balls." I bat his arm; he should be called Uncle Stupid!

"He does not Christian, ignore him. Uncle Santino, this is my friend Christian Grey. Christian this is one of my mother's three brothers. The middle pain in my backside, Santino or Sunny to we who love him."

"I am pleased to meet you Mr D'Acciaio."

"Call me Sunny, so your intentions what are they?"

"Sunny?" Christian asks, avoiding the question like the plague?

"I have a sunny disposition. No, seriously Chris my father is Santino and I am not a fan of junior. So, are you two dating?"

"No, Uncle Santino, we are friends like you and Lucinda. Don't interfere."

"I'm meant to interfere, it's the Uncle code. Have you met Raimondo, older brother and in charge of the horses heads, he will Interfere guaranteed, because Ray is her biggest bodyguard, if you get my drift, touch her and he will touch you bad and that's nothing to what Mamma will do if you hurt her Bambino?" Christian gulped. Poor man.

"He is joking again; and no you are the only family member he has met. Now, the bakery can I leave it in your hands, or do I have to get someone over?"

"I am here for a while; did you not remember I was here to empty the flat and just in the nick of time if what I hear is anything to go by? So, if it's down to rubble are we going with the new three store front like this one?"

"Yes, is the simple answer, I must have missed putting emptying the old place into the schedule, so we saved everything then?"

"Yes and it's on its way to California, why did you forget Little one, have you something else on your mind these days, like this fella?" Drop it Sunny I think, but yes this time he's right, he's always on my damned mind.

"Umm, work, work and more darned work and now the old bakery."

"It will mean more planning work now the building is lost, should I get on to them?"

"No, we have no need to, we will go with the plans that were approved before Heritage got involved, its already been approved so get Marco and his men started on those. Is everything else okay here?"

"Perfetto, we are a little over staffed, but you didn't want to let anyone go."

"I know, but I may have a solution to the overstaffing, as I now own Hyde's too. Christian and I are going around there now to do a spot check, if he has done the same thing as he did in New York, the place is filled with illegal workers and given the fines here are huge, I want to get in there and make sure everything is as it should be."

"You bought their shop? Why Ana, it's an old shit hole."

"Not just the shop Uncle Sunny, I now own the whole company as of yesterday. Both of the stores are in two very nice place and the small one I can imagine has not had anything spent on it in a long time, but I am sure it is worth the time to do it up nicely! The big one was to be a London school. I doubt they have started those changes."

"I think Marco's team of shop fitters are going to be busy over the summer then. So, you got your old bosses business, wow you really are a glutton for punishment."

"I will have to clear it all with Marco. Christian are you okay?"

"I'm fine Ana, really fine." He looks afraid bless him.

"Marco is expanding his business; he has your businesses to deal with and the new store in Australia. My brother and niece are the families most boring jobs worth millionaires you are ever likely to meet, so Christian what do you do?"

"I'm the most boring billionaire you are ever likely to meet."

"Okay, so you are not out for my nieces many millions, so what did you do to get the billions then?"

"I am head of GEH, and a few other businesses."

"Ana here needs a holiday, we tell her all the time, do you take holidays or do you like her work too hard?" He went there; I would fire him if I didn't love him like I do.

"Paff..." I say.

"Paff all you want little one, you need a life. Take some time off to really see the world."

"I see the world thank you."

"You see your stores and the places you go to, to compete in, Ana there's a whole world not involved in chocolate out there kiddo."

"Drop it Uncle Sunny, I love my work, it is all I need right now. So are we okay? Can I leave London with you for the time being?" He nods and I feel like shit for shouting at him and ignoring Christian, which I am doing on purpose, I do not need any more wet dreams about Mr Sex on legs.

"As you wish little one. Everything here is good hands, these hands, now scoot, go do your bossy thing. And here's me thinking they broke the mould when they made Mamma, but you and she are just the same."

"Thank you, I think that's the nicest complement you have ever given me, I will tell her. I am sure Nonna will love to hear that, again..." I give Uncle Sunny a hug and Christian keeps his eyes open and reverses backwards the way we came in, really he thinks we are Mafioso or Cosa Nostra. I shake my head and we get back in the car, the bloody Italian Mob movies are the bane of my life.

"That was a little frightening Ana."

"What meeting Sunny?"

"Yes, and awkward."

"Awkward?"

"Are you purposely repeating everything I say Ana?"

"No, he is the least frightening of my uncles. Ray is the bad ass of the family, then Marco."

"Crap."

"I am kidding you, Nonna is the worst. She is feared by us all. Her boys are pussy cats in comparison to Tiger Nonna."

"Old Lady Tiger, got that, I should be afraid of Nonna, crap..." I laugh as we get in the car.

"Seriously, Ray is in Australia, running the stores there. Marco is as gay as the rainbow and harmless. Sunny; he is good at looking after the distribution network for the chocolates. He is a logistics expert and ignore his bravado, being the youngest son he is a little spoilt, oh and the horses head thing is a crock of shit too, Ray hates horses and Sunny, he hates the sight of blood, he faints. Just because we are Italian it does not mean we are a 'made' bunch of violin case carrying hoodlums and racketeers, no that was so last century." He laughs.

"He had me worried."

"He has never met a man I was on a 'date' with, but if they ask you what you are to me, we are friends which we are, right?"

"Will I meet them?"

"Possibly, if you and I are in the same place, because they do tend to pop up unannounced as with Sunny, who really should have been in Australia, unless I missed something, like I did with the flat here being emptied? I am so disorganised lately, which is so not like me. So, it looks like we can give Hyde's the quick eye over and dismiss and clean house. I will then cook for you at home before I head off. If you want?"

"You are very bossy Ana."

"Organised and grounded. Nonna, she saw to it I was nothing like her daughter."

"Your mother is she not highly thought of?" He seems to want to know a lot about me!

"No is the simple answer, she is never thought of because she gave me to Papa Frank and not to her own mother. I was sold for thirty pieces of silver and so she was ostracised from the family for doing it. She is never to be mentioned, ever, if you know what's good for you that is, because Nonna would really turn tiger on you."

"Your Nonna did that to her own daughter?"

"She did... Luckily they loved Mimi and Frank, and they were always in Scotland or Mimi and I spent time with them here in London. As you know when Mimi died I was sent here to live and it was a nightmare. Can you imagine three grown men two grandparents and me a stroppy kid in a small flat above a bakery? No, well it was bad, it was then I asked Papa Frank for the keys to dad's place and we lived there until Papa Frank had his stroke, they had retired anyway and we have family in California, so they looked after him for me, so I could continue to fly with my dreams, then when he died they stopped there, they still live in my house there. So, if you are going to the concert then let me know, you can stop with us at home there and finally meet Nonna and Nonno."

"I'd like to meet them, and I do have a place in Vegas, a hotel. Ana I will be fine for accommodation thanks, besides Nonna doesn't seem the type to allow male strangers to stop with her granddaughter. So, Nonna is the force to be reckoned with then?"

"Yes, she is. She thinks I should be married, so perhaps it's a good thing you stay in your hotel, because she has her sons doing as they want and not what she wanted for them, so she was hoping I would do as she asked and she may want to sound you out for being grandson material."

"Did you not consider it, doing what she wanted?" Only with you Christian and that's never happening, so no, I never want to be with someone who isn't you Christian.

"No, I love my work too much and besides marriage is a serious thing to enter into. I hate to disappoint her but I'm a strong woman like her and by now she is getting used to disappointment of her children and grandchildren! In Nonna reality, Ray was supposed to enter a seminary and become a priest and then eventually become the Pontiff! Marco was supposed to be the family man and Sunny was meant to take over the bakery. In our own _real_ reality, Ray is the family man and good catholic boy with seven boys the eldest of whom is my age, down to the surprise six year old." I sigh and then sob into my hankie.

"You and his wife were pregnant at the same time?"

"Yes, and it's the main reason Nonna wasn't here with me, thank god. Now enough talk of my crazy family."

"No, I like hearing about your family. They seem to love you."

"They do, they will do anything for me, and I will do anything for them."

"Ray's wife has she done having children? And what did your other Uncles do that upset Nonna?"

"Not a lot actually, she has this thing you have one child in every family should be for god, but it's silly really, she loves the grandsons she has, I am Nonna's only granddaughter but Mariah, Rays wife, she wants a girl and so they will keep on trying for one. Marco is my store designer, and he too wants children, in fact he has a surrogate all lined up and this is a hard thing for Nonna, she is old school and thinks you have to be married to have children, not gay and single, but she adapts pretty well to change, she had to after what Carla did. Marco is a fabulous architect and you have met the coolest of my uncles, Uncle Sunny, the Momma's boy, the serial dater and playboy on a shoestring. He can throw some great bread together, but he's not as good at it as me or Nonno, but he's good, he's better with computers and data processing. And as you have probably gathered I employ a lot of family members, they are the only people you can trust, besides if they screwed me over, Nonna, she'd slit their throats."

"Really?"

"No, but they would wish she had. Here the next coordinates, you know far more about me than anyone else too. Hyde's of Hyde Park, that address was worth the millions I have paid them and I have to hope it's not as bad as New York."

"I have your back Ana."

"Okay thanks, I think?"

We talk a little and laugh a lot. I am going all moo-eyed over him again. He is making my heart flutter and my usually sane head is filled with what I could do to him in Satin and Steel. Would that it was open here damn it? We get to Hyde's and I can see without going in I am going to have to spend some serious money on the place. Its more in Notting Hill than it is Hyde park but the cost of buying property here anywhere in London is astronomical. The place has not been touched since I was here five years ago; I doubt anything has been spent on it since then either. We park up and enter. Sunny was right it's a crapheap, shiting hells bells and damnation.

"Can I help you?" A young lady of about my age stares over the old countertop and smiles. She seems pleasant enough.

"Can I speak to the manager please?"

"He's out." Ouch, she's sounding quite curt and short with me, not good for front of house staff.

"The assistant manager?"

"She's out with him."

"Okay then who is in charge then?"

"That would be me and you are?" Snappy too...

"Your new boss and I am Anastasia D'Acciaio, the new owner of the House Of Hyde. How long has the manager been out?"

"All day. He came in opened up and they went out for the day I am in dire need of a break and I am worn out, we have been busy today and well the others don't take orders off me, just the idiot and his bimbo, sorry as I said I am tired, and when I am tired, I tend to snap."

"Who are you?"

"Clare Jones."

"Well Clare Jones, so who else have you got working here, and where are the colleagues that will not take orders from you or relive you?"

"I would prefer not to say, they don't speak English is all I am saying and they are paid peanuts and they sleep..."

"...In the roof?"

"How..."

"...Where are they?" She points to the back of the store and I am shocked at what I see, there are children and old women cooking frozen pre baked breads and pastry goods and unpacking fake Lust from Polish crates. "Call immigration and the police please, I cannot have illegal's working and living here, the cost in fines alone could cripple the shop and not be good for business." One of them understands enough English to leg it and so they all do one. I make the call and have Ethan get the legal team in and start checking all the Hyde stores for the same behaviour. "Clare, shut the shop please. I will have a crew here within the hour to change the locks and help you clear and clean this crap heap. So are there any English speaking legal workers here at all?"

"No, just me, Hugh the manager and Lacey, the assistant manager."

"How long have you worked here Clare?"

"It seems like forever, I had high hopes of going to France or Belgium, I even dreamed of going to Switzerland to be a chocolatier, but instead I am here selling their new Lust shit and I'd rather I wasn't, have you tasted it?"

"No, but I hear bad things about it. Okay then, so I will have my people come from over at D'Acciaio's and help you to clean the place." I call for Sunny's help and a locksmith, we are mid lock change when the elusive Hugh Bonner and Lacey Tracie return drunk from lunch. I have been busy auditing the books with the help of Christian and all is not good.

"Who the fuck are you?" What a charming first impression to make mate, I think as I take in the sight before me. They are drunk and unable to work, would that I would be letting them back in the store.

"What a nice first impression to make, I must say, I might ask the same of you?" He is a smarmy bastard and not long for my company.

"I am the manager, who the fuck..." I cut him off at his balls.

"...Am I? I am the new owner, thanks for asking so nicely Mr Bonner, are you drunk and how did you manage that when it says you are here clocked in and are meant to be working?" I say as I look over the books and I am not surprised at what I see. "Give this gentleman here your safe keys; he is going to do a safe check." Christian takes the keys from him. He spotted what I had; the books clearly show there is a pound in his pocket for him and then the pound for the bank, today's takings are in excess of five hundred pounds, which is not good at all and if he is pocketing half then it's appalling and it probably goes higher too. Christian and I discussed this when we sat in the unkempt office earlier.

"I did the banking this morning there is nothing to see."

"I can see that there is nothing to see. Really, this book says you have done no banking for eight days, do you have another book?"

"It's in here somewhere, but I did the banking."

"I doubt it. You are hereby terminated, both of you. I do not think you are what I am looking for in my management team, and as the shop is to be closed, its contents are to be cleared and the property sold there is no job for you and your assistant manager here, not within the House of D'Acciaio anyway. I will have accounts pay you what you are owed and I will bid you farewell."

"You can't do that, I don't work for you."

"You don't you are right. You worked for Hyde's and it ceased trading yesterday, and had you read your emails, you would have perhaps seen I was coming to inspect the property at some time today, alas you did not and I have been sat here for a while waiting for you to return. I have also informed the police of your employing illegal's. They will want to speak to you too."

"Fuck... I knew that would bite me in the ass, and not fucking Frost. I am leaving; can I get my personal things from the office and my locker?"

"No, but I will have them sent to you Mr Bonner, Ms Tracie. We have both your addresses. Good day to you both." He and she turn tail and headed out. I think they knew their free ride was over. "Clare, my Uncle Sunny and the others are here they will help you clear away this mess and the shop fitters will be around to measure up and redesign the shops front and the back. Would you consider staying on as manager here? It would mean you going to head office for two months in Paris, to learn how I run my stores, just whilst the refit is finished?"

"Erm, yes please?" Uncle Sunny is shaking his head at the place, as he comes into the back office.

"Sunny..."

"I know sort her out with her plane tickets. Do you want to keep the equipment? It's old and badly maintained? That much I can see."

"It was past it when I was here five years ago, but have it checked and serviced, then if it can be saved fine, if not it is to be replaced. Jose will be over to see to the rest later in the week. Marco, can he get here today too?"

"Not until tomorrow, he is in Belgium. I called to tell him about Christian. Did you forget that you wanted him there yesterday to close down the school and do the plans to extend the store?"

"Shit, he will be spread too thinly. I have gone too big, without thinking."

"Nah, it's a crapshoot okay, but it is nothing the family cannot help you handle little one. The locksmiths here, do you want the windows caging?"

"Yes please." Christian has sat and listened and helped me with the books.

"Cages?" He asks with a twinkle in his eyes.

"Yes, squatters are a pain here in London. I cage the windows and doors and we employ a security guard. You have too; it can cost you your building if you don't."

"Wow, I love how in control you are. So, are we stopping here?"

"No, Sunny has my back, yes?"

"Yes Bambino. Go eat and did I mention I want a pay rise?"

"No, not today anyway. Why what do you want?"

"A holiday?"

"Where?"

"The villa."

"Are you being deliberately annoying, which Villa?"

"Okay I was. I'd like the beach hut in St Bart's? Lucinda and I are due a break."

"Okay, its empty at the month's end. How long?"

"A couple of weeks?" I nod.

"It's yours. I need it for the whole of July though."

"You?"

"No, Ethan and Jose are going on a month long honeymoon."

"Oh god I thought you and him where you know..." He nods at Christian and I blush.

"...No we are friends Uncle Sunny. I am going before you get the villa in Italy for Christmas."

"I already have it. I won the family lotto. You got California with Nonna and Nonno..." I smile and head out with Christian following.

"That was epic Ana, he's fun to watch and he has a skilful way of getting what he wants from you."

"He is a great friend and uncle, the best in fact. Epic? That's nothing, that store was a small part of what's to come, they have twenty bigger stores, they had three schools and the new place here in London was meant to house a fourth, when I was with them anyway, and then there are the three factories and all are in that state, it's no wonder James was leaving."

"Will you do them all up?"

"I will do the bigger ones up and close the ones that cannot be moulded to my usual layout. I need food and a drink and we still need to talk."

"I got turned on watching you work Ana."

"Really? It's interesting that you see me differently in a work environment, seeing me be masterful and Domme like perhaps is what really turned you on?"

"So Ana, can we at least talk about perhaps being contracted to each other verbally, we could try and see if we could compromise on our usual contracts?"

"I don't know that it would work Christian, but we can discuss this back at home."

"Right, so we will discuss the subject at home."

"Yes, at home, with no distractions or should I say fewer distractions?"

Christian and I head home, both of us seem very confused and out of sorts and I certainly am since my pornesk dream of car sex...

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Extra log chapter for you and I hope you liked it and the little squeeze of lemon, I am close to the end of the ones I pre wrote... Damn which means there will be two on the go, will I ever learn? Read and review please... HEA, for those who asked and lemons are coming...


	13. Chapter 13

I am told you like this AU thing I do and the OCC, thing that E. gave us in the four books that I override?

The fourteen chapters I wrote will definitely now become more thanks to the great feedback for wanting more...

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Dreaming of Chocolate and Grey:

Chapter 13:

To friendly arrangements...

As we pull up to the gates of Ana's home see the are a few people from this morning still hanging around. Ana smiles and waves as we go through the gates. Gates which seem to have more stuff on them. Ana notices that I am watching them and smiles. She has a beautiful smile, so full of light and joy, and there I go again looking at Ana differently.

"It is something you get used to, well I have anyway. Pull over there please?"

"Sure, this car is a very nice ride." I say and Ana's face is a little flushed as I compliment her car. "Did I say something wrong Ana, only you seem to be smirking?" I ask as I park.

"No, nothing wrong. I am glad you liked the ride; make the most of it whilst you are still here."

"Are you sure you want us staying in your home? Oh, and will Uncle Sunny be around?"

"No, he has his own apartment. He moved out of here ages ago. Taylor is in his old room. Speaking of which, there he is your well trained guard dog."

"Ana, do you not have security, for real?"

"For real? Really no I do not, I never needed them and until I pissed off the boys I thought I would never need it. I can handle myself and Holly is as adept as me at kicking butt, better even she can throw guys further than I can. I am looking at your guy Luke Sawyer too."

"How...?" I say a little agog that she knows about my planned covert security.

"I have ears everywhere I heard Taylor on the phone to a Sawyer when he dropped me off at the airport, it didn't need a super brain to work everything else out. I can pay him from my own pocket too; I am okay for his wages to come from me Christian."

"So we were not very clandestine then?" I ask as Ana gets out of the car.

"No, and I happened to hear Ethan telling Kate about him too. So we are here for our talk and eat time and then I have to be off."

"Ana could you please stay until tomorrow? I want to talk."

"Christian we have said everything we can about the baby, the talk of contracts doesn't appeal to me. It is why I have the clubs. Walk this way and please be discreet, because my staff and family do not know of my other life, as I presume your staff do? So I would appreciate not saying anything to Jenny, she still thinks I am as pure as the driven snow."

"Really?" I ask.

"I am a good Italian girl, what do you think?"

"Okay. Sorry." Is she kidding me or what, the sleep talk said differently and was such a fucking turn on?

"Don't be Christian, we were going to talk. So, I will change and finish packing and then come and cook an early dinner."

"Ana..." I say not sure what else I want to say, I don't want her to walk away from me, that is all I do know. "Ana, I will get ready. I can run you to the airport too; you could use my jet if you want?"

"Thank you but no, I really like the hustle of the airport, sometimes it's the only down time I get. Besides I like to keep it real."

"You see that in itself is a mystery, why would you travel by a scheduled airway when you could have a private plane?"

"Until I got the American stores, all my work was done here in Europe and its easier driving. I like to drive. Holly loves it too. I will be back down soon. Help yourself to a drink or whatever. Jenny may still be here or if she has gone home then give me a shout if you can't find anything." She smiles and heads up to her room and I watch until she disappears and then turn on the balls of my feet and head towards the kitchen, where Taylor is sat on his own with his laptop.

"Do you want a drink Taylor?"

"No Sir, I am fine with the coffee. Mrs Logan left an hour ago. Can I help?"

"No, I am fine. I think. Ana knows about Luke Sawyer, so there is no need to be secretive. She has big ears. What did you do today Taylor?"

"I went sightseeing. Did the tourist thing for a while, I bough Sophie a Beefeater Teddy and some dolls from Hamleys Toy Store, a gift for Gail and had coffee in town. Did you get everything done Sir?"

"I did. I did Taylor thanks for asking." I pour myself a cup of coffee and mull around. I don't do small talk. I know Taylor is discreet and I pay him enough for that pleasure, but I am not up to discussing my son with him. "I am going to sit in the lounge for a while; Ana will ask you if you want to eat dinner with us, please feel free to stop with us if she asks, she isn't a ball breaker with her staff like I am apparently..." I say as I ponder my next move.

"Thank you Sir, but I will go out to eat. Call me when Miss Lambert needs to be leaving for the airport and I will drive her there." He says and I turn tail and shoot that idea down.

"There's no need Taylor I have already offered to do that. We have a busy couple of weeks ahead of us, take all the time off you need."

"Sir, is something worrying you?" I shake my head as I sip the hot coffee. "I can't help but note you have been out of sorts for a couple of days?"

"I have a few things on my mind Taylor, but nothing to worry about, nothing I cannot figure out for myself. Is there anything going on I should know about at home or work?"

"No, everything is fine, both here and at home, Sir."

"Okay, if you need me I am through here." He nods and I head to the lounge. The garden here is beautiful, so I open the door and sit on the stone patio outside. I find the comfy seats and sit. I then wonder how my usually very organised military style life has got so messed with. I sip my coffee and stare. I don't know how long I sat there, but it was relaxing, watching the trees blow in the gentle winds and the clouds float above me. The weather here is very similar to Seattle, just as wet and just as unpredictable. I am about to head in because of the rain when I hear Ana giggle. I turn and see her watching me.

"How long were you there?"

"A while, you looked so peaceful. I didn't feel it was right to disturb you."

"Thanks, I was just thinking."

"That can be a dangerous thing." Ana says as she watches me.

"Tell me about it Ana, it's very dangerous for me, these personal issues I am facing."

"What were you thinking about, like I really have to ask, the baby right?"

"Yes, Christian. Christian is all I have thought about since you told me about him."

"Okay."

"Ana, do you..."

"...Think about him?"

"No, well yes, but that wasn't my question."

"What was your question?" She asks.

"Will you consider going to out to dinner with me?"

"Tonight?"

"No, when we sort out our work diaries, would you consider going out to dinner with me?"

"As in a date?" I shuffle in my seat, did I mean as in a date and did I say it that way? I mean how the fuck does this dating even work?

"I'm not sure as in what capacity, friend or date." She smiles but looks disappointed.

"We are eating in tonight, because dinner is all ready prepared, it's just pasta I'm afraid, your guy Taylor, he left about ten minutes ago."

"He did?"

"He did. Can I ask you Christian, are you feeling the same loss of control I am having at the moment?"

"I'm feeling strange Ana, very strange in fact."

"Me too. Come on let's eat dinner, before it gets too cold. I believe we were going to talk then, where we not?"

"I believe it was mentioned a time or two Ana." We head in and I close the French doors. "What sort of Pasta Ana?"

"Seafood, in a lobster bisque sauce served over homemade bavette pasta."

"Home made?"

"Yes, I can spend days making pasta, I then dry it and then package it. It is very therapeutic. It tastes good too."

"I am sure it's better than the packet Mac and Cheese I can make, which is the only thing I am capable of cooking, if you call microwaving food cooking, that is? I can defrost anything Gail makes for me in there too; I am the king of the microwave."

"You must microwave me some of that then. Here help yourself to wine."

"I best not I am driving you to the airport."

"No drink, I have a car service picking me up in an hour, so we have an hour to talk. Here is my schedule for the next month. As you can see I am in California for a week, for the concert and then I have put a week aside to look at stores in Seattle too where I am also attending Grace's charity event and handing over a cheque. You can take me out to dinner there, if you want?"

"Sure, if going for dinner is what you want to do, then we can do that I guess?"

"You guess? You said we should go out for dinner."

"I know, but as I only go for business dinners, going out on a date to dinner is..."

"...Call it a business dinner if it helps. You really are a conundrum Christian."

"I know, sorry."

"Don't be it's who you are I guess? Now, have you chosen the wine?"

"Where is it?"

"Through those doors there and down into the cellar. My father had great taste in wine; there are some really good ones down there and I added to it recently on a trip to a French vineyard."

"White or red?"

"White I think, but I will leave it up to you to choose." I head down and look at the row upon row of wine, wow... I pick up a bottle of a nice Sancerre, So I take up a couple of bottles of the 2005 Francois Cotat Sancerre, by Cuvee Jean Paul. I like her taste in wine too. As I head up I see she has a fine collection of champagnes too. Her red collection has some pricey wines in residence too.

"I chose this one. Where do you keep the glasses?" She points.

"Top cupboard to the right of the sink. I got that when I spent a week in a winery, I am not the wine expert, but the people who I lease my winery to are, I like their wines too. There is a couple of crates down there, that I have yet to get around to filling the wine racks with."

"I saw them too, it's a good winery. I think one of my clubs and a couple of hotels stock their wines."

"I had a few crates sent to the island. So you have more. Have you got your calendar handy?"

"No, but I can send you my schedule. Andrea my assistant deals with all that. She keeps me in check and is great at scheduling my life."

"I have dealt with her before." I look at Ana, she said that with such anger in her voice and her eyes seem to spit laser beams from them, and wonder when she spoke to her and why she had such anger towards her perhaps because of the island buy out, but I thought Ros dealt solely with her?

"When, Ana because Andrea she's only worked with me for four years?"

"Well the one before her was a crabby bitch, if Andrea wasn't the one I tried to get an appointment to see you with..."

"Leona, yes she was a little handy and wanted more from me and vetted all my calls, which is why we got rid of her, she stopped a lot of my appointments with other clients , but only the female ones. She wasn't half as good as Andrea."

"She told me I had to wait six months to see you. I am not surprised, because I didn't get past the Rottweiler at the front desk, so I was hardly going to get past your moo-eyed assistant was I?"

"I will inform them should you call, you are to be put straight through Ana."

"Thank you, not that I will have that same problem again. Now help yourself to the salad and pasta." She has set the table, so I sit and do as she asks.

"So..." I say quizzically.

"Yes, now we have the talk. How does his normally work? You getting your submissives?" We drink the wine and get ready to talk. Now it is here I am like a kid asking a date to the prom, not that I know what that feels like I did not go to my prom. Elena saw to that.

"I have someone who knows my tastes and she sets me up with their files, which includes their photos and their hard and soft limits and medical records." Elena, she is the holder of the files...

"Do you pay this woman for their services or the girls themselves, I was always interested in how that works?"

"I pay the finder a fee, and the girls get their needs met."

"You see that is the part of this I do not understand, even being in the same game as you, or a similar game. How can they not be called an escort or a call girl?"

"Wow, you run a club and yet you do not understand our life?"

"Oh I understand it, I have friends who live to be collared and led around. My friends do it because they like it and are in it for pleasure and not for money though. Christian, you seem to pay them to be at your beck and call?"

"They possibly get paid in differing ways, meals clothes?"

"Possibly, as you say I do not understand it. I like how I do things."

"I am a well known man, known for his privacy. The arrangements I make suit me."

"I am well known too. I do god damned talk shows all the time, especially after making chocolates endorsed by the First Lady. The book tours I do are hard too. Being who I am makes me ripe for the gigolos and wanna be kept men, how kept do you want to be Christian?"

"Not at all Ana, not at all?"

"So I can't buy you a car, nice suits watches? I can do if that sweetens the deal?" She fucking laughs, yes this is going to be different, because she doesn't need money or my gifts either.

"No, I do not need them. I can see this is going to be a fun hour."

"Half an hour I have to be going soon."

"So you don't have a sub for your needs, instead you use clubs when you are in the need? I use girls the same way."

"Enough of what you did with your women... I am sorry I asked, I don't want to think about you and other woman, not right now, eat please."

"Ana, I am sorry too, thought that's what we were going to do, talk? Anyway, this is very nice." I take another forkful.

"Thank you, it's Nonno's recipe. So, how would this work then?"

"I don't know, Ana, I simply do not know."

"Okay then, can I ask why are you willing to discuss us doing the unthinkable and dating, why do you want to try it with me?"

"Again, I don't know that I do, I mean you are my type of girl, you are everything I usually look for in my submissives, but you are different too because we have a past, sort of and its confusing me."

"Argh you mean our one night of drunken sex. It is worrying you, because of my emotional involvement in you?"

"Yes, simply put yes. Do you see this going anywhere long term Ana?"

"I hadn't thought about anything long term, other than my work in a long time. Christian, for sodding years I have been in love with you and I hold my hands up to wanting more from you than you seem to be able or willing to give, but I am also a realist now, finally I get this, I mean my head is no longer in fairytale land as it was when I seduced you, because I'd stopped believing in happy ever after stories a long time ago, or so I thought, that was until I saw you again and all the old feelings I had came rushing back. You see I loved you so much and it confused me it hurt me and it played with my every waking moment, but it was all one sided and not real I know that, I was a lovesick fool and now, now I am so fucked up, so damned confused and in need of a better therapist, I need something or someone to get me past this longing I have for the fairytale to be real, do you get that, or any of that?"

"Ana, you lost me at being a realist and then harping on about fairytales, sorry I am immune to this love you have for me and though I have feelings for you I too, and I am a little lost too..."

"I know Christian; you don't know how to love, I get that I really do. I know too that you feel guilty about our son too, so please be clear I am not looking for a sympathy fuck either."

"I wouldn't know what one of those was either Ana. It's just another emotion to me, and it is yet another foreign thing for me to get my head around, I hate emotions at the best of times. Yes, I will admit my thoughts are now all over the place, they have been since I found out about Christian; I was thrown through the mill a little."

"I was ground to fine maze in my mill Christian, not course ground pepper like yours. God, I can't believe I even suggested doing what I did and I stupidly thought you would go for the idea, why did you not just shut me down Christian, why?"

"Ana, it was you who suggested the fuck buddy thing, it shocked me too, and I don't know why I didn't say no and even more confusing for me is the fact that I don't know why I have yet to say no Ana."

"It was not one of my better moves. I don't even know why I suggested it. I did take the offer back."

"Yes, yes you did take back the offer, but by then I was thinking why not, and I am still thinking why not."

"You were and are you still thinking about it really?"

"I am... but..."

"...You have never done this before?"

"Yes. Is the simple answer. I don't know how to do it normally, like other people my age."

"Normal? I don't do normal either. We are so alike, it's very frightening."

"What do you know about me, Ana?"

"Just what I read. I know people who have done business with you, they think you are very good at what you do, most think you are gay, this I knew not to be true," I laugh, "I know that the only people you are ever photographed with are family and work colleagues and people who you do business with."

"So you scan the pages for me then?"

"I do not pick up a magazine or go on line to stalk you, but I do occasionally scan media for your likeness Christian, if I read a paper or magazine whilst having my hair done, I occasionally see your photograph in one of them."

"I never looked for yours. I only read the business section that pertains to my work and my needs."

"Oh I am hurt..." She looks at me as she eats and giggles. "I am in Forbes all the time."

"I will look out for you in future. Ana, we have headed off subject."

"It was getting a little serious."

"It was?"

"Christian, we slept together one night, during which one of us remembers how great it was and the other is sorry it happened."

"I am sorry. I'd like to say it was as memorable for me as it was for you, but I can't. Can you fly tomorrow?"

"Why would I do that?"

"So we can talk more, get to know each other more?"

"As in you want to sleep with me?"

"I don't sleep with anyone."

"Okay, I will rephrase that, so you and I can have sex?"

"That sounded so crass Ana. I meant so we could talk and get to know each other."

"If I do that, if I stop, will it end with us having sex?"

"Do you want it to; do you want me to fuck you Ana?"

"When you put it like that Christian, no. No I do not."

"I don't make love Ana."

"Only when you are drunk."

"Did I tell you I loved you Ana, did I?"

"Yes... Yes you did. You cried into my chest after I kissed your scars and told me you loved me as I rode you hard."

"Fuck..."

"I know, you were drunk, you called me a witch and said I had cast a spell on you. You were very loving when you realised I had given you my virginity. You, I guess, said the things I wanted to hear."

"Fuck..."

"Stop saying fuck. I get it. You don't do love in any form."

"Ana, I have really messed with your head haven't I?"

"Christian, it is no more than I deserve. I loved you in a childish way, a very stalker type of a way. It was a kiddie kind of love, back then it was a crush that went wrong. I still love you, but now I know what true love is, I don't... I don't know what I want from this, from you, from us? That isn't making much sense, I know, but the feelings I have for you are a part of me they have always been there Christian and I don't know why I feel like I do. My latest and expensive therapist says I need to rid myself of you and everything that reminds me of you. I fired his ass, because that would mean me forgetting about my son."

"Ana that is why this is hard, because of our son." She puts her fork down and drinks the wine. I refill our glasses which we both drink quickly. "He makes us joined in a way we will never get over, or past."

"He does?" She asks as she empties another glass of wine.

"He does Ana. We created life together and will always have that."

"But no more?"

"That is what we are trying to work out Ana, if we can have that something. I care about you deeply."

"You feel sorry for me right?"

"I am sorry for the way things worked out."

"That is the same as feeling sorry for me, Christian, I am too emotionally invested in you to see things clearly and I do not want a pity fuck of any kind... I think I will grab the last of my things and head to Switzerland tonight, I don't want to talk about being fuck buddies, I don't want to be one, I will be honest with you I want something normal in my life, but it's never going to happen for you and me, because Christian, you and I are never going to have that normal thing no matter what we package it as. We are fucked up and are too hard hearted to do anything other than what we do now. I am sorry for putting the thought there, really I am, I guess the part of me that lives in a dream, wanted you again at any cost and my sanity is hanging by a thread being here with you, like this, Christian there isn't anything calm about me right now, every nerve and thought I have is fighting this urge to get you so drunk you sleep with me again."

"Ana, wow, you are messing with my head again; because I want to fuck you so much and I'm sober... So what if we think about things, whilst we are apart, you know give ourselves some space to think?"

"Think about what Christian, you are all I have ever thought of. I even punish men like you. I don't make love to men like you, fuck with them or do anything good with them because they are not you. I am so messed up in here," she taps her head, "that even the best shrinks and doctors can't help me. I can't help myself to get over you, but this chat could be helping me do that, get over you, and it's about bloody time I did take off those rose coloured glasses I wear. Nothing happened between us but a drunken one night stand and I should start to see it for what it was a fucking huge mistake and one I shouldn't be wishing on myself again..." She got up and left the table. I sat stirring my fork through my dinner and suddenly felt sick. Did I want her to get over me? Did I want to see her again? Do I think I can or am capable of give her the more she needs? I finish off my wine and head up to her room. I knock and go in when she doesn't reply... I hear her screams and I see the mess she has made... Fuck...

What the hell just happened between Christian and I? Why the hell did we go there? God I am so confused. I strip off and head into the shower, I need to feel clean so I scrub myself raw because I need to be clean and I need to wash him off me. I don't hear the door and I did not see Christian. I scrub and I rub at my belly, like I need to get rid of the faded marks of my baby Christian being in there...

"Ana, stop... Ana please stop..."

"I need to be clean and I need these marks to go. Can you see them they make me remember what was once there?"

"Ana, for god's sake stop it, you are hurting yourself."

"I have to be clean, they have to go..."

"...Ana please Baby stop doing that. Come here. Ana come here."

"No, I am fine; I just need to wash you out of my life. I need to Christian. I need to."

"Do you do this a lot Ana?"

"What shower?"

"Ana, I mean draw blood..."

"What..." I look down and I have scrubbed my belly raw. Oh god it hurts... "No, oh god no Christian, it hurts. I just felt so dirty, I still feel dirty."

"Come out of there Ana, please." I cover my nakedness with my hands. "Here is a towel, please let me help you?" I grab the towel and cover myself. He helps me out of the shower and holds me as I break down in tears. He wraps me in another towel and I sob uncontrollably. He gets me to the bed where he makes me sit.

"Have you got a first aid kit?"

"What?" I ask like a zombie.

"A first aid kit Ana, do you have one?"

"Yes in the bathroom vanity, with all manner of creams and lotions." He goes and comes back with some cotton wool and creams.

"Lie down Ana."

"I can put on my own cream Christian."

"I have no doubt you can, please lie down. Ana, for me?"

"Urgh..." I lie down and he peels me from the towel and I cover my eyes in embarrassment. My sobbing is almost stopped hurting. "I don't do that normally; I just zoned out and scrubbed to get you off my skin and the stretch marks to fade more..."

"I didn't touch your skin Ana."

"You think so do you? Christian, you are burnt into my very soul you touch every part of me, you touched every part of me. You are the bane of my damned life and now are tending to me like the helpless child it seems I still am. These marks are more reminders that I had our son and you, you seeing them makes me feel dirty..."

"From what I can see, you bear the marks of being our son's mother, they are beautiful, or they would have been but for this redness and rawness." I look down and see him tenderly applying cream to the marks on my body.

"Oh god, kill me now..."

"Ana, are you embarrassed about me seeing you like this?"

"No shit Sherlock..."

"What?"

"Yes. Yes I am deeply embarrassed, nobody sees my belly ever..."

"Does it feel better?" He fucking knows it does I groaned. "I would say the three tiny marks you have are badges you should wear with pride."

"Hu? Like you do yours?"

"Does that feel better, you comparing your birthing scars to the ones I got from a monster Ana?"

"Hu? I didn't think I was comparing battle scars, but both our scars are emotional time bombs for us and now you have seen mine and I am embarrassed by them..."

"Ana, please don't be, you have seen mine and when you touch them I am fine with it, Ana when I touch your scars does it feel better, do you burn as I did?"

"It feels amazing."

"What if I touch you here..." His hand touches my hip and he rubs it gently with his thumb. Oh god... "What if I touch you here?"His hand goes across my belly and to my nethers... I groaned again louder. "Or what if did this..." His hand stops above my flower and I sigh.

"I would think I was being taken advantage of." He laughed and stopped what he was doing.

"I would be taking advantage of you Ana, because your defences are down. Now, are you willing to talk, cancel the car and let's just talk?"

"Can we talk in here?"

"Here, were temptation is the greatest Ana, is that wise?"

"It's where I am most comfortable. Besides we can fuck anywhere in the damned place, I own it all."

"True..." I pick up the house phone and order the car service for seven in the morning. "Good now we talk." He says with a voice of concern.

"I really don't usually hurt myself when I zone out."

"What do you usually do?"

"I daydream, I sleep I sometimes come out of the shower wrinkled and pink. I drift off. Nothing more sinister than that."

"Can I see the damage?" I stand and drop my towel... "Wow..."

"Is it bad?"

"What? No, I mean it's okay, or it will be. Ana you have an amazing body..."

"Thanks, I work out."

"Ana, I mean you have an amazing body."

"If you say so..."

"I do..."

"Well I will cover it, before that gets out of control." I point to his groin and he grins.

"He knows a good thing when he sees it." He says and I giggle louder.

"Okay, this is not at all weird, I try to scrub the skin off my belly and you get turned on being my White Knight and coming to my rescue, this is how it all began back then, at the party, you jumping in to save me. You got turned on then too."

"I did?"

"You did. You got all possessive and man handled me to the cow shed..."

"How romantic of me."

"It was actually, I knew then you liked what you were protecting, your man bit's gave you away."

"Man bits?"

"Umm, your boner... The wood, the swell in the groin area. Your tent action..."

"Ana stop, please..."

"Why do you make me feel like this? You say I put a spell on you, you say it all the time, but what sort of spell do you have me under?"

"I don't think I have Ana."

"Think again. Christian, right now all I am thinking of is rectifying this thing that is tormenting the pair of us."

"Our situation?"

"Yes, I want you to make love to me Christian, or at least I want you to try."

"I don't do things like this Ana."

"Do you want to try?"

"I think the boner says I do..."

"Charming, using my crudeness against me."

"Why are you not dressing Ana?"

"Because I sleep naked..."

"You sleep naked?"

"I do..."

"Oh..." He looks uncomfortable as I walk naked around my bed.

"Do you sleep in your clothes?" I get into bed, whilst he looks at me and doesn't quite know what to do next, "take them off and we can talk in bed."

"Ana, I don't sleep with women."

"I am not some woman, I am Anastasia, and I am seducing you into talking naked with me in bed."

"Anastasia, you know damned well if we get in bed together there won't be any talking done."

"Good, I am not much for talking. Get undressed. Please?"

"Ana, I only fuck and hard."

"I only whip and pleasure men, and hard... How about we both try something not in each other's usual comfort zone, let's see if we can make the fuck buddy thing work?" He took off his pants and shirt. Slowly like he was teasing me. He dropped his underwear and I smiled as he did I peeled back the top cover to my bed. He slid in and moved warily to my side, like a kid about to lose his v card at prom, fuck me I am Ana the vamp.

"So, what do we talk about?" I smiled and as he sat back. I sat up and faced him.

"How about we talk after we sort out the thing that's been hanging over us since we met in your office. You had the same problem then as you have now?"

"Oh you saw that did you?" I moved over his body slowly until I was seated on his belly, he looked a little uncomfortable. "Ana, what are you doing?" He needs to ask me that?

"I am resolving the problem you have. The problem we both have, it seems we have an itch and we need a scratching session."

"Ana, we need to..." I leaned down and kissed his chest. "Ana, oh god Ana, please don't stop. Please don't stop!" Like I could stop I need this I need him and he needs me.

"Is my spell still working?" My hands caress his bare chest and he sighs. His hands cover mine and he leans up and kisses me. He is bowing to my wishes.

"Ana... Nobody has touched me there as nicely as you do, ever..." Me, nice? I am being totally selfish.

"Oh I like touching you, and I know each of these marks personally because they are part of you! You begged me to stop the last time I touched you and then you asked me for more, you were very," I kiss another and another, "insistent I was to try to make it stop hurting, am I hurting you now?"

"No, god no. It is far from hurting. Ana fuck me, you are a witch..."

"Christian, shush... Let me make love to you?"

"I don't do love Ana..."

"You don't think you do, but you do, now shush..." I kissed each of his marks and with each kiss me moaned for more, he never said stop, in fact he asked for more... I looked down at him and kissed away the tears from his face. He in turn wrapped me in his arms and kissed me back. His kisses are soft and needy, and as we get lost in them, he takes control and flips me over and takes the dominant position, he seems to need it this way and I want him any way I can get him. He sucks on my nipple and suddenly stops as I mew...

"Ana, what the hell are we doing?" He looks down at me and stops pleasuring my breasts, fuck that was good.

"If I have to tell you that, then I don't think you are ready for what's coming next."

"Ana, do you want this?"

"Yes... You want this too. We need to put a few ghosts to rest, don't you think?"

"That's just it; I am over thinking this, Ana we are just buddies fucking right?"

"Then don't over think this, you fuck me and hard and I will make love to you Christian, we both get what we want in differing degrees."

"Ana, god Ana can it be so simple?"

"...Less talking more action Mr Grey, it needn't be complicated, just stop over thinking what we are and are not doing and live for the now. Free your little gray cells and enjoy the night; if you hate it then we never have to revisit this again."

"One thing before I fuck you Ana, are you covered?"

"Umm, covered and clean, so fuck me into oblivion Grey..."

"Alright then. God why am I so nervous Ana?"

"Stop thinking about it, please just relax and have fun. No ties just fun fucking..."

"No ties, I like ties... I would love to restrain you." I bet you could...

"Why?" I touch his chest. "I am already very aware of the zones you hate touched and have kissed and stroked them like this... Before..." I put my hands on him and he groans, then he takes my breath away and enters me hard. "Oh god... Yes..."

"Shush and take this." He rams his dick into my hot sex and groans as I squeeze tightly, with every thrust I gasp and scratch at his chest, which spurs him on to thrust hard and long into my sex. Fuck I could make do with this, if I have too. I ride out the first orgasm he gives me and as I shake and tighten he smiles, leans down and kisses me harshly, he bites my lip and as he does, he is staring into my eyes. Fuck he has a look of pure want about him. "You are one hell of a fuck Baby..."

"Umm, and you know how to fuck, but less talking and give it to me hard. Are you just warming up Grey?" He slams hard into me and takes himself out and turns me onto my belly, he slaps my ass and I sing like a canary, god that hit the spot...

"On your knees." I oblige and offer up my backside, he slams into me and his hands come around me and his deft fingers begin to play and torment my flower, they play with my clit and as I hum a high pitched squeal erupts and I come and fuck it hurts, I have back to back orgasmic crashes and boy this man knows how to fuck and play. He slaps my butt hard and I swear with each slap and rub comes a flurry of come from my sex, the wetter he makes the more I want him, our bodies are as one and as he grips my hips tightly, he quickens his pace and as he does the dick inside me grows bigger, if I didn't know better I'd swear he was holding back, fuck me please I scream and as his balls smack my ass I come harder than I ever have before and as I do I grip the sheets and hope to god I can ride out this fucking oceanic tidal wave of an orgasm he is gifting me, but before I hit the peak of its surf, he groans like his dick has been caught In a bear trap, oops...

"Ana, fuck me Ana, I am coming and fucking coming hard, that's it Baby grip me tighter." He thwacks his balls into me, and the noise they make, that alone has me wanting this ride never to stop. He grips my hips to steady himself and as he starts to come I feel the pulse of his shaft in my core, he starts to falter and as he comes he leans down and holds me tightly, he moves like he is a dying fish gasping for air on my back, he seems to be in pain as he comes and as his arms grip my belly and I feel the sudden heat in my sex and the wetness pours from me as we come together and it drenches the bed.

"Fuck me..." He says as he stills. "Ana, I fucking love being with you like this." I thought for one silly moment he said he fucking loved me and I pain a little.

"Umm, I told you to free yourself and just fuck me. So, are we good for more, and I mean more sex? I think it is my turn to show you the gentle side to me and how to make love!"

"I had my very wicked way with you, so it's only fair you show me how this love thing goes, right?" I wish I could make him love me, but I will settle for this any day of the darned week.

We make love in ways he never has, we fuck in positions I never have, we frolic in ways we both know much about, we slap ass and we kiss private places, we do it all night long, we take a showers and we even bathe together. Finally we fall asleep, and he holds me close. When my alarm goes off for my car services one hour call, we are lain in each other's arms exhausted. I think if I never make love again, then last night's happenings will keep me entertained for years to come. I stagger to the bathroom and take a lone shower, get dressed and all I do is watched by Christian.

"So, are we friends who fuck Christian? Have you made your mind up?"

"We are friends with an understanding. Ana, we need to do that again."

"What make love? Because Mr Grey, contrary to your own words, you do that so well."

"We had a good time Ana, and I enjoyed it. All of it. Including the soft and light stuff we did. Including the woman stuff at the end..."

"I believe they call that nap at the end of our workout, or as you called it the woman stuff thing we did at the end, was done because we were excited and drained at the end of a long night, that was in fact your mythical post coital cuddle session you say you have never done before, it's something done at the end of a great time after sex has ended, it is when two people tell the other how great they were, and before you say anything yes it was great. So, my car will be here soon. When we see each other again, can I expect the same?"

"I would count on it Miss Lambert. Ana, it seemed too easy, but you keep saying end, do you want it to end Ana, really?"

"Whoa no I do not want it to end, and I am far from easy. You are the only man to do that with me, you are the only easy one here sunshine." I bat his arm as I pass him.

"Ana, you kill me."

"So you said many times last night. Now, promise me if you meet someone or your submissive finder, the arranger you have, if she finds you someone you will tell me right away." I keep my fingers crossed tightly.

"Ana..." Don't break my heart Christian I pray, but do not say. "Ana stop..."

"Promise me Christian."

"Ana, I am not looking for anyone else; I don't expect you to be looking either."

"Oh, okay. I guess? What are we doing then?"

"Something I have never considered before, I am considering doing what you asked, being friends who share the intimacy we did last night, friends who fuck and make who also make love."

"We had a good time, or at least I did." He pulls me onto the bed and kisses me.

"Oh I know I did Ana..." A car horn toots and I pull away from the kiss.

"Christian, have a good time in Europe and I will see you in California in three weeks, okay?" I will keep my fingers crossed and hope he thinks about the more I need and would like.

"Yes, I look forward to it, all of it Baby, everything we talked about and we can try for more."

"What meeting my grandparents and other uncles, that sort of more Christian? Oh and good luck, with my family because Nonna and Nonno will eat you for breakfast."

"Fuck me..."

"I'd love to but my cars here. See you soon; Christian you have my number call me. Enjoy London and my car and don't be too hard on Jenny, she is a good lady but you may want to get in your own bed, she is a little over the top about my not having sex until I get married..." He laughs as I get up off him.

"Thanks for the tip, do I make the bed?"

"Do you know how to?"

"No?"

"Then just get your ass in your own bed, she will strip it and remake it, it's as mussed up as my flower was." He looks and laughs; yup those are some mean ole love stains on my fine Egyptian cotton sheets. I cross over and he pulls me on top of him again and kisses me. Wow, do I want to stay here and not get out of that damned bed. I pull away as my phone goes again. "I have to be going, my car is waiting outside. Please, call me?"

"I will, I promise. Miss me and think about me..." He says with that killer smile of his. "A lot Ana..."

"Oh I think you gave me enough to think about Christian." I kiss him again quickly and head down; I smile as I see his man Taylor heading down too and I head out of the door happier than I have ever been before and get into the uber taxi waiting to take me to Heathrow.

We did it and it felt good...

As Ana leaves I wonder what the hell I have got myself into. God help me, but I'm naked in her bed and feeling great about what we did the amazing thing we did, I gather up the sheets around me and breathe in her aroma and get... I don't know... A happy feeling coursing through my body and my heart feels heavy and my head light. I grab my clothes that were tossed on her floor before we fucked, and head to my room, where I shower and change for the first of my meetings today. I do so with a feeling in my chest like no other. I grab my things and head down to find Taylor eating breakfast with Mrs Logan; both are watching my every move. I am smiling, so of course Taylor is shocked. I may even be nice for a while.

"Would you like porridge?" Mrs Logan asks as I grin like a kid who has lost his v card the night before. Do I look different because she is looking at me like I have Ana's juices still on my face, and I grin more thinking about that very thing, fuck my trousers are seeing some action again just thinking about it. I wipe my hand over my face, nah it came off in the shower as I yanked my dick in there, yup I fucking masturbated like a fucking spotty teen, to images of Ana and her fucking tits bouncing in my face and her sex making my dick wet, and after all the fucking we did too, I am a greedy bastard and want more...

"Thank you yes porridge would be great Mrs Logan. Can I help myself to coffee?" Images of Ana are replaced with Mrs Logan changing the sheets and shouting at me for messing her bed, oops, my stiffie wanes and beats the retreat, thank fuck...

"Aye, help yerself laddie. So Annie, she has left then?" She says, as she angrily dollop's a mound of milky oats in my bowl. Wow, does she know what Ana and I were up to? I get that feeling in my chest again, the tight hurting feeling.

"Yes, early this morning. She says to say goodbye." Fuck, fuck, fuck and how would I know this if we had not been in the same room when she left, oh fuck, you fool Grey. I'd walked right into Jenny's damned trap, we are busted the canny Scott threw me a curve ball and a look that would freeze water to ice.

"How long will you two be squatting here then?"

"We leave in three days, if that is okay with you?"

"Aye, it's Annie's home, she makes the rules. So dinner will you be needing it?"

"No, we are out until late."

"How late, I go at eight?"

"We have the codes and keys, we will be fine."

"So yer man says. Taylor do you want your eggs hard or soft?"

"Over easy please, Mrs Logan."

"Like yer boss than..." She heads off into the kitchen and I wonder what the hell she is on. How dare she talk to me and about Ana that way?

"She saw you leave Ana's room and came down and bashed the hell out of the kitchen utensils Sir, in case you were wondering where the hostility is coming from?"

"Crap, I didn't know she was in the damned house."

"She came in an hour before Miss Lambert left for the airport and she made her some breakfast too."

"Did she not eat it?"

"No, she didn't even check the kitchen. She, Mrs Logan cursed her stupidity with the a man that ruined her afore, she called you a Blaigeard, I asked her what that meant and apparently you are a bastard and a c word, who has ruined her girl again."

"Ouch. Taylor I..."

"...You don't have to explain anything to me Sir, I have eyes and ears. I see the difference with Miss Lambert."

"You do? I look different?"

"Sir can I speak freely, without losing my job?"

"Yes Taylor."

"You have been out of sorts for a while. Since Ros told you of the meeting with Miss Lambert. What about the girl in Seattle Sir, your arrangement?"

"I have ended the arrangement with Susannah, as you know. You took her things to her so know I have."

"I was aware of that; did you finish the arrangement because of Miss Lambert?"

"No... I haven't been feeling it for a while, the lifestyle, I mean."

"Sorry Sir, I am being too forward and I apologise, it's just you look worried."

"I am a little... But I think I need someone in my corner right now. Who better than you, you who have seen the worst of me." I think back to him having to help me with Pamela, when we had an accident in the playroom. To all the messes he has had to sort out with the over clingy submissives and their treatment of poor Gail... "Taylor, when you have lived like I have lived for so long, how do you embrace or face change?"

"That's the million dollar question. I would guess when you know something feels right, generally it is. I mean I know you have not known Miss Lambert long..."

"...I have known her all her life Taylor." I cut him short.

"Forgive me; I thought it was a business deal."

"It seems it is way more than that, she and I are at odds and we both trying to make things between us less, I don't know, confusing? There are things that have happened to us both, which make this thing we have a little more complicated. I have never felt like this about a woman before Taylor. She has always had me second guessing myself and it seems she still is. Sorry Taylor, I am making you feel uncomfortable."

"No Sir, I am told I have a good listening ear and my words though not sweet nothings, they do have some wisdom about them, or so Mrs Jones say anyhow. So, what caused you to feel this way was it seeing her again?"

"Yes, and news of something of a more personal nature she shared. News that has rocked me to my core."

"Is it anything I can help with Sir?"

"Not unless you have a time machine, and it could take me back to before I met you."

"Have I done something wrong Sir?"

"No, well sort of. Do you remember when I was seeing Sasha?"

"She was the first woman I saw you with, yes?"

"Yes her. Did you ever see her intercepting my calls?"

"Once or twice she tried to answer your phone Sir, I stopped her though."

"Do you remember a woman coming to Grey house and begging to see me?"

"Women come all the time, claiming you have slept with them and they are having your child or they have caught something, I usually deal with them and send them on their way."

"Do you remember a young lady making a scene and asking you to bring a postcard from Otter Island?"

"I would have remembered that, that is the golf retreat you stopped at the winter I came to work for you."

"Yes, the very same winter I did something wrong."

"Sir. I do not remember anyone, and had she made a scene I would have been called if we were there."

"It is nothing you can help with and if you did not see the girl then you could have not helped..."

"Who came Sir, Miss Lambert?"

"Yes, she needed me and my security turned her away and Sasha blocked her calls from my phone. That is why I asked. I need all Sasha's currant details and those of her husband too."

"Can I ask why Sir?"

"Revenge is a dish served cold is it not Taylor."

"Revenge is not the answer to life's problems Sir, take it from me, it only leads to more problems. Is there anything I can do for you?"

"No. No Taylor there is nothing you can do. I will be ready for the office in ten minutes. I need to make a call first." I head out into the garden and sit on the bench. I call Ana... She picks up straight away.

"Hello you." She sounds happy, which makes my chest hurt, really hurt.

"I thought I'd call you, because you asked me too."

"I did. I thought you would call me in a couple of days Christian." She giggles. What a sound that is to my ears, genuine happiness.

"It would be rude of me not to call, especially after last night." I tease.

"It would?" She says in a playful way.

"Yes Ana, it would, anyway I thought I'd call to tell you your housekeeper saw me coming from your room and knew you were in there with me. She was very snarky with me."

"Oops..."

"Oops Ana, she called be a bastard and a very bad c word... I think she knows we have done it before too, she sort of hinted at it to Taylor."

"I sent her to America to help my grandparents with Papa Frank, when the bump got too big, she never said anything, but she did not miss a lot either."

"Sorry..."

"Stop it saying sorry, unless this is sorry last night was too much?"

"It was way too much Ana, but it was way better than I imagined it to be too."

"You liked it?" She asks in a coy fashion, is she fucking kidding me it was amazing...

"I liked it, a lot I think I said we had to do it again did I not? I will have Andrea send you my schedule; we may have to meet up in Europe, if that's possible for another try at this bed buddy thing." I laugh.

"I could make that work and it needn't be just in the bed either, nor the shower, though the tub was fun. So, you enjoyed it?"

"I did, Ana all of it."

"I did too. Oh, damn it they are calling my flight. I will text you to let you later to let you know I have landed. Don't worry about Jenny she is harmless, but don't eat anything she makes smelling of almonds, she may have used arsenic instead."

"What? Ana are you serious?"

"Nah... Thanks for putting a smile on my face. I will see you soon."

"I look forward to it Ana, and Ana, I mean it, no seeking out men with gray eyes and copper locks..."

"Okay same goes for you too."

"I don't find men with copper locks appealing Baby."

"Christian, I meant..."

"...I know what you meant Baby."

"I like it when you call me that Christian; I have to go they are staring at me like I am an idiot, bye..."

"Laters Baby..." I hang up before I become too womanly. Damn it my chest hurts. I finish breakfast and sniff it for the smell of almonds. Before we head to the meeting I have Taylor take me to the cemetery. He doesn't say anything he just drives me there for some alone time with my son. Ana says this works for her, but will it work for me?

"Sir, we are here, where next?"

"Up this path here and I will tell you when to stop. I am... I am..."

"Sir?"

"Stop."

"Okay, but I was just going to ask, do you need my help?"

"No, I meant stop here, I have some unfinished business with my son." Taylor looks at me like I have three heads and he hasn't seen any of them before. "I will explain after I have a solo visit, but I do need the help you offered me, later, if that is okay?"

"Sir..." I get out and open the trunk to find the blanket Ana and I used yesterday. I head to their resting place and spread the blanket and sit.

A teary moment coming up...

"So, how does this work Ana? Speak from the heart you said, and that I can do or say anything I want to right? Scream, shout or cry and just talk to him, so here goes me looking like a fool, I want to pull out my hair and scream, but I will start with, hello again Christian, it's me your daddy, we never met but I miss you just the same, and I guess I am coming to ask for your forgiveness and understanding, I am sorry I never met you son. I really am. So it seems your mommy comes here to sit with you and it gives her some peace talking to you, so I thought I'd come and see if it works for me.

I know I never met you and I wish I had really I do, I wish I could change the past and for you to be here with us, because that would make all the pain your mommy feels disappear, I wish I could take all her pain away and shoulder the blame, but she won't let me, she is a hell of a strong woman and I bet you would have been her world, you are still her world baby and now you are in mine, at last. Christian, I am sat here wishing for miracles and they aren't going to happen any time soon.

Can you tell me that it will get easier son, send me sign that it will, or will it always be so hard, your mommy says it gets better, but she is being kind, because it hurts her still and she cries all the time, even in her sleep she calls for you, and knowing it hurts her, it now hurts me too, it actually hurts like hell my baby boy, it hurts so much and I can't think of a way to make it stop?" I sit and I wipe away the tears and again play with the slate that covers both Christian and Ollie like a blanket. I take a piece and place it in my pocket. Ana, poor Ana. I feel a hand on my shoulder and it scares the crap out of me. I turn and see Taylor.

"Sir, here..." He hands me a handkerchief and waits. "You have been crying for a while, are you okay Sir?"

"I was? I didn't realise there were tears." I wipe my face and it is wet through. Fuck...

"There were tears and you screamed and shouted. Who is asleep here Christian?" He has never called me Christian, ever, wow was I that bad?

"He was my baby boy, who was born still sleeping Jason. My son lays here with Ana's friend Ollie." He shuffles uneasily by my side as I stand. "Sorry, I didn't mean to share that, but this is what is worrying me and it is what we are here for, and why Ana and I needed some time to ourselves yesterday."

"He is your son and Miss Lambert's son?"

"Yes. He would have been seven last month."

"Sir?"

"I am sorry Taylor; can we not talk right now? I thought I was ready to talk about him and I'm not, can we get to the meeting please Taylor?" He nods and I fold the blanket and place it in the trunk. Taylor opens the door and I slide into Ana's Bentley and we head into the city to this damned meeting. I stare out of the window and think about Ana and I feel something differently about her, I feel different about myself too...

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So a few lemons were squeezed and a whole load of issues for the struggling duo have now hit their world. I am so happy with the reviews and your insights to their worlds and I am pleased I have awakened these feelings in you all. I am over whelmed by them all and think you from the bottom of my heart, it makes writing these chapters easier...


	14. Chapter 14

By now you know this is not fifty shades...

I love her books and her characters. So I use them and switch it around.

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Thank you for the kind reviews and the guest reviews, I hope you continue to read and review xx

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Dreaming of Chocolate and Grey:

Chapter 14:

The waiting game...

I land in Switzerland and it nothing like the first time I came here so many moons ago, though this time I am now a lone traveller and heading to my taxi. There is no entourage to my greatness, no hangers on, no heartache and no madness, not even in my head this time and right now it is with a happy heart I head to my hotel, The Widder Hotel in Zurich. It's not far from the school so is excellent for walking to and from my new premises. I send my usual text to let everyone know I have arrived and I have added Christian to those who now receive the arrival message, 'Feet down and head down!' A second after I send it I get one back, and smile like the goofy teenager I was when I realised I was in love with Christian Grey...

Chris: What and what?

Ana: Sorry, I have arrived and heading to my hotel for a rest. It's a message I send to those who worry.

Chris: I am happy you are there in one piece.

Ana: I had a pleasant flight now the hard work begins. Wish me luck.

Chris: Good luck, but you don't need it, luck has nothing to do with this, be bossy and shine.

Ana: I love the confidence you have in my abilities.

Chris: I am very confident of your abilities and I am closing a deal here and they are looking at me with a look of sheer frustration. I will call you later.

Ana: I may be busy leave a message and I will get back to you.

Chris: At the beep?

Ana: Very funny, time differences and workloads permitting! I will be on the end of the phone.

Chris: Good.

He ends the texting and I get out my other phone and fire off emails and texts to let everyone know I am in Zurich and I want a meeting in two hours at the school. I get no response from either of the Frost men but why would they come they know they are toast, I hope? I pull up to the Bahnhofstrasse, the hotel is in a side street just off the busy shopping road, lord I have missed this place. This is my first time back since I left for the competition in Belgium. I get out of the taxi cab, pay the man and head in with my two bags.

"Miss D'Acciaio-Lambert, I reserved the penthouse?" I say as I look through my bag for my passport and credit card.

"Of course Miss D'Acciaio-Lambert, could I have your passport?" I hand it over it is scanned and headed back; I check in and leave my card details. "Your bags will be taken to your suite, do you require anything else?" He smiles and presses a button and in mere moments a little man with a smart suit comes for my bags. He takes my door card and smiles in my direction.

"Not right now, but I eat a very strange hours, is room service is available, and when?"

"It is available twenty four hours a day Ma'am; there are menus in the suite, although anything you request can be made to order."

"Thank you." I head up in the lift to my suite; I tip the kindly man, and head to the plush seating and acclimatise. I am so tired I decide on a power nap. I really should have flown here last night, but I am so happy I stayed, my time and the night with Christian were the stuff of my dreams, such wicked-wicked dreams were had, my sex pulses thinking about it and I am happy for the first time in an ages and I feel like a new woman, my lady parts throb and are sore with their over usage, which makes me laugh and hug myself.

The bedroom is as beautiful as the rest of the hotels I stay in. They become very much the same after the first few visits, because the wow factor wears off and you get used to the luxury. I spoil myself when I stop in hotels because I can and I always stop in the best suite, because they tend to be the safest especially after the incident with Fredrik. Fast Freddy, alas for dumb Fredrik he died in a prison fight. I never asked Pieter for details he just called me one day and told me that he'd pushed the wrong people inside prison and paid the price with his life, did I shed a tear? No... His mother is still in South Africa and has never step foot outside her parents home, I did not cry over her seclusion and sadness either, harsh I know but she raised a spoilt murderous monster, not me.

I kick off my shoes and take off my jacket. I slip onto the comfy bed and set my phone for a half an hour reminder, a cat nap is all I need and as I can be in the school in five minutes, its time a plenty. I dream about my baby again, but this time he is very happy and gurgling. I know it is only a dream but it makes me feel happy to feel close to him. I drift in and out of one bad dream and have many more good dreams and I do not wake shaking and crying as I usually do, I wake fresh and with a new purpose and a happiness that I have only felt a few times since the night in Scotland. God I need to have sex more if sleep is so good afterwards. I unpack my bags and hang my clothes, I know I should go into the school in a power suite and exude my authority, but I have a feeling today will be about cleaning and scrubbing. So I stay in my jeans and add a clean tee shirt and jacket, adding flat shoes to my ensemble I grab my laptop and bag and head down. I stop by the concierge.

"I will be back later, have there been any messages for me, Miss D'Acciaio-Lambert?"

"Yes Ma'am, these flowers came and these messages. I will have the flowers taken to your room as they have only just arrived. Is everything to your satisfaction Ma'am?" I take the card and smile, they are from Christian, a basket of baby white roses and Babies Breath, he remembered.

"It's perfect thank you, if anyone calls to see me I am at the House of Hyde."

"I will tell them Ma'am, and Ma'am might I add in a word of warning, please do not eat anything from there, or sample the chocolate."

"Oh, why?"

"It is not as it was; can we leave it at that Miss D'Acciaio-Lambert?"

"No, I'd like to know what you mean, you see I bought it and it is now to be the flagship school it was when I trained there. It will however be known as the House of D'Acciaio, it will be closed for a cleaning and my original recipes and the new ones will be made once more and will be on sale within the next few days and the bakery will be as it was when John Hyde had it."

"It is half the place it was and twice the price. Many people say it has lost everything that made it special, it is not as it once was. To hear you are making it right again thrills me; I hope you find it not too hard a task to do, returning it to its former glory? That said may I welcome you back to Zurich?"

"It is good to be back, so far. I may be singing a different tune when I get back. Good afternoon. I hope you will be recommending us again shortly?" He nodded his head; I looked at his badge and smiled. "Good afternoon Paul." I walked around to the school and I was pleasantly surprised that the state of play was not as bad as I had dreaded walking into. Why I worried is a mystery, I knew James Frasier was in charge. I see the shelves are empty yet clean and the trophy cabinet is filled with my old awards where I see the cups and plagues have been cleaned and are shining. I am admiring the case when I feel a tap on my shoulder. I turn and see James's happy face.

"Ana, it is good to see you, it seems like forever..."

"I saw you a month ago, stop trying to guilt me James; you have been spending too much time with Nonna and Nonno."

"I have, now let me look at you, you have a glow. Is it because you saved the business from fools?"

"Who is the bigger fool James, me for buying it or them for ruining it all?"

"Ana, it will be better now you are here. However Frost would not leave, he wrecked his office, he ranted he smashed windows and he turned out all three of the chocolate tempering machines onto the factory and school floors. It was very messy and very childish. He was escorted out by the police."

"I bet he was angry. Now, what sort of mess is it in?"

"He was running the place into the ground. The chocolates he shipped in from Poland and the bakery is losing money because he re-bakes cheap frozen bread and the profits have changed to huge loses."

"Oh lord."

"Indeed. He was about to change the school rooms into an extended factory and the machinery for his cheap chocolates were about to be ordered. I stopped the order and had the students start cleaning. I hired in professionals for the two shops downstairs and the cafe was shut when I got here, so it too has all been stripped and cleaned."

"Uncle Marco will be here within the next couple of days to re design the stores and the cafe, to give them a much needed update and refresh. I want to keep open until we do the refit, so we need to order in fresh food and supplies. Have you been hit with cuts In Belgium?"

"No, they would not dare. Had I known how bad it was here I would have come sooner? Alas after John died I locked myself away in Belgium. They left me alone and it worked for us both."

"James they have ruined the reputation of the House of Hyde and they have ruined the Lust brand."

"I know... I have had an increase in mail orders for a while now, and did not know why, now I do. Lust as you made it can only be bought in the one House of Hyde store, mine."

"Marco is there now closing the school and extending the bakery the cafe and the confectioners."

"I have transferred the students so I know this already Ana, where is your head at young lady, get it back in the game."

"It's back, I am sorry but I have not had much sleep. James will you will be okay here, please say you will be okay working for me and for this place being called the House of D'Acciaio? I cannot use the Hyde name because they ruined it and its reputation."

"I feared as much. I will be happy running it and helping get your reputation back with Lust."

"I will come up with a way of honouring John Hyde's name I promise, but for now we need to get back to making Artisan handmade chocolates we were once famous for, yes?"

"Yes... I have ordered the store rooms be emptied and cleaned and the machinery serviced and cleaned. The students are very happy to be a part of the House of D'Acciaio. As am I. John would be happy you are back to save his name. If only he and Jack had not argued, if only John had walked away that day like we asked. Jack is crazy, he has turned into a monster Ana and one I am ashamed to be uncle to."

"George too?" I ask.

"George is far worse, when he failed the Maître Pâtissier's course twice he gave up. He found the love of drink, women and casino's was better suited to the playboy image he had, he has spent the fortune his father left them, had it not been for Alice poor Beatrice would be a pauper. He was taking money from her too, they both were."

"Why the hell did Jack employ the Frost idiots?"

"Your guess is as good as mine Ana. My guess is that they were the only ones who were willing to cut the corners needed to make money."

"They failed at that too. So, did you find people living in the roof here?"

"Pardon?"

"The school in New York and Hyde's of London had illegal's working in them and living in the roof." I tell him.

"Ana, as you know already from the work permits you had to fill in, that Switzerland is very strict on its border control and working visa's; there is not the problem of Illegal's working here as there is elsewhere in Europe, thankfully."

"I am expecting more 'finds' as we go on. I am sure of it. So, what can we do today?"

"Everything is in hand Ana, I need your signature on some order forms and the authority to write checks and order without your permission for the business, but other than that everything here is on hold until the stock is found. I doubt this place has seen real Madagascan Vanilla in years."

"It goes without saying you have authority, I will have Kate and Ethan arrange it with the bank, to get you a company credit card and of course you can deal with the suppliers as though you were me James. I trust you like my family because you are family. So would it be wrong of me to wander around and reminisce, could I go and see my room and general mulch around?"

"You own it Ana, you can do as you wish. Alice and Beatrice would like you to go and see them, and I am stopping with them whilst I am here, they need me and I need them."

"I'd love to see them. I have to tell them of the name change."

"They are expecting it little one. They knew the line was tainted and your name would be too. They may not be bakers and confectioners, but they knew the chocolates from the stores were not worthy of the name. The board were on the verge of throwing Jack and George out."

"The board should have thrown them out long ago. It is what you are there for."

"After John, we only had a handful who could be bothered, the ship was sinking because nobody including me had a heart for it and sadly we helped with the loss of The House of Hyde's good name."

"Okay, it's pointless arguing or getting worked up about the mistakes of the past, what is done is done, and now it is a case of what will be will be..."

"It will be good working with you again."

"I am looking forward to it. I am going to wander. Go home and I will see you tomorrow, refreshed and with a happier heart I hope? I will know more tomorrow, and will put in some orders from my new suppliers, and even contact some of John's old suppliers. I will also have to have the students and the staff sign new contracts and I will have to share the Darkness recipes with you. It seems I do not have to share the Lust range with you I gather that you kept it from Jack and from Frost too after the fire here? "He nods. " Good. I can't wait to get back into the kitchens here again and do this thing properly."

"It is good to feel happy about creating good chocolate here again Ana. I will see you in the morning." He gives me a hug and heads for home. I wander... The place is just as I remembered it. I meant to ask about the trophies and I wonder just which cupboard were they stashed in? I go to the school first and as I open the doors I feels like it did an age ago, like I have stepped back to being early for class that first day. It feels the same. Students and cleaners are steaming machines and maintenance are checking them. I smile as I find my old work station and as my hand soothes the cool steel below, I get a feeling of déjà vu. I turn and see Daniel Frost; fuck the sneaky bastard is still hanging around like a bad smell. I thought he had been arrested, or was that junior?

"Miss D'Acciaio, we meet again..."

"It seems we do. What are you here for? You had your termination papers and you were told yesterday to leave and not return. So, what are you doing here?" The students stop what they are doing and watch. I guess even he isn't stupid enough to attach me here. "Well Frost, what can I do for you?"

"I wanted to see how smug you were when I tell you Jack and I have had a talk and I, sorry we, we think because he is banned by legalities from discussing you and your bastard, there is nothing stopping me for speaking for him. He says ten million and the Romanian and the Polish set up should buy our silence on the news about your son and your lust filled night in the Swiss Chalet Hotel with Jack."

"Did he tell you it was a lust filled night, really? That is interesting, because from where I was it was two drunks getting frisky in an elevator and then one of them falling asleep drunk after nothing more than a rough fumble that I instantly forgot about, so memorable was it. So, is he saying we had sex, which I didn't agree to? If that is the case Danny boy, then what we did was without my knowledge? I wonder what the statue of limitations on rape is here in Switzerland, because I would not have agreed to that.

And neither am I interested in paying for my secrets to be kept, any of them. In fact I don't think the world would be interested in my having a baby who died at birth. They wouldn't even be interested in the father's name, a father who is in fact is very aware of his son's birth and his son's death so he won't be paying blood money either, now if that's all you have on me do your worst. In fact do it; my new book hits the stores next week and it could drum up publicity and help the charity more, but you and your pathetic attempt at blackmailing me, then that will only land you in court."

"I only have to make a call."

"Make the call then, my son has been a secret for far too long. I am proud to have had him and yes I am sad he is not here with me today, but I am not ashamed of him and neither is his father, so go on do your worst Daniel. I have several newspapers on speed dial."

"Junior is waiting for my call to do just that. I think you have more to lose than you think. I hit one button and Danny will light up social media..."

"How is your son, still the little pup who needs castrating, tell him to hit send and watch as your plans come to naught? Now, if that's all you have then leave." I shake and want to be sick, I hope calling his bluff works. I hope the person I made a pocket call to is recording all this and I hope he knows I am sorry, but I will not pay a blackmailer, because he is right, these three would want more and more.

"You are a bitch."

"Do you know Frost, that has been said of me before, it didn't hurt me then and it is not hurting me now? I have done nothing wrong, I have nothing to be afraid of and I am still going to be in business long after you are through. Oh and the factories you wanted? You can now just forget about them. I would rather sell the contents of the two factories to gypsies for scrap. Then give the buildings away to some sort of charity, because, and you know it Frost, I have more than enough funds to make it happen."

"We had a contract."

"We did? I wasn't aware I had agreed to your price or to the handover? I thought I still owned them, well at least until I put my signature on the paperwork anyway? Which as I said is never going to happen; so I suggest that you leave please, as I won't ask nicely again because you are trespassing on my property."

"What are you going to do about making me leave?"

"Miss D'Acciaio, asked you to leave. Unless you want me to make you leave?"

"Who the fuck are you?" Daniel asked. I turned too and saw a man in a dark suit and a tailored haircut and smart shoes stood behind me. Where the funk did he come from?

"I am the person who is going to fuck with you so bad you will be sorry you messed with my boss. Now you were asked nicely to leave; now we do it the hard way."

"Touch me and I sue."

"You are trespassing on Miss Lamberts property, I say try you asshole and I will squash you with my bare hands." He grabs said asshole, a very British word may I just say and I realise he has a slightly hidden Brummy twang hidden deep within the American one he is booming at the dangling rat in? I think but do not say he sounds Like Uncle Wolfe. The big guy squeezes his arm and then flings him around like a floppy rag doll.

"Get of me you thug I am going, but I am going to the papers too." I stepped to the side and around the hunk guarding me from Frost.

"As I said Daniel, there is nothing better than free publicity and you need facts and figures to sell a story which you do not have and I doubt Jack remembers what he was told that night because he got very drunk after I passed out. I have the bill to prove I was there and I paid for the rooms, he didn't put his name to anything that night, so good day to you and do not contact me again." The man in the smart suit dragged Frost out of the school kicking and screaming. I took a minute and retrieved my phone. "Christian, what do we do?"

"Nothing, we do nothing; I would suggest you tell your family before it hits the papers though Ana."

"Oh god, I hoped to spare them the sadness you feel. It will kill her; my nonna will be so disappointed in me."

"She won't Ana, she won't. I have people getting gagging orders in place as we speak and my legal team are working on it. I also have a friend watching the son's media pages and well let's just say, every time he tries to post anything new, a another dark secret gets hidden deep within Barney's little piece of cyber space and Barney then sends forth a little horse loaded with all sorts of cyber warfare espionage." I sob.

"I messed up." I continue to cry.

"Shush, Ana please don't cry, please stop your tears. As you said there is nothing they could have on you Ana, it was just a drunken night with a man equally drunk, had he had more information he would have used more."

"Do you think so? Nonno will be so sad and angry with me and not too happy with you either for ruining me." He laughs.

"I know and I will expect the horses head in my bed after we tell her, together. Now I have to be in another meeting in a moment, are you going to be alright? Luke Sawyer was the man who came to your rescue; he will watch your back from now on and he is also staying in your hotel, should you need him." He is coming with me to tell them? Really?

"I won't ask you how you know things about me; because I don't think I want to know. Thank you for the flowers, they were beautiful."

"I am glad you liked them, it was a very nice night and an energetic morning. Flowers are what you send right when you are extremely thankful and happy, yes?"

"Yeah, the flowers said you remembered."

"Oh I remembered Baby, I have got to go Ana, be safe."

"I will, and Christian thanks I loved last night too." We ended the call and I waited for Luke Sawyer to get back from throwing out the trash. He comes back in looking smug.

"Miss Lambert, I didn't have time to tell you my name and I am sorry if caused you more harm than good when I threw him in the trash collector?"

"You are Luke Sawyer right? And that I would have paid to see, really he is in the compactor, it's very dangerous place to have thrown him?"

"Luke Sawyer, yes and at your service Ma'am. I disconnected it to the mains, and the rats in there seemed to need the company of fresh meat..." He sniggered.

"Okay well that Ma'am thing stops right now. Ana is fine, I would get annoyed hearing you call me Miss Lambert or Miss D'Acciaio all the time, but after today I think you can safely say I need security. Thank you Luke, or do you prefer Sawyer?" I shake, fuck we need the rat men in here quick smart, and holy crap standards have slipped. I hate rats and I want them gone. All of them including the Hyde's and the Frost men.

"Both are my names, if you want to keep it business like, which is my preference then I'd prefer Sawyer."

"Okay then Sawyer it is. So Sawyer, walk this way and follow me to our hotel. I need to change and we need to talk through how this will work, or should I say hopefully work?"

"Yes we have to set some ground rules and discuss what you want me to do for you in regarding your protection, we will also want to discuss travel and who is and isn't allowed access to you. General security issues and exceptional measures. I also need to know who, if anyone is not allowed to bother you and who is to be allowed to see you without appointments, a proscribed list if you will."

"You mean besides Frost and Hyde? There may be a queue forming Sawyer."

"He was an ass."

"He always was. Thanks for being here to stop him, but I think he will go to the papers, if only to try to embarrass me. So we may get hit by the paparazzi. I hope they took my threat seriously though."

"Men like him are always in it for easy money and I am sure my boss, sorry Mr Grey will see to it that they can't peddle their wares."

"I am your boss Sawyer, I am to pay your salary not Mr Grey, so you do not relay anything that happens to me to him, are we clear? If you want to work for me, then it is for me alone."

"Ana, I work for you and I will only report to you." He looks like he means it.

"Good, now we need to eat. Will you join me so we can kill two birds with one stone?"

"You want me to eat with you?"

"Yes, is that okay only I have never had security before, only Holly and she is my cousin, but I guess that shows?"

"Ma'am, I mean Ana sorry. Taylor usually has us eating at a differing table from Mr Grey. However to discuss your security and eat, would mean us eating at the same table."

"Umm, you could eat behind me and we could go incognito and do it that way? Seriously, we can eat in my suite I have all my files and things there, my itinerary, which you will need it is mapped out for six months, but it has be known to change daily and it will, we are going to be heading to America after here, I need to see my grandparents. Then back again to Europe, it's a mess I could have done without. We may be jet lagged..."

"I have Mr Greys schedule with me. We are to see if there are times your paths crossed whilst he is in Europe, is this still the case?" I smile.

"Yes, it is. I also need you to sign my paperwork. I have millions tied up with my recipes and my chocolate lines. You will be sending a lot of time in kitchen whites and that reminds me, what in the way of a uniform do you wish to wear?"

"What I have on now is how we dress for Mr Grey."

"If you are comfortable in it then please wear what you wish, but please note I do travel a lot. The car journeys can sometimes be long, so by all means wear something comfortable for those journeys; I guess for me it's going to take some getting used to. I expect you have to stay in my home too?"

"I don't require much sleep and I can throw my head down anywhere."

"Oh god, I have plenty of space in all my homes. I can even afford a room when we stop in hotels." We head to the hotel and to my suite. I want to shower this crap from me, Frost always made my skin itch. He hasn't change all these years later. "Sawyer, I need to shower and change have you unpacked?"

"No, I dropped my bag and went straight to the school, as luck had it."

"Okay then, do what you have to and knock at my door when you are finished settling in. I need to shower and change."

"I will check your rooms first, if that's okay Ana?"

"I guess if you have to you have too. Go ahead; I guess this is something I have to get used to?"

"Yes, unfortunately it would seem so. We have a series of hotels we stop in that are already vetted for security if they are not Mr Grey's own hotels, I have as yet not had a chance to check this hotels safety and security measures, that being said Mr Grey has insisted we use his personal suites in his hotels should we have a need. He has also allocated your use of his jet..." What? I will be having words with Mr Grey.

"Okay, I must remember to thank him and hammer his free mini bar when we get to one, but generally I have a home near most of my businesses. Holly had this hotel checked out before I came to Switzerland, she does a good job too, with that there is the word of warning about my feisty friend and cousin, I wouldn't try to teach Holly to suck eggs Sawyer, she is likely to choke you on them."

"Miss Holly Louise Wolfenden, twenty three, daughter of Andrew Wolfenden, former basest with Of Wolves and Lambs, he is your godfather and was your fathers best friend, he is in California staying with your family and there organising the silver anniversary concert to celebrate his life, which coincides with the imminent release of their new album, an album that you have been holding on to for the same amount of time! That Holly?"

""Yes that Holly and well researched Sawyer." I smile as I say it.

"It must be hard for you, being reminded constantly of your father's death?" I smile as he changes the fact finding to a personal question, its then I realise he's a damned fan...

"It has always been like this. I never knew him or met him; I can't possibly miss someone I have never had in my life. I was assured by my beloved grandparents that he loved me and for me that is all I have ever needed from him, to know he loved me more than her, my mother. Luke Sawyer if ever she gets within a foot of me, you will be fired and toot sweet. She is top of the list of no need to meet and is very much a proscribed bitch." He walks around the penthouse and as he checks it, I note how thorough he is.

"Noted, I will keep her picture posted here in my brain." He taps his head and I laugh out loud.

"Oh I wouldn't it will give you nightmares. So, am I safe to shower and change?"

"Yes, yes it's all clear I am in the next suite. If you need me call."

"Do I have your number?"

"I sent you all my links; you should have the message on your phone. So I will go and grab a shower and change and be back here in a half hour, yes?"

"Perfect, what do you want for dinner, are you a vegetarian?"

"No, no I eat anything and I do like vegetarian too, but I am a basic eat what I am given guy. It comes with eating from mess halls most of my adult life."

"Okay then good to know, we eat a lot of pasta and vegetables."

"Both of which I can tolerate. I will be back."

"That's fine I will see you when you are settled, I have paperwork to do. Here have a key card, I guess you need one?"

"Yes, thanks." He smiled as he left my suite. I like him. I kick off my shoes and head to my bedroom and I see the flowers Christian sent and smile I then remember the card and run for my handbag. How could I have forgotten about it? I slip my nail under the little tab and open the small embossed envelope and take out the card, wow...

"Ana. _Thank you for being there for me, when I needed you the most Christian."_

Gheeze Louise, he needed me? I have needed him for bloody years. I love that he seems to need me too, finally. I strip and climb in the bath, I have added a sweet lavender smelling oil to the hot water and it makes me instantly relax as I lay and soak in the hot water and steam. I then wonder what Christian is doing, is he missing me like I am missing him?

Christian contemplates killing someone...

"For god's sake Barney get me the correct information in future, I looked like the totally unprepared fool in there. Welch, what do I pay the pair of you for if not to find out this shit before we sit down?"

"Sir, the arrival of the sister into the picture only came to light when you sat down to the meeting with her."

"I was expecting to be the owner of that hotel chain by now, I thought it was a done deal?"

"Sir, Gary Price was as shocked as you were to find out his father had an older child who inherited the golfing resorts and hotels. Jenny Price-King was his father's first child and one he kept secret from his wife and their family. They were in the dark too. Apparently her mother was his first secretary when he started in the hotel business. She is not selling the hotel group and we cannot make her, the rest of the Price family get the other interests he had, but the hotels are hers. Gary Price was selling you a hotel chain that was not his legally to sell."

"Well I know that now, she served me papers as soon as I sat down. Apparently she wants to run them herself. What do we have on her?"

I am seething at her audacity to just turn up at my London office and rip up the contracts I had, Gary must have been a little shocked too, I only spoke to him last week I did wonder who she was when she was waiting in my office, I thought for one horrid moment Elena had sent her. I zoned out for a moment as Barney talks, she was so like the others I was sure she was a would be submissive and may have been a little off with her. I get my head in the game again.

"She is a tough cookie; she is her father's daughter alright. She is well educated, and was schooled in only the best places, with the daughters of the rich and famous, she finished in the top three of all her classes, it seems she went to the best schools available and then on to Oxford University, where she gained a great degree in business studies and an even better degree in finance law, so knows her shit."

"So she has a head for business?"

"She has, unlike her half brother she worked at her education and she knows her stuff too. The family were about to challenging Harold Price's last will, but were told it would cost them a large chunk of what they were left with, so mother and son are making do with the billion dollar sports empire he left them. He was as sharp as an axe, even on the day he died. The family have been told they are throwing good money after bad."

"I wanted the hotels and the golf courses, is she not willing to sell at any cost? She tore up the contract gave me her card and walked. I need to know anything and everything I can about her today Barney, Welch find out all you can on her finances, did her father support her, her mother anything you can dig up do it."

"Yes sir." They both said at the same time and I slammed my phone down hard. It rings again and I pick it up instantly.

"What?"

"Ouch, nice to hear from you too."

"Elena what the fuck do you want, more time?"

"I want you to stop being a silly boy and realise how good we are together. I helped make you what you are Christian; all I am asking for is..."

"...Just stop right there Elena, can I ask you what part of stop calling you do not understand? What did you make me into Elena, what did you mould that vulnerable fifteen year old into, a monster a heartless monster?"

"You are the top of your game because of that moulding. Without me you would be a train wreck. Hell if I had not taken you in hand, your next stop was prison. I saved you Christian, me! I did that not your mother nor your father, I gave you the start up funds because I trusted your judgment and now you are sweeping me away like the broken phones you constantly smash?"

"This is getting to be old Elena, old like you." I am tempted to smash this phone too. "I have instructed my attorneys to start the process of selling my shares to the highest bidder, you still have the first option to buy my controlling interest in our company, if you cannot find the funds to buy me out and to replace the monies you stole from the company and me, then consider yourself broke and out of business. I am sure I am making myself clear now Elena? If not let me tell you again..." I take a deep breath in..."You made that fifteen year old boy into nothing. I was just another a toy for your own amusement, that toy you moulded is no longer interested in anything you taught him, he has learned how to cast his own lines out there, to catch his own supper, I don't need a washed up fish peddler anymore and what's more Elena, you old trout, I am at last putting the lifestyle I have lived for so long, away." Did I really use a fish and fishing metaphor with Elena Lincoln, the old trout was it a touch too much?

"You won't last two minutes in the normal world. I know you think you can do normal but you can't and I will await with bated breath for you to realise this too. Go fishing all you want but this old trout, is the only one you can talk to about the life you need Christian, me and the charlatans you go and see."

"Don't hold that breath Elena, you will turn blue and die." Wait do just that, I think to myself. "I am not coming back to Club Elena anytime soon. So, don't call and do not try to get in touch with me again, any and all contact is to be done through nobody but my attorneys."

"I am seeing your mother at the weekend and I wonder how she will fair, hearing that I was your girlfriend for so many years?"

"Girlfriend, that's stretching the life we shared, and you were far from a girl back then but I was a boy a young and vulnerable boy. I am warning you now, if you try that Elena, I will break you."

"Tutt, tutt Christian. I would watch your mouth if I were you, I have pictorial evidence of our time together, remember darling I taught you all I know, think about giving me your shares and I may think of giving you your freedom to try this normal crap you seem to need? I am sure Mamma Grey will love to see you going down on me and pleasuring me? She may like the one of me in a strap-on and fucking her little boys ass, what do you think she would say? Did you think you could fuck with me Christian and there would be no consequences? As I said I taught you, however Darling you failed to learn from me that you always hold the winning cards close to your chest. I will give you until the weekend to sign over Esclava to me. I am sure you don't want to have me sat down to dinner with your mother and hear about my handing her the contents of a large manila envelope full of photos of her baby in chains, now do you?" Fuck why did I trust her, she is right she did always to tell me to hold something back for just this occasion; she has the winning hand right now. Bitch...

"I think we know how this rolls Elena, you show her the pictures and let's see who the police and my parents side with, I was a child in those photo's, do your worst and tell Mom I said hello. Oh and we will not be speaking again Elena, you continue to do your worst and I will do my best and then we will see what **_you get from this shall we,_** I did nothing wrong, **_you however did_**?" I end the call and throw my phone against the wall, did I really call her bluff, fuck I did.

"Taylor, Taylor, can I have a..." He hands me a phone. "...Thanks, I need some help and I need it done as soon as possible Taylor."

"Do you want her to have a burial at sea or would being fed to pigs be more appropriate, Sir?" I smile.

"I want all she has on me, she held back some photos of me for leverage and is thinking of using them to get the salons from me."

"As in photos you do not wish others to see?"

"The very same. I know she has a safe in her home, one in the salon and one in her club. She will keep them close to her, that much I do know."

"Leave it with me, though getting rid of Mrs Lincoln would be easier Sir?"

"Sometimes I am aware of that Taylor. Well aware actually. We have finished for the day can you have the car out front in fifteen?"

"Yes Sir." He heads off and I stare at my new phone as if willing it to ring. As I place it in my pocket I am disheartened that it hasn't rang. As I walk out of the building my pocket vibrates. Taking it out I see the name and smile.

"Hello you." She called.

"Hello you, how are you Christian?"

"Ana, hearing your voice has improved my day tenfold."

"Have you had a bad day?"

"It was the worst fucking day ever. I was outsmarted over the purchase of the hotels I want and I am being blackmailed into gifting my business partner the salons."

"Okay, so it was a little rough then?"

"And then some Ana. How was Luke?"

"He is amazing and very excited; he threw Jack in the food compactor."

"Is there room for one more in there?"

"Possibly? So, I am calling to thank you for the flowers and the card. Now that I have had ten minutes to myself to appreciate their beauty."

"I am glad you liked them. Ana, I don't know what to do about the blackmail this woman will be the death of me; she is always going to have that hold over me. She will always keep something back and I will have to keep on giving."

"I guess there is no final way of getting everything, as you say blackmailers come back for more all the time. Is this the work of your facilitator and the woman who seduced you?"

"How..."

"Who else would you trust so stupidly with the task of finding you your girls, than the woman you are in business with and from reading between the lines is the same one who taught you her wicked ways, and I have an inkling her name is Lincoln."

"Wow you are good."

"I have my days of being excellent."

"So what do you suggest I do?"

"Hell the ten million dollar question. I would give her what she wants. Give her the salons."

"She then wins..."

"She does? I hadn't told you what I would do, and what I sometimes have to do."

"What do you sometimes have to do?"

"Well, if a competitor sets up shop near my shops I have to make my shop more appealing. I make prettier cakes and fan sweet smelling aromas from my shop."

"So how would that work for me?"

"These salons, how many are there and where are they?"

"We have three, in and around Seattle." I tell her.

"Have you the funds to buy buildings near to her salons or in fact in better locations?"

"As I said I have many vacant buildings and you know I have the funds Baby." I used a cute name again and I hit myself upside the head, metaphorically, I seem to love that word today!

"So, is the beauty business big business?" She asks.

"Massive, if they have the right management and products they have the capability of being very profitable, why?"

"Call me stupid but who has the ability to open a better beauty business, and for it and they to be right on her doorstep?"

"Stupid? I would call you crafty."

"I am a devious witch. So, let her have her salons, then look at making yours bigger and better than hers and have your mother and her friends visit your new places and often, word of mouth and Seattle's finest leaving her salon and heading to yours Christian will work for you and against her, after you have poached away her best staff and hired in better, that is. I happen to know that men these days tend to spend thousands on grooming too, I'd say ask Ethan. He was only complaining the other day he has to fly to New York to get his treatments there and he would and does pay top dollar for his face scrubbed and his nails done."

"You mean open a unisex salon?"

"Open a salon to bring beauty to all, because unisex is so 1970, these days there are many sexes in our beautiful world."

"It would cost me a hell of a lot of money."

"I would say that it would be money well spent, and it will make your vacant buildings sellable. You could even offer her competitors free rent for a year, if you want them to have all the profits that is?"

"I will get Ros onto it right away. So the photographs she has, what do you suggest I do about those?"

"Who is she threatening to show them to, the press?"

"God no, my mother, the press I could gag, but my mother would hate me and so too would my family."

"I doubt that very much Christian. I have decided I will have to tell my family about the baby, just in case my idiots do go to the press. There are newspapers who will want to the story and other than you finding out about Christian they, my family were the only people whose opinions mattered to me. Perhaps you should tell your mother and father of your lifestyle. It cannot be any worse than telling your mother about your son?"

"Ana, I can't..."

"Well until you do she has a hold on you and believe me she will use what she has."

"I know. I know what you are saying is true, I just..."

"...Don't want them to hate you? I feel the same exact way. How about we tell them our darkest secrets together?"

"Do it in one hit you mean?"

"Again stop with the Mafia crap." I smile. "Yes together. Slay our demons together."

"I like the salon idea better, she will only use that as a last resort and I have people looking at ways of getting them back." I say as I decide this plan will bring about her downfall and be a great way of bankrupting her, and give me some petty comeuppance on Elena; I like that idea very much.

"I never allow photographs to be taken, so I don't have that problem. They always come back to haunt you, I don't suppose she has done a sex tape with you has she?"

"What?" I say shocked and stunned.

"I am just saying a sex tape sells better than a photo. Look how the whole Kardashian Dynasty have spawned from one 'leaked' sex tape!"

"Well if I knew who they were I may be more inclined to agree. No, I doubt she did a tape. As to allowing it, I didn't she was my Domme. I had no choice."

"We all have choices. Your life, your choice."

"There speaks the voice of experience."

"I have had a lot to hide and a lot of weight to carry on my shoulders. It was good to let you in and get some of the weight lifted from them, you should try it someday. Now, what else narked you off today?"

"Narked?"

"Pissed you off?"

"I had done a deal to by the Price family hotels and golf course. Only it turns out I was buying it from the wrong Price."

"For the wrong price Christian?" I ask him.

"No, I should have been dealing with the eldest Price child, and not the stupid half brother." I tell her.

"Okay, that was as clear as mud..." So I spent a good long time running through my problem with Ana. Talking to her is very cleansing and freeing.

"So Jenny King is the woman you have to deal with?" She asks.

"Yes, Jennifer Price-King."

"What did she say she wanted?"

"She told me she wanted to run them herself."

"I doubt it; she just wants her half brother and his mother to pay."

"You know her? Perhaps start off the helping thing by telling me the good stuff first Ana." I laugh.

"Yes I know her. Her mother has a house on the same row as my London place; she is a nice lady. So too is Jenny, she has been the Price family black sheep for too long. Her father was an idiot. Jenny and I are friends and have been since I was twelve. Jenny, Ollie and I were the best of friends, she was one of the girls travelling around Europe with Ollie when I had Christian, I am so glad she didn't come back with Ollie too, she is not a bad person Christian and you will find nothing bad on her. She is a good person with a great mother and a great heart and head for business Christian."

"Damn it Ana. I needed those hotels."

"What for, there are thousands for sale in the world and plenty in Great Britain, because we don't get lucky with the weather much?"

"I want to expand on the hotels within my group, and hers with the added bonus of the golf course and hotel were a bonus and are in some beautiful locations Ana."

"Okay, so the price you were willing to offer was it a cut price made to a stupid idiot or a fair price?"

"He was desperate and I saw a way of getting them cheap."

"Well Mr Grey, there is your answer, are you willing to pay market value?"

"I guess so, if it gets them me, then yes of course."

"Leave Jenny with me. I will talk to her. You could do a lot worse than hire her, because she is amazing with figures. She is super clued up on law too; she always was a debate team witch, she taught me a lot of interesting stuff in school, she still helps me a lot and is only ever a phone call away, she is a good friend and will listen to me."

"I am having research done on her as we speak. I may have been wound up and angry with my guys in the special division of my market research department."

"Is that you speak for your spies and computer geeks? Then I would stop right there, she has nothing you could blackmail her with, Christian be honest with her and she will be fair with you, and remember not everything has to be cut throat and include blackmail Christian, trust me on this Jenny is a good person."

"I will call them off then and trust your judgment on Miss Price. So how was it today, bad?"

"It could have been worse, they gutted the place after the fire and they seem to have skimped on the finishing of course and have pocketed a lot of the insurance money, that much is evident. I knew I would be finding niggles and irksome things because of who the Frosts were. Jack I thought had a least a little more respect for what his father built, but how wrong was I? James Frasier is at the wheel and I doubt I will have anything to worry about here. He is amazing." Should I be wary of this James guy, because she talks about him all the time?

"I guess you need more family there?"

"My eldest cousin from Australia is coming to help. He has just finished his examinations and is now a Maître Pâtissier and is board certified to teach and licensed to sell both here and in Europe."

"Wow you weren't joking, you do enjoy employing family."

"Family are normally the only people who you should trust Christian. There are always exceptions to the rules, like my mother, but if they were brought up to respect others as we were, then generally family make for good foundation steps in building up a solid business, I know I couldn't have done all I have without them."

"I guess I pushed mine aside and did it myself."

"That's a lonely road to travel Christian. Very lonely. Now, I have to be going Sawyer is here to go over our schedules and work stuff, I guess I could have employed Holly, now I have to get used to a stranger watching me all the time?"

"Luke Sawyer is the best man to look out for you Ana; if he and Holly work together you will be safe I swear you will."

"Okay, so it was nice talking to you Christian."

"It was nice talking to you too, but how awkward are you feeling right now Ana, on a scale of one to ten?"

"Honestly, it's off the scale, I'd say around a twelve?" She says and I agree.

"It's the same here; I hope it gets easier Ana I mean it has to right?"

"It will Christian, I swear it will if we both try, I mean do you want to try?"

"We can do nought but try Ana; I mean we may have to work harder than most to make this work right? We have our own unusual ways of dealing with our 'problems' I for one think I can compromise a little."

"Yes compromise; I'm willing to do just that too, I intend to make this work. I have known what I have wanted for a long time Mr Grey. You may need more persuasion."

"I like the way you persuade me Miss Lambert."

"I have a very winning smile and a cheery disposition and loved what we did."

"You have an extremely cheery disposition when we fuck and loud too."

"Are you complaining of my vocals?"

"Fuck no Ana, fuck no..."

"Good, I have to go Sawyer is here waiting. I can't wait to see you again."

"Neither can I. Enjoy your dinner and get to bed early."

"You too."

"Unfortunately I am due at a boring awards meeting so will be out until god knows what time."

"Well I will let you go and get ready for your meeting."

After a few minutes of arguing who would put down their phone first Ana giggled one last time and ended the conversation, much to the amusement of Taylor stood behind me. I think Anastasia is going to be a pleasant change in my life, and one I think I will enjoy having there...

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Thanks for reading and reviewing, guests you say some wonderful things, most of you give me plenty to think about and all of you make this story a joy to write, I guess it may be a little longer after all, oh and in answer to the pm for shorter chapters, I don't think long chapters are a bad thing, however I could chop them up into biddy ones and get way more reviews to boost the numbers lol... I like a good read... xx


	15. Chapter 15

By now you know this is not fifty shades and it is all the letters of the AU-OCC things you guys understand and I do not, you should know how I write...

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Thank you for the kind reviews and the guest reviews, I hope you continue to read and review xx

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Dreaming of Chocolate and Grey:

Chapter 15:

Awake and Miserable:

I finish the call to Christian with a smile on my face. Luke is here and so too is our food. I swear if I smile anymore I will get lock jaw.

"Ana, you said you wished to fly to see your grandparents, when do you want to do this?"

"I don't want to go, I have to. I meant to ask Christian his advice on the matter... I should call him back I guess?"

"He is in a meeting; I'm sorry old habits die hard, T and I still talk all the time and given we have the shared task of Mr Grey and yourselves being friends, we have a lot to discuss. He's just gone into an awards dinner." Very tactfully done Luke Sawyer, I guess they do have to coordinate, I also guess this will be how the ball rolls given our differing lives?

"Okay, I guess we could fly out after I see James tomorrow? I still need to rehearse I guess? I really didn't need the Hyde Houses just yet."

"I can see they were thrown at you a little earlier than you planed?"

"I never thought I would get them. I never thought they would sell or ruin them either. Sawyer I have some calls to make and I am not leaving my suite, so if you want to go out I will be okay here?"

"I may just get my head down; we have an early start, yes?"

"Yes, we are reopening the bakery at first light, the deliveries were made and we can at least open the boulangerie."

"Fresh bread, nothing like it for breakfast."

"You bake?"

"Nah, I eat it though." I smile and he shows himself out, he will not have to do many five in the morning starts, but I do like to keep my hands in dough. I call Jenny.

"Hello stranger, how are you?"

"Ana, is that you?"

"Yeah I am in Switzerland and I have a ton of good stuff to share."

"So do I... Ana, my father died and he left me his hotels."

"Oh I am so sorry for your loss." I don't tell her I know this already, because I only know he has because of Christian, and as yet we are not going public with our relationship.

"Don't mock me Anastasia! You know better than most about my daddy issues, and you know they were far worse than your Carla issues?"We compared our dead beat parents all the time, then poor Ollie shared her stories and we'd shut up. She'd had a lot of bad foster parents before she ended up next door. I guess having a deranged money addled mother and a dead rock star for a dad wasn't all that bad compared to her, and Jen had to admit one every loving mother, made her the winner.

"Okay you win the pity party there then. So what are you going to do with them?" I ask because I wonder if she is serious about running them?

"I will sell them if I get the right price for them. I nearly gave them away this morning though to the fittest man I have ever laid my eyes on, fuck me Ana he was everything and then some." I gulped; she likes Christian, my Christian?

"Oh, what's the deal with super hottie then?" I may have to insist we go public with our thing, because I am so het up with jealousy right now. Stupid jealousy actually, but I am kind of crazy about Christian and I couldn't bear him to leave me for my best friend. God I am such a freaky mess.

"Oh no worries, he's gay, but I would love to give him a straight talking to. If you get my drift that is?" I laugh, and I so want to say he's so not gay, then I think about Jen and her get what she wants attitude she has. Please to god she doesn't try to change him.

"So, the deal with super fit gay guy? Is it a good one?"

"No far from it, though the lame ass brother from another mother he was giving them away, the moron. So I don't blame the guy for agreeing to the offer, it was a good deal for him, lousy for me and he seemed so annoyed that I was the owner, I may have had an uppity moment and been a little ermm...?"

"...Pissed off and angry, at your brother and taken it out on Mr Gay? I get it Jen, so how much did the gay guy offer you?"

"Enough to make my brother happy, but not enough to make me sing. I am going into a dinner and a boring man of the year award here in London. When are you back Ana?"

"I left this morning; I was home for a day and flew out here! Jen, I got the House of Hyde."

"Oh my god, really? I mean wow Ana, that's all you have ever wanted right?"

"I wanted to be the best Jen, I really wanted to be the best and now I am. But I'm lost Jen, it's sort of like, it's sort of like, god, its... I know this is going to sound so stupid and lame, but it's like when Forrest starts running, you know for no particular reason, and he runs clear to the ocean and ends going from coast to coast marathons and he suddenly stops, he looks back and thinks okay I've done with running I want to go home. He walks away and he is through running away from whatever started him running..."

"His Momma dying you mean and his missing his Jenny, hell I remember we all cried like a babies watching Forrest Gump. God the hours we spent watching that film, happy days Ana spent with the popcorn chucker Ollie? What's upset you Ana, have you reached the end of the run too, do you want to go home?" I sob.

"I have been running so long Jen I am tired and I think I need a change?"

"What no... You can't stop making chocolates, what will you do, you won't and can't stop at being the best toffee maker Ana, why say such stupid things, you can't quit you are the damned Queen of Chocolate?"

"I will never stop making chocolates Jen; I just want more in my life right now. More depth and more meaning. I want more from my life than business; I want someone to share this with, someone to care about and for them to care about me."

"Wow. Have you met someone Ana?" How the hell she does that I will never know?

"Sort of, but it's really early and I don't know how it will play out and that's what I am afraid of!"

"What are you afraid of Ana falling in love?" How can I tell her I have loved him forever and she never knew about him, because he was my secret, she was away when I was having his child and would be hurt Ollie was the only one I let in on my secret and even she was only let into the secret because she saw the bump one afternoon when I was swimming, just before she went on the tour of Europe. "Life is about learning curves Ana; we all have to go through them. Are you still clinging on to your V-card like it's the Holy Grail?"

"Yup. That's what this is all about Jennifer King, I am afraid to lose it with just anyone." I then remember something to make her laugh and stop pressing me further on the very thing she and Ollie tormented me with, about not losing my virginity to just anyone. "I don't know if we each have a destiny or if we are floatin' around accidental like in the breeze?"

"Gheeze Forrest Gump, the philosophy on how to have a cool and relaxed life, just because he ran into dumb luck at every twist and turn, it doesn't mean it's going to happen to us mere mortals. It was just the handbook of three nerdy teenagers, who spent hours sat by your pool after school and then just as many in the cinema watching movies with meaning, I mean Forrest Gump, and you are basing your future on Tom Hanks and a bad haircut? You always said that damned film had merit, but Ana life is a lot like a box of chocolates. You really don't know what you're getting 'till you bite in to one." I love the quoting game, especially with Jenny.

"I will have you know all my chocolates come excellently labelled and I know what I bite into."

"You see that's the problem, you know what your chocolates are all about, try a different box an unseen, unheard of box and then see what mystery they bring. That's what all relationships are about the variety and the unknowing, now I see the gay man approaching. What did you want Ana, why the call really?"

"No reason other than I needed to hear my friends voice. So this deal, see if he will pay you a fair price, hotels are not in your blood Jen, the finances yes, but running an actual hotel chain? That seems like your fathers dream not yours. This gay man may even offer you a job and if he is that good Jen, he will see you for the shining star of finance that you are."

"Right that's why you gave Ethan Kavagnah my slot in your business Ana."

"Hey I offered it you first, and you know I would like nothing more than you to come and work for me. You were the one who said no to my very generous offer, may I remind you Jennifer King, you turned it down to go to Monaco and help the rich out there get richer and we'd not be friends if you worked for my bossy ass? You said you had your dreams and I have mine you said, and being with and living the life you have with the uber rich, was yours."

"I like the fancy job and the nice places the rich folks hang around in, I want to run wild for a few years and then want what you want, but first I want to plough my own furrow Ana, you know that. I could have gone to work for daddy dearest if I wanted nepotism and a boring life, but I didn't and I know you love me Ana and your life isn't boring like that, but that's your life not mine, I want to do this my way, but thanks for loving me like a sister and letting me off to run my own path, and like Forrest I may happen across something better and something destined to be my future. I have to go and chat up a gay guy, fingers crossed he actually is straight and I am his type, he is f-in- H.O.T, Ana, hot as sin, in fact and has the dreamiest eyes I have ever seen and wow the body..." I sort of choke back a 'fucking leave him alone scream' and give off a hesitant oh crap sort of a laugh.

"I will leave you to Mr H.O.T then, call me when you sell the company Jen?" I hear Christian say hello and she laughs like she is fawning over him, did she forget I am still on the damned phone? I get a feeling in my chest and it hurts.

"Gotta go, he is so fit Ana. My luck and path may be in for change. He has asked me to sit with him. Ta-tar for now Ana..." I don't even get to say goodbye as she ends the call abruptly. Bugger, my heart is pounding and I am shaking, and I am not sure if it is in fear or terror? I text the object of her lust.

Ana: She will sell if the price right.

Ana: Oh and she thinks you are gay too.

Ana: She thinks you are hot too.

Ana: Offering her a place with GEH though may be a step too close.

Ana: Okay I am stalking you a little.

Ana: GOOD LUCK WITH BUISNESS...

I send that caps locked on purpose. I throw my phone on the sofa and go to my bed. Sleep did not come easy to me, as I had hoped it would.

A missed text:

As I enter the room and the awards dinner I see Miss Price-King. She is on the phone and is as bubbly and as bright as Ana said she was. I smile as I make my way to her.

"Hello Miss Price-King, we meet again." She is talking on the phone and smiles at me and I smile back. "Would you care to join me at my table?" She says Ta-tah I think, to whomever she is speaking to and shuts off her phone.

"I hate phones at the dinner table, how about you?" Good god I want these hotels, so and I play nice put my phone on silent and put it in my pocket. I need it on really to receive any important calls, but I also need the hotels from Ms King here.

"I do too." Liar Grey, you fucking liar. "So, do you want a drink at the bar first?"

"Umm, I have had a bad day, my brother is an ass and his mother is worse. I need to get away from everything Price related and as soon as possible. So make me a proper offer for my father's places and they are yours. A friend pointed out to me that I have to follow my dreams and not live another person's dreams and she is right. I hate hotels; I love stopping in them but not running them and golf? Wow it is a boring game too."

"Okay then, we need to discuss a price, perhaps tomorrow we could meet up and we could hammer out a price? A fair price?" I say as she gives me a glassy stare.

"I would like that. It's a date then." Did I say it was a date? I don't think so. She leads me to the bar and orders a Mojito. I smile and think of Ana's chocolates. She sits at the bar and I take the seat next to her and as the barman lays down an offering of fresh peanuts I go to take a handful and the very same moment in time she does too and we each grab the others hand, she giggles like a schoolgirl and blushes, fuck me not again. "So, you want my daddies hotels then?"

"I do yes."

"What are you willing to do to get them Mr Grey?"

"Pay a fair market value for them Miss Price-King. I am sorry, but you are as the English say batting up the wrong tree?"

"I am? And actually its barking up the wrong tree, but am I? Because I could swear when you sat down and I order a drink your trousers said differently?" Fuck.

"I think the barman is very nice looking," I counter, "what do you think?" She stares at the old guy and cringes, okay I'm into older gay guys it seems and I smile to myself as I see her face. Good its working and her hands are back in her lap.

"Oh and I thought the rumours about your supposed sexuality were wrong? Sorry, I misread the signs. So I think I will go and sit with the people I came with it, it would be very rude not to, they are my new clients after all. Call me when you want to meet." She smiles and gets up with her Mojito and I try to get back in her good books.

"How about lunch tomorrow? I have to fly back to America tomorrow as we have had a family emergency?"

"Oh I hope it's nothing too bad?" No, it's just Elena is seeing my mother the day after we land, and I cannot take the chance of her telling or showing my mother the photos. I know she is not answering my calls so she is stringing this whole charade out for as long as she can.

"Not quite life threatening but I still have to go."

"Okay, call me and we can do a deal. Get your contracts reprinted because I want this over with Mr Grey!"I look at Jennifer as she leaves and heads to her table of Saudi Princes' with a smile. She reminds me a lot of Ana and I can see why they are friends. Taylor approaches me.

"Sir, Mrs Lincoln wants you to call her; she has been trying to get hold of you Sir. Your calls are being forwarded to your service as your phone is constantly busy. She is willing to talk about your gifting her the salons. I am sorry too as my men cannot find her hidey hole and they are in none of her safe's, she must have a safe deposit box in the bank perhaps?"

"Taylor it would have to be massive, mine is big enough and she has been at this longer. Have Welch and Barney look for property in her name, in or around Seattle, she will want them close by for easy access. I bet she has them in storage?" He nods and I call 'The Bitch' back, I then see the missed calls from Ana. Fuck, I call Ana first, but for some reason she doesn't answer. So I leave a message, she is probably asleep I know I would be but for this damned dinner.

"Sorry I had my phone on silent. Jenny is willing to sell me her hotels. I have just read your texts and that is all it was Ana a business deal. Do I see the touch of the green eyed monster, because there really is no need, she thinks I am gay and into the barman because I played the gay card to escape her roving eye. I left her to her friends and I am having lunch with her tomorrow. Ana I meant it Ana, I am monogamous, and in all my relationships and though a little green eyed monster action is okay, please don't over think my meeting with women, I have to see and deal with them daily. I will call you in the morning I have to get this damned award and I have decided to go with your plan of ruining Elena through business. Sleep well Ana."

I can't make my mind up if I like her being jealous of other woman or not? I know Jenny was right I did get a pleasant feeling thinking about Ana, and the damned drink reminded me of her cocktail chocolates. I head into the meeting and have a very boring night socialising with the good and the great in London business. Jenny keeps smiling and waving as we head out to go home, home to Ana's, but as I head out the door she slips a note in my jacket. I smile and head out with Taylor, I need some sleep and I still have to call Elena. Jenny is waiting for her car when we leave. I wonder if I should offer her a lift seeing as she lives on the same road as Ana, she looks to be cold.

"Do you need a lift home Miss Price-King?"

"Oh god yes the queue for cars is massive. I don't live to far away; well my mother doesn't live too far away. This is too kind, I was going to drive here but I do love a free bar, the Prince sent a car, but he's gone to dinner with his father and I, apparently am too drunk to meet a Daddy Prince, ha he wishes." I smile as she gives Taylor the address and as he looks at it he smiles, he nods his head and we drive home, that is when I realise she has had way too much to drink, sat close to her in the damned car, because she is suddenly pawing at my jacket. I swear she is a pain in the backside; I then jump as she tries to grope my groin. Yes, I jumped and I sit to the other side of Ana's Bentley as far away from her as possible. I even pull out the arm rest and make sure she knows that is her side and this is mine.

"Sorry, you really are gay then?"

"No, I really am not. But neither do I take advantage of drunken women."

"I like to be taken advantage of, really I do. So how about I climb over this hurdle and I can show you how to ride an English drunken whore?"

"What the hell?" I back up and into the damned door as far away from her as I can, as she paws at my jacket.

"Umm, my step mother called at the function, she and my brother were there and saw me and went home. Wait, I mean my half brothers mother called me a whore of a whore. I may have got a little drunker than I thought. I am sure I could rock your world, if you'd let me that is?"

"I am fine thank you. I doubt my girlfriend would appreciate me cheating on her." Girlfriend, is Ana my girlfriend? I guess if I am not in an arrangement and we are exclusive, then she is in fact my girlfriend of sorts, fuck I hate labels.

"I won't tell her if you don't? I have a big comfy bed and Mother is away, we can make it a night to remember."

"No, thank you, because I am happy as I am thanks. The one woman one guy, that sort of happy."

"Suit yourself, we are here. I can see myself in and thanks for the ride and I will see you for lunch, text me the location and I will be there." I hope she remembers this at the meeting too, it may be fun to see her squirm? Taylor offers to see her to the door and she accepts as she is drunk and in her fuck me heels she is unsteady on her legs. I Watch as they go inside and the lights go on. Minutes later Taylor heads back out and he is being waved off by Miss King, the elder, who is looking out for her daughter and seems thankful for us seeing her home. We head down to Ana's gate and into her garage.

"Sir we are back. Miss King was a handful and her mother was pretty upset at her drunk daughter. She took my card Sir, for the meeting?" Great thinking.

"She was Taylor and thanks for that. I have to make a call and then I am hitting the hay, get your head down."

"Sir..." the garage doors shut and we head in. I call Ana and she still doesn't pick up. I call Luke instead.

"Mr Grey, what can I do for you?"

"How is Ana and where is she?"

"Sleeping. She and I are at the bakery first thing in the morning."

"So, Stephan will be at the airport for you ready and waiting for your call. He will pick Taylor and I up on the way back to Seattle. We will then make our way to California. I have put on hold my European site visits and Ros Bailey will be doing them for me. Is she okay Sawyer, Ana is she okay?"

"She is fine I think but tired. I would say exhausted."

"Is she ill?"

"No Sir, she is just tired. So I will give T a call when we are setting off for the airport Sir."

"Yes thank you Sawyer."

"...And Sir, she doesn't want me to be your spy in camp."

"I bet she doesn't. I need to keep her safe Sawyer, very safe and to do that you and Taylor have to work together to do this. She has made two very bad enemies in Hyde and Frost. She just doesn't know how bad they really are."

"I am aware of this Mr Grey, but I will not be spying on her personal life, I will however keep you informed on her whereabouts and her business plans, the rest comes under my being her personal detail. She is paying my wages Mr Grey, Sir!"

"Thanks for reminding me of my place Luke Sawyer. Just liaise with Taylor if you think there is danger then."

"I will." We end our chat and I am still not sure where I am with this. I make another call.

"Mother, am I disturbing anything?"

"No Darling, I am pottering around in the garden. We are having a few friends around for dinner and I am gathering some flowers for the table. What can I do for my little boy?"

"Mother..."

"Okay Christian what's troubling you?"

"Ana and I are coming to see you and father; we need to have a talk to you both. If that is alright?"

"Is it about you and Ana?"

"Me and Ana?"

"Being a couple, or the baby, I haven't told him about your son Christian, he would be hurt and I just don't want him to feel like me too."

"I'm sorry for that Mom, thank you for that, but yes I will tell him and I will be telling you some other things too." I ignore her saying we are a couple thing for now.

"Okay, when do you get here?"

"Later tomorrow evening, can we come over for dinner the day after?"

"I was having Elena over for dinner, but you come first."

"She isn't at tonight's dinner?"

"No, no its a work thing for you father, she tried to wangle an invite but it's a partner and wives affair, to discuss your fathers early retirement, we have been talking about it and we have both decided to cut back on our work commitments."

"Really, I'm pleased to hear that you are both thinking of yourself for a change. You both work too hard Mother!"

"Says the boy who never sleeps. So, I should cancel dinner with Elena then?"

"Yes please Mom, I don't want to talk about this with her in the room."

"Okay, give me a call and I will have dinner waiting, so Ana then?"

"We are working on it Mom, working on it at our own pace as friends first and you know working at it?"

"All good relationships start off as friends. I have to go the rain is falling and my flowers are weighing heavily in my arms, I look forward to seeing you." I end the call and head to my bed, tired and exhausted my feet land at Ana's door and I head in, strip and get in her bed just to be close to her.

Bread bashing:

I had a lousy night's sleep and have woken up to a gazillion emails in regards to the House of Hyde and it's making my head spin. My businesses makes for at least a hundred a night, and given time differences of the various stores they fly in all the time, but adding the Hyde's to my stock is sending my head to that messed up place it was before. I decide on tackling them when I go to see Nonna and Nonno. No doubt they will have been more added to the list by then? I dress for by morning in the bakery and as I head to the door I hear a gentle knock, its Sawyer He has let himself in.

"Morning Sawyer, did you sleep well?"

"I did, I had a conversation with Mr Grey, because he was worried as he has tried several times to reach you Ana."

"Oh god I threw my phone over there on the couch and headed to bed. If I missed his calls, how many more did I miss? Let me grab it and we can head out, we can have breakfast in the school, if that's okay?"

"I am at your disposal. Do you have your bags ready?"

"Yes I didn't bother unpacking. We can grab them later; we have to be at the bakery. I love getting there before everyone and setting up." My phones died in the night. Great.

"I have never been in a bakery; I mean the working end of one."

"It's hot and loud and wonderful." I am eager to read Christian's texts back, if in fact he has texted me back. I may have been a off with him a little. I pocket my phone and the charger and we head into work. I am very pleasantly surprised to see the students are here already and have beat me to the setting up of the store. We need to grab our whites and when I tell Sawyer this, he grins like an idiot.

"Am I playing dress up Miss Lambert?" He laughs as he says it.

"Yes, I am in there so are you, besides you will blend more, really you have on a suit?"

"Really I do."

"Lose them, you need to blend, you can wear them for meetings at head office and when we go to dinners, do you have a tuxedo? In fact buy yourself a new working wardrobe when we get to California."

"Yes Ma'am, I mean Ana. I have two. I also have a wardrobe of suits and casual wear in Seattle. I can grab my clothes from Escala, when we arrive there."

"What, when are we going to Seattle, Sawyer?"

"I gather you have not read today's new itinerary changes in your emails Ana?"

"No, no I haven't, what are they?"

"Mr Grey has his plane already waiting at Zurich Airport for you. After we have finished baking, we are to fly to London to pick him and Taylor up after their Meeting with Miss Price-King and then head first to Seattle to see the Grey family and then on to California, to see your grandparents. I gather he has sent you the details already?"

"He probably has there were too many emails and I have a headache so didn't read them. I am unorganised and usually my world is so methodical and straightforward and you know ordered? I will read them in the office when we get to the bakery it seems I should have stopped up and burnt the midnight oil as I usually do."

"Miss Lambert, Ma'am I mean Ana?"

"You really are struggling with all my titles aren't you Sawyer?"

"I have never used my employers first name before, Ana."

"I have rules in place to cover such fuss, in the workplace it is Miss D'Acciaio, Chef or Ma'am, in private and out of work it is either Ana or Miss Lambert and at my other place of work it's only Miss Steel, and seeing as you will be living with me, how about we stick to Ana when it is just we two and Ma'am when we are out, if that would be easier Sawyer?"

"Much better."

"Mia Grey, she had the same problem, so do not worry. My family are the exception to all the rules, they call me Bambino, and my cousins all call me Sprout and a lot more too!"

"Sprout?"

"They are Australian and don't and didn't see me a lot growing up and well each time I saw them I had grown or you know sprouted different appendages and it stuck. If we are in the kitchens or stores they sometimes call me Chef, If I am lucky." I sigh. I think I need to go and see Uncle Ray and the family there and soon. We are in the building in no time at all.

When we get in I hand Sawyer his outfit for the bakery and search out one for me. I am pleasantly surprised to see I am not the only one here, it seems everyone is eager to bake properly again. The sight of smiling faces and bubbly chatter makes my heart sing. I grab some whites for myself and I take Sawyer to my office here. I have left John's old office to James, because despite my reputation in this business, I still do not feel worthy of taking his seat. As I get to the offices James is talking to someone in the office. I recognise that voice instantly. I knock on James's door and I am told to enter.

"Uncle Marco..." I rush in and he hugs me so tightly I cannot breathe! "Let. Me. Go..." Luke rushes in and is about to flatten my over huggy uncle. "It's fine Sawyer, this is my Uncle Marco. He is about to put me down now." He does and he inspects me. Then he looks at Luke and gives him the stink eye.

"This is the boyfriend is it Bambino?" I laugh.

"No, this is my security, this is Luke Sawyer, Luke this is my middle uncle, Marco D'Acciaio, who was meant to be in Brussels. Why are you not there?"

"Please, like I need to be there for days? I know my game Bambino. So Sunny says you are dating and he is an okay kind of a guy, where is he?"

"Running his own empire Uncle Marco. He is in London. What are you doing here?" James laughs and replies for him as Uncle Marco, is still looking me over! What can he see I have S.E.X?

"He came with the students who have transferred here from Brussels. He and they arrived shortly after you retired for the evening. Hence the crowds down in the kitchens." James said as I am hugged again.

"I have done the plans already and work will start immediately there, we carried enough stock to do both the cafe and the patisserie, so in a week that will be renamed The House of D'Acciaio and be part of your European flag ship stores. Now I am here before I go back to London later today, I have meetings with new carpenters and shop fitters; I simply have to get to."

"I am going to London later, after spending the morning baking. Care to join me Uncle?"

"I have to finish here, but we can fly together to London and chat about the new man in your life Little One, yes?"

"Actually I am flying back in Christian's plane, to meet him in London. I guess one extra will be okay? Luke?" He nods his head in agreement.

"Oh good I can grab a lift and meet the boy. I hear he is good looking and you and he are just friends?"

"Uncle Sunny?"

"Who else gossips like a girl and be warned he has told Mamma and Papa too."

"Okay, who has he not told?"

"He got it covered with Mamma, she called Ray then he called me, but of course Sunny had beaten him to it. So we will meet him yes?"

"I guess so..."

"Now on to this place, its much bigger than the other stores you have, so it will take a little longer. I have measured the patisserie set up already, I am just going to do the cafe but Ana it is very elegant as it is. Are you sure you want to change it Bambino, especially to the design we usually go for? I love my work but this, this is very old world sophistication and I like it Little One?" I do like the quaint cafe, it has been like that for well over a hundred years or more and to rip it out to put my modern day design in it would be wrong.

"It's beautiful I know and it is just short of being an extremely elegant restaurant, so it's not really a cafe at all, not like my others. I guess we could update it a little and rename it after Mr Hyde? Perhaps it could be renamed as Monsieur Hyde's too? What do you think James, perhaps we can have his awards and his photos around the place and you know make him still be a part of here are the family things still there, your grandparents and Aunts and Uncles and those of you and John at school together here?" He smiles.

"I will get them from home and have them sent to you Marco. He would like that, the cafe shut down the week he died and though clean, it does need some work. The boys were selling it to a fast food place. Alice came in and stripped all the memorabilia and photos from the walls before they trashed it all."

"Oh good. So can you get them framed and do this place justice Uncle Marco?"

"Leave it to me. I do like a challenge. Now the signage for the front, I am ordering the usual is that okay for the patisserie and perhaps we could go with a different one for the cafe Little One?"

"Yes that's great for the patisserie keep them uniformed for the branding, and I have a suggestion about the cafe, can you perhaps use Mr Hyde's signature for that?" Sawyer looked like he was troubled. "Sawyer are you okay?"

"No, I mean yes can you explain what the difference is between bakery and this patisserie thing is you all keep speaking about, it seems I may need to know?" We all laugh.

"I am sorry Sawyer, I sometimes forget people are not born to all this. Let me please explain and if anything else bothers you tell me. Right, a Pâtisserie is the type of French or Belgian bakery that specializes in both pastries, breads and sweets, usually sold in the one store. In France and Belgium it is a legally controlled title that may only be used by bakeries that employ a licensed maître pâtissier or a master pastry chef. I have the title, as do a few others who work for me.

I guess you are better acquainted with the terms of a confectioners, a bakery and a cafe in English? In France and Belgium and here in Switzerland they are called a confiserie and a boulangerie, and a cafe would still be the same, were they individual stores. I fall into the odd bod category, as my three stores are connected with a shared front of store; they each have their own distinct stores within that building. I came up with the idea ages ago and thanks to Uncle Marco here he made my journals come to life." I am also looking at adding in a small gelateria into my stores, in honour of Nonna, though I do think I have enough to do for the moment.

"Journals?" He asks, of course he doesn't know of my legendary journals.

"My journals, I'd have an idea and write it down, along with all my recipes and all my other ideas for my stores. The original journal and my finished recipes are in a bank vault over the road in my bank, people would kill for those." I laugh but I guess they would, because it's worth billions to my competitors.

"Okay, good to know you don't carry the secrets to your chocolates with you Ma'am. Has this been your dream for a long time all this?"

"Oh there is a loaded question Luke Sawyer, my niece here has lived and dreamed of this since she was little. My father always said she was destined to be the best and she is; we are all so very proud of our Bambino."

"So this is something you have always wanted to do and only this Ma'am?" Luke asks as I stare at the old office of Mr Hyde and see a photo of my first day here, a tear falls and I then look around and it's as if he is still here! I shiver and realise he is always going to be with me.

"Always..." But is it something I always want to continue to do now? "So James I am heading to London later and I will try and get back as soon as I can, I have my cousin coming here to learn the ropes from you and within the week, Ray Junior, and Santino the turd is doing his maître pâtissier course now and will be followed by the twins Marco Junior and Salvador later in the year."

"Santino the turd Ma'am?" Luke asks as the other two laugh again.

"He is the third Santino really, and is a turd faced freak. Its cousin humour Ozzie/Brit style, you will get used to it. I promise, normally I am very businesslike, but not so when I am around the boys, but my cousins are the best."

"My nephews are good bakers too, it runs in the blood. Sawyer, Luke Sawyer." Is he coming on to my security guard, I give him the look and he laughs.

"Do you bake Mr D'Acciaio?"

"Oh call me Marco, and I do if I have to, but surrounded by Ana and her creations I daren't eat as much as I want to, I have to work out a lot as it is." He winked at Sawyer and Sawyer blushed, is he gay too? That explains why Christian has gifted me a good looking male guard and not a female aid. Crafty bugger.

"We have to get baking I need to change. I will see you down there Sawyer, either use the changing rooms down stairs or use mine when I have finished."

"I have a few checks to make downstairs and will change once those are done Ma'am if that is okay?"

"Fine go do your thing." He disappears and I thump Uncle Marco's arm. "He is to be left alone, even if he is of your kind." I hate that phrase, but it's his 'thing' for the word gay, go figure? "Really, my bodyguard?"

"Really? Well let's talk really about this guy with the plane and the billions should we, this Christian Grey? The boy you lost your heart to in Scotland?"

"Yeah he is one and the same, I sold Otter Island to him and we struck up a friendship again, but we are friends, and there is no boyfriend title to be attached him, we are not a couple." We fucked and we'll fuck again but we are not attaching labels, besides he is not into labels or hearts and flowers for that matter. Yet...

"So you say Little One, so you say... Anyway, I am going to photograph the cafe and look at new colours and perhaps going with a replica of the old vintage paper I spotted in a hidden cove down there, and the bonketts. I do love that word; they could do with a trip to the reupholsters too? I will have the tables re finished and new crockery and cutlery ordered too, I doubt your usual ones will fit in with the old feel you want here?"

"Do whatever you want with it and I know you can do it tastefully, and you have the credit card use it and spend whatever you want on it. Just make it something grand, great and good to remember him by, please?" I know he did my home in Paris and it is very nice and he did my bathroom and the room Christian stopped in, so I know he does tasteful. I also know he did Uncle Sunny's room so he can do garish too!

"I will, I certainly will, and find out if he has a significant other, be a good niece?" I shake my head and leave him and James discussing the cafe. I head into my small office and I plug in and charge my dead phone and then open my emails. My phone gets a little green on the battery and I listen first to the voice mail, feel shity and then a little better once I open the texts I missed from him. I am never abandoning my phone again.

Chris: Sorry I had my phone on silent.

Chris: Your friend did think I was gay. I told her I had a girlfriend when Taylor and I dropped her off at her mothers.

Chris: Nothing happened. She agreed to sell me the hotels. Thank you.

Chris: Ana answer me please?

I guess I was over thinking, but I know Jen and how she plays. He must have gone to sleep as angry as I did. I reply to his texts, and we message back and forth a little before he goes into a meeting in my home office. For some strange reason texting seems to be better for us right now, better than speaking that is? We are in figure it out mode and this is more freeing, and less I don't know, awkward? Our not actually having to hear our brains tick and our hearts thump as they try to think of saying something? Yes, it's far less uncomfortable texting, than it is waiting for a pregnant pause. Though I guess I need to eat humble pie, and say sorry so an apology gift is the order of the day? I slip out of the office and head across the road to Cartier's. I grab Sawyer and cross the tracks to the other side of the street. I bought my own first expensive watch here and I had it engraved on the back with the words Christian: Mio per sempre. Forever mine. It was done with Baby Christian in mind, but it is how I feel about his father still.

"Ana, what are we doing?"

"Buying a gift of course. What else do you do in Cartier?" He shrugs his shoulders and we head in. I am met at the door and I ask to see men's watches. I like mine it's cute, but men's watches? I usually grab my uncles and other relatives watches at the airport. This though has to be a special time piece, not just for mistrusting him, but to say thank you for our baby. I guess I can thank him now he knows about Christian? The lady I speak to is okay, but I fear she is a little condescending. I guess I don't look like a billionaire? I smile and take a seat and my eyes go straight to the funny see-through watch.

"I like that one there, it's very unusual." She smiles, okay I have seen that irksome smile a time or two in my past, especially when I first became rich in my own right. The 'you can't really afford that Ma'am' that look.

"That Madam is The Rotonde de Cartier Grande Complication Skeleton and it is limited to just fifty numbered pieces, and are each priced at $620,000 each Madam." Crickey! I know why there is no price tag.

"Okay first it's Mademoiselle, secondly is that the only one you have here and thirdly, do you work on commission?"

"I am sorry if I offended you that was not my intention. This watch is for sale Mademoiselle."

"Good I will have it please box and bag it for me and here is my card." I opened my wallet and she saw the credit cards. Okay, I don't carry over half a million dollars around with me. "I can go to my bank across the way if you would like the purchase made in cash, but I think you will find I have bought a Bentley with that and they didn't turn their nose up at it?" Did I say I hate being bested by sales clerks? Well I do. She stands and a gentleman comes across. Did she press the robbery button? She spoke in French.

"She wants this watch Sir and as you can see its the..." He smiles, walks past her and comes forward to greet me with a reserved hand shake.

"... Miss Lambert, it's good to see you again." Hell's teeth he remembers me? "I believe we had this problem when you bought your own watch did we not?"

"Yes, I believe it was you and I though the last time?"

"How is it?" I smiled and shook my wrist.

"It keeps perfect time thank you, is there a problem with the watch I liked, is it sold already?"

"No, Miss Giddies here will see to your purchase, would you like some refreshments whilst you wait?"

"No thank you, I have to be getting back to the store. I had hoped to have been baking way before now."

"You are back at the school?"

"Yes, but I own it now."

"From humble beginnings a dynasty was born, yes? You got your wish to be the best?"

"Yes, yes it was what I said back then A little arrogant of me, but as you see I did it. How did..."

"I remember all the people who are pleasant and kind to me. As were you when you made my daughter's wedding cake, over four years ago."

"I came in here for this and told you I was a baker at the school across the way and you asked how could a baker afford a Rolex. I remember the cake, your daughter and you of course."

"My commission on your watch paid for the cake, so thank you. Is it to be as it once was? The House of Hyde?"He asks.

"Yes, with a name change, it will be The House of D'Acciaio, and we are starting with the bakery. In fact it is open already." I was amazed he remembered me. His name was Philip, Philip Maurice I think?

"The chocolates too? My wife loved them once upon a time, and there have been many times they have saved me from an argument, when I have had to work late. They are not as they once were though."

"I hear that a lot, but yes the Lust and the Dark Hearts ranges will be made right over the road again, as they were meant to be, as they should always have been made."

"I look forward to getting them for my wife again, as she will be to get them." I am presented with the card reader and I tap in my code and say goodbye to my money. He smiles and hands me the receipt and my bag. "Please call again Mademoiselle Lambert, as ever it was my pleasure."

"It was Mr Maurice." I smiled and headed back to bash the funk out of some dough, after having spent a fortune, just to put an uppity sales clerk in her place! Besides the watch is nice, and one of only fifty. I laugh and then realise how much I f-in spent.

"Ana, would you like me to carry the bag?" I hand it over.

"Guard that with your life, that bag contains a day's profits from my stores." I think it's a half a day, but I don't count it. Lummy, thankfully he's worth it. We head back and I change into my whites and Sawyer and I go to bake for a couple of hours. I head into the kitchens and they are hard at it. Not only are the bread and pastries being made correctly and from fresh ingredients, but my chocolates are starting to fill the store too. Did I say I love, love, love my life? Well I do, it's just a tad overwhelming at the moment.

"Sawyer, do you want to learn to bake?"

"No. I burn toast and often, I live on takeout and Mrs Jones keeps me fed at home, sorry at Escala."

"She is Christian's housekeeper right?"

"Yes and Taylors lady."

"Good to know. Now, let me create the staff of life." I find my release in making brioche rolls. As we wait for them to prove Sawyer and I grab a quick breakfast, in the staff and student canteen. He looks at the wares and grins.

"I like this business end. Would you like something to eat Ma'am?"

"I will have some tea and toast thanks Sawyer and will sit with Uncle Marco. He is busy on his laptop and hasn't seen his only niece." I go and stand behind him.

"I saw you but I am busy trying to fit looking at countless store all over the globe, into my busy schedule thirty three more stores need looking at for a refit." He shakes his head. Hyde's had several more units in Japan and Australasia too. Some of them are in beautiful far flung place, places I had only ever dreamed of opening stores. We have some in airports too. Just to get Uncle Marco's goat, because they are like mini worlds within worlds, what with their own bulked up security!

"It is going to be very expensive yes?"

"Very, how many of the of the smaller ones are you keeping?"

"I'd like to keep all of them. However I know some are way too small, those can be sold. Have a security team been to see to them all and to check the staffs credentials?"

"They like me, Little One are going from store to store. So far they all need closing and emptying." I do the silent Munch Scream and sit. I need my damned head examining. "So now security is out of hearing range. Christian Grey, is he going to break your heart again?"

"I don't know for sure. Do any of us know what is written in our future Uncle Marco? God forbid I could be hit by a bus tomorrow."

"God forbid indeed. Ana please be careful; take it from me it's a hard habit to break, that need to be constantly going back to the bad places in your life. I have the scars to prove it Bambino."

"Christian is not like Preston, he has some issues, but he is not a thug in a nice suit."

"I guess I judge everyone I meet as a possible Preston. I am sorry, but I do worry about you Bambino."

"You do it out of love, and I appreciate it. Now, take on more staff." A random request I know, but he will be bawling his eyes out if I do not take his over active mind off Preston Harcourt the Fourth, a Lord and a serial abuser and user of his fists, he nearly killed Uncle Marco. I cross my chest and say a silent thank you for saving my saviour.

"Yes, I think I need to. Now leave me to eat this." He takes a bite from a croissant and murmurs his delight. "Just like Papa makes, he taught you well Little One!" I bow and go and sit and await my breakfast. This place is coming back to life and I grin like a lunatic. My life is a complicated mess right now and I think, no, I know it's going to get better. Much better...

Who's been sleeping in this bed?

I wake up and go for a swim in Ana's pool. Jenny is yet to make her appearance, but I think I made Ana's bed look like I had not been there. I slept surprisingly well in my friends bed. My girlfriend's bed? I said it to Miss King several times last night and it did not feel at all uncomfortable. I think I will keep playing it over in my head and let it sink in; I have a girl, whom is a friend, who I fuck. Then I feel crass as I hit the pool for another lap. Yes we fucked, but we did some pretty amazing vanilla shit too. Elena lied; it has its merits good old plain sex, which was anything but plain. Then again I am finding out Elena lies about a lot of things it seems. Fifty laps later and I climb out of the pool. I grab the robe that seems to have appeared on the chair alongside the towel I place there, so I presume Jenny or Taylor placed it there? I go and get ready for the day ahead.

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So slightly shorter lol. So next up they tell everyone and some mistakes are made... read and review... PLEASE XXXXXXX...


	16. Chapter 16

This is my story just using the lifestyle of some of fifty shades and the characters.

It is a HEA, but there are bumps in the road getting there.

So, enjoy the longer than first anticipated story and relax there is no cheating either.

If you need to have the conversations of Jenny, the Scottish Nanny, translated I can do that too lol!

Thank you for the kind reviews and the guest reviews, I hope you continue to read and review xx

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Dreaming of Chocolate and Grey:

Chapter 16:

Lo sono il padre di un angelo:

Luke and I are heading to the hotel to grab our bags; Uncle Marco is in the car waiting for us and he's working. I think I am asking too much of my family, though they say they love it, and who am I to argue I do too, but am I pushing them too far with adding in the Hyde stores too? I head to my bedroom, and sigh, it's a good job I hadn't bothered unpacking; perhaps I knew this would just be a flying visit, knowing James was more than capable of running the show here for me, but again how long will he want to stay with me? Who knew? He was talking of retiring when I worked for John? I change into something more comfortable for flying in a comfortable dress, and set about packing away the few things I had used. My locket is ensconced back into its carry compartment, after I take it out and contemplate actually wearing it. I decide not to put it away. Luke comes in to take the bags and we head down to check out.

"Ana, are you okay?"

"What? Sorry Luke? No, I am fine, but I am feeling a little tired that's all. So, Seattle it is then."

"London first."

"Argh yes, we cannot forget we are picking up Mr Grey. I had Jenny pack some clothes for me too, I hope he remembers them, I tried to ask her to put them in the car, but she seemed a little off. I wonder what if anything he has done to piss her off?"

"Mr Grey?"

"Umm, she was ranting about porridge, my bed and a man floozy with a big heed, and from that I garnered it was all about Christian."

"So he has made an impression on this Jenny then? Who is she, an aunt?"

"She was my nanny when I was little and she came with me to live in London when she retired, she is sort of like, erm... She is very hard to like unless you know her and she lets you in and unfortunately, she isn't for letting Christian Grey in! He was a pain when he was younger and she never forgot; she has a memory like an elephant. The impressions she had of him were of him being the boy who made me sad. I guess she is looking out for me in her own way? "

"She seems like a character, and when you talk about her do you realise you turn Scottish?"

"Oh laddie you deny know how Scottish I kin a be..." I laugh as I settle the bill for the rooms. "It's something you will get used to; my linguistic flip flops are hilarious. Now, do you think we are ready for all that time alone with my uncle? We will be barely two hours in the air, but his constant talking and being the fun uncle can seem like two days! He is adorable loving and loud!"I say.

"He seems very... Nice?" I smiled. "Very, colourful and bubbly." I smile again. "Very devoted to you Ana."

"Oh he is and he is the best uncle I have, well they all are but he and I over the past couple of years of working together have this thing, he knows I need him when even I don't know I do. If that makes any sense?"

"It does, so you have only been working with family a fairly short time then?"

"Since I opened my stores and expanded on them yes, but we have always had the family businesses, I just took over when Nonno retired and made them all into what they are now. They were refit, renamed and reinvented and all because of the popularity of my chocolates, as you will find out, there is a lot of family and they ask questions."

"Questions? Questions you do not want me to answer?"

"Correct. Now let's get to the airport, I just need to do a quick stop at an engravers I use, and the watch." He opens his bag and hands me the bag containing the watch that will hopefully become Christian's own locket type of a keepsake.

"Okay, do you need to ask me anything about the trip; we have been a little busy this morning Ana?"

"No, no we are all good. I will have to do some serious scheduling reshuffles, if I am stopping in Calabasas until the concert! If I decide on stopping, I will be in conference calls locked in my study, so you get to do your own thing for a while."

"Okay, so we are stopping in your grandparents home?"

"No, the place is mine. It was Papa Franks place and where my dad was born. As you more than likely already know?"

"Guilty, I am a fan."

"I thought so. Sawyer you will have plenty of time off when Holly gets here, she is usually always by my side, time you can then spend with your girlfriend perhaps?"

"If I had a girlfriend that would be much appreciated Ma'am..."

"Oops, I crossed a personal line, sorry Sawyer."

"I try not to let my personal life interfere with my work one. Whenever possible that is."

"I am sorry, I thought we were getting to know each other a little better, I unlike you have not got a jacket on your information and background."

"Why not?"

"I like to take people as I find them. I know you past security checks or Ethan wouldn't have hired you, even though it was Christian who put him up to it."

"Ana I am nothing special." I sighed as he opened the door for me, and got in front the car. That man has his own secrets to keep. Marco is working on his laptop and speaking to someone through his ear piece. I gather from the look it is either Nonno or Nonna.

"She is here now Papa, yes here as sat in the car. Ana, Papa wants to talk to you." I cringe at the look on his face. I take his phone and a deep breath.

"Nonno... What have I done now?"

"Nothing Bambino except not tell your Nonni about this man you are seeing!"

"Nonno, there is a lot to tell you and that is why we are coming to stay for a few days."

"He is going to ask for your hand in marriage?" Ha, I wish.

"No, no I doubt that is ever going to happen." I sigh. "And before you start it is too important to talk over the phone about. We will be there in a couple of days. We will talk then."

"Jenny says he is an arrogant ass!"

"See, you are forming an unjust opinion on him already. That is not good Nonno. She and he were never on great terms at the castle, so the grudge has followed him to London. He is a nice man and I am sure you will like him."

"We will see; Nonna has gone for new bedding for his room." Oops...

"He has a hotel in Vegas and one in Long Beach. He will be stopping there I think?"

"Nonsense he stops here, in his own room." Of course he will! "It is next to mine; I would worry for his safety otherwise." What he really means is he will be listening at the door for creaky floorboards.

"Nonno he has a security detail with him, as do I!"

"Why security, why does my bambino need security, Holly she is not good?"

"Nonno you are going to have a heart attack, stop worrying. I have made a few enemies in taking over The House of Hyde; Christian is being cautious and like you is over thinking this. Holly is working and will join me when she can. Uncle Wolfe knows where she is and I know you do too."

"I worry because you are my only granddaughter, so yes I worry. Now, when you get here what are your plans?"

"I don't have any firm plans why?"

"We are throwing a party to welcome you back home."

"Nonno, you threw me a party last month for coming home."

"Well the Greeks next door threw one yesterday for their son coming back from Athens and your Nonna wants to throw a bigger one for you. She and Anthippi are no longer friends, it's not good."

"Have they fallen out over their baking prowess again?"

"No god forbid it was just bread, your Nonna would win hands down, no it seems it is a promise they made when you came to stay with your Grandparents, when we first came here with Papa Frank, is not about to be honoured, Nonna is angry at poor Anthippi, because she is marrying her youngest son off to a nice Greek girl."

"So, why fall out over that?"

"He was promised to you." I laugh, and then I realise he meant it.

"Oh god Nonno, stop her from matchmaking, please? I told her way back then he was not for me. Vasili is a nice guy, for someone else. Noona and I will be having words. Honestly, he was a nice boy who took me to dinner once Nonno, once. He was just a nice boy lumbered with a moody me!" A pregnant moody me!

"She is inviting them to show off your new catch. He best wear his best suit. Nice shoes and drive a good car Bambino." Okay he could tick those boxes if he had to. I grin, but would he want to?

"I can imagine she is. Nonno we are nowhere near that stage, so please talk to her or we may not come!"

"She will only follow you and stalk him if you do not turn up. She has an app on that phone you got her; to track you and it is just ready and waiting. You know how she gets." She can barely use her new mobile phone so I hardly think she has mastered any app, without help that is.

"I do, I really do. Now I have to be going we have a plane to catch and Nonno, I love you both but please stop matchmaking. You included."

"Okay, I will try but Ana, if this guy does not pass Nonno's test, my friend has a boy in the record industry, he's divorced twice and Italian and he has his own teeth, three gold ones too." I now imagine gold teeth in a glass by the bed and laugh aloud again.

"Nice Nonno, but please stop looking at men's teeth..." Marco is laughing. "Stop looking all together please?"

"Okay, you are not getting any younger Anastasia."

"Okay and I am hanging up now, arrivederci Nonno give my love to Noona..." I throw the phone back at Marco and he laughs.

"Oh Christian Grey is going to rue the day he met you Little One."

"Cheers Uncle Marco. I think I already know that day is coming. Driver can you pull over on the next corner I shouldn't be long, Sawyer stay in the car you can see me through the window, the store is only small." I grab the bag with Christian's watch and head in. The man behind the desk looks up and smiles.

"Hello, how can I help you today?"

"I'd like a rushed engraving done on a watch that cost me a small fortune, can you do it?"

"Can I see the timepiece?" I hand over the watch in the red leather box; he puts on a glove and takes it out of the box. "I can do that for you, but it will devalue the watch Mademoiselle, significantly?"

"He won't be selling it, I hope?" He smiles.

"If you are sure, what would you require me to put on the watch?" I hand him the paper and he sighs. "I can do this, and it will be ready tomorrow."

"If I pay you a stupid amount of money, can you do it now?" He looks at me and I plead, "my car is outside and I am on the way to the airport right now. Please?"

"I will try my best. Please sit and wait, however there is not much room but I can work with the Cartier mark, please sit. It is a nice timepiece, an expansive one, if you are sure?"

"Please, I am sure. Thank you." He rubs the back with his glove, chooses a tool for the pen like thing he has and I hug the seat as his machine whirs away and I devalue a bloody expensive watch, he keeps his eye thingy on and I hear him sigh, oh god that didn't sound good? He has been at it fifteen minutes when the noise stops, he uses a fine polishing cloth and hands me the watch...

"Perfect, Lo sono il padre di un angelo, it's perfect thank you. How much do I owe you?" He smiles.

"Send me some of you chocolates for my wife, that is payment enough Miss D'Acciaio." I smile as I hand the watch back and he places it in the black velvet cushioning. Even the damned box is an amazing art piece.

"You recognise me?"

"I do, your mentor, John Hyde was a friend of mine. He had many friends here, many good friends and is missed. May god rest his soul?"

"He was?" He nods. "I am opening the store again, please give this to James Frasier and tell him what you want sending and we will keep your wife supplied in chocolates for as long as you wish." I write on a card and hand it to him.

"Thank you and good luck with the watch." I smile put away the box and head to the waiting car.

"Are we ready?" Uncle Marco asks.

"Yes. Let's get this over with then...

A paparazzi setup:

I have arranged to meet Miss Price-King for a late lunch in Gaucho's, an Argentinean restaurant near to where her new clients were doing their mega deals. She looked a little the worse for wear when she joined me at my table, though she had on shades, which given there was no sunshine was a giveaway that the walk over from the O2 Centre had to have hurt her head a little.

"Mr Grey, firstly let me apologise for the ass I made of myself last night." I stand and kiss her cheeks and she smiles.

"It's forgotten, don't worry about it. Please sit, do you want to eat or would coffee be the meal of the day?"

"Coffee and keep them coming, Please? I have only half an hour as the Prince's want to go shopping."

"Okay then," I open my case and get out the revised offer, the much fairer offer, "I hope this is a better deal for you?" She reads the back and works forward. Strange way for reading a legal document.

"I like to see the end pages; it cuts to the chase, it's the synopsis if you will of all the blurb at the front?" She has a point I guess? She reads the rest and nods her head. "All these terms are acceptable, very acceptable. Though you state the payment will be made in two parts, why is that are you struggling to find funding?" Our coffee comes and I smile.

"I am a multi billionaire, no, no I am not struggling. We usually take a stock and inventory before we buy a place, your brother wouldn't allow this for some reason."

"He didn't own them that's why. I get it; you are withholding funds in case all is not what it seems? Fine I will expect the second payment one month from today. I think that is enough time for your staff to evaluate my father's hotels."

"It will be more than enough time."

"Should you have a problem call me and I will get to the bottom of it." She sips her coffee and looks again at the contract of the proposed sale. She smiles as she spots something. "You are very naive to think news of this buyout can be embargoed until completion?"

"I expect this to be the case yes, Once I place my offer and you sign this, I want it to be kept at a need to know level."

"Is there a lot of competition in the hotel and golf club world?"

"You would be surprised; did you not say you were considering running them?"

"I was for like a nano second, but Ana, my friend she said it wasn't in my blood and she was right. I would have only done it to annoy my brother anyway. So give me the pen and I will expect the first of my millions to be in my account when?"

"Ten million will be in it as soon as you have signed this document and the remaining ten as soon as the 'stock check' is complete."

"Then make it happen Mr Grey!" She signs and I sign too. Taylor witnesses her signature and she smiles.

"Well that was a hell of a way to end my relationship with my father."

"I wish you well in your endeavours Miss Price-King, what are your future plans?" She smiles.

"Well between you and the lamp post, I was asked if I'd like to become a Princess this morning. I think I may say yes."

"You think you may say yes to marriage as flippantly as that?"

"Yes..."

"Oh, and your mother, what does she say?"

"My mother... My mother is travelling the world as my princes father's secretary. I don't think she minds one way or the other."

"Oh..."

"She likes rich bosses who treat her nicely and pay her well; the married bosses are usually fed up with their wives as my dear father was. What can I say, she has a type. They want a fling with a very bright and beautiful woman, and she wants their riches, she knows their weaknesses and she plays to them, they are very grateful." Okay that was not expected. Ana said she was a nice woman? I guess you can be nice woman and mother, and be a kept woman, but she seems to be a fortune hunter or gold digger? Is this woman drunk still?

"I guess she is a grown woman and knows what she wants out of life?" I say aloud.

"She does, she wants money and to retire at the end of the year. She will sell the house she has in London, the one my father bought her and travel the world, and live in comfort and style in a few of her other homes bought by her other ex bosses. The Prince is about to give her a fully staffed luxury yacht as a goodbye gift; it's very pretty and really expensive." I bet it is. "I have to be going, it was fun doing business with you. It's a pity you are spoken for. I can still rock your world if you let me?" I sit back as she leans forward.

"I am very much spoken for Miss Price-King."

"I know I remembered you said you has a girlfriend. I also said I could be discreet. I still can be?"

"Thanks, but no thanks. My girlfriend is on her way as we speak." She inches forward.

"Good for her. I'd not let you out of the house if you were mine and you, I can assure you wouldn't want to leave the bedroom." She winked and took her copies of the document and I took a deep breath in as she kissed me on the lips and I flinched as her hands touched my shirt. I saw flashes and I saw Taylor get up. "Oops, it seems we were papped, I wonder who tipped them off to the fact I was having lunch here with a hunky billionaire?" I see something of Elena in her, that mean eyed, give me the money look.

"You did this? Why would you do that?"

"I have to keep Hamid in line and let him know I am in demand."

"And you used me to do it?"

"He wouldn't believe I'd fuck a lowly barman, I do all the time discreetly. I have to keep the Prince on his toes now don't I? He will check you out and believe me when I tell him you came onto me and refused you in favour of him." I cringed. I seriously felt sick to my stomach. I even contemplated ripping the contract up. But the money has been transferred. She smiles and leaves the building and makes sure she puts on her glasses and puts on a headscarf... Wow was I really used as a man toy?

"Mr Grey, Sir... The recording of you meeting." He hands me the pen drive, I thank god now Taylor always records my out of office business meetings for me, I guess for times like these?

"That was not how I expected this meeting to go? Let's get to the airport and explain this to Ana, before she gives Ana her version of events."

"She will understand Sir, if not let her listen to her friend." I hope she does, that kiss was too intimate to end a business deal with and she will know this. I get a feeling of dread. What if she sees it and ends this, this amazing thing we have? Did I really just think that?

"Get the Prince on the phone, if you can Taylor?" Like he talks to royalty all the time?

"Sir, the elder or the younger?" He presses some keys on his phone. Fuck me this man is a legend.

"Either, both have a stake in my putting him straight, nobody uses me like that." I swear Taylor has just sniggered. We get in Ana's Bentley and I suddenly feel hungry, I was meant to eat lunch. Taylor searches for a way to get to the Prince and sends a couple of texts to Barney. He hands me the phone when we get to the airport.

"Sir, Prince Hamid Senior on the phone for you." I grit my teeth and play him the recording. We don't need words as it ends; he simply thanks me and puts down the phone. I am it seems owed a debt of gratitude. He wasn't aware of her mother's duplicity either. Ana really does not know her friends as well as she thought and I have to hope she didn't tell her about our son. Taylor and I are awaiting my jets arrival. They should be here soon and as we wait I grab a coffee and a doughnut. Much to Taylor's disgust.

"Sir, I do believe that's your plane coming into view." I stare at the jet and smile.

"It is. So that was an interesting morning Taylor."

"Very. Sir, before you get on the plane be aware Miss Lambert's uncle is on board too, he is here to oversee the shops in London. Sawyer asked earlier having said yes already, I agreed. Hence our driving the car here one last time. Are we upgrading Sir?" I smile. It was one hell of a ride and my father swears by his.

"We can get one I guess? It was a very smooth ride. Thanks Taylor for the heads up on the uncle too." So I am to meet another of her relatives. I hope this one is not as interesting as Sunny? I don't have long to wait as the plane is landing.

As nervous as a kitten up a tree:

We have been in the air over an hour and Uncle Marco and I have been going through the shops and their locations. It seems I was right and I will be selling just two small stores, one in Glasgow and one in Berlin, as I am not opening up any stores in Germany, just yet and I am selling the one Hyde store there. I may one day open up there, but for now I am happy with the places the other Hyde stores are. I run through the budget of upgrading the Swiss school and the Belgium changes and it's an eye watering amount. I sign off on the job orders and we run through the logistical nightmare of doing the stores. We are about finished crunching numbers and dates when we are told to buckle up and clear away, by the not so bubbly Nadine. She hates me of that I am sure. I wasn't even offered a drink; luckily we brought our own water on board and pastries from the bakery.

"Bambino, it will be fine. We are going to mass produce the shop fittings in the Hull factory and ship them over on the ferries. We will be able to fire through this lot in no time at all." I own a wood shop too, don't ask me why I did and wished I hadn't, apparently it was cheaper making them than importing them from China, or somewhere else, either way it was not too green for my carbon footprint?

"Was all this just too much too soon Uncle Marco?"

"We were fine with the American stores; the new ones in Europe will be just as easy. Now speaking of America are you still hell bent on adding Seattle to the stores in New York, Los Angeles, Denver and New Orleans! The Hyde stores are in let's see... Atlanta, Topeka, Salam, Tallahassee, Boise, Augusta and I love this one Ana. Annapolis, go figure you have a state named after you, nearly? Providence, Concord, Lansing and Jefferson. He liked his state capitals Ana."

"He liked capital cities; he said people visited them more than backwater places? He had big plans for America; he said their chocolate was vile and their taste palates needed educating one state at a time. I like some of it, Reese's peanut cups, are nice in ones and twos. He also had three airport stores there too. We have no problems there, as they got their supplies from Belgium. Flown in fresh daily. I need my head squeezing to see if I have water in here." He laughed.

"What did he do stick a pin in the map?"

"No, he had a list and he ticked them off and bought wherever was cheap and near to a distribution network, he had set up and running from New York. Sunny is looking at that too, overhauling their network and generally updating security."

"Distribution is key over in America. From New York, you should be okay for the east coast what about the West and the South?" He is studying maps; I hadn't been to many of the American stores, as I only came here to do my exams really. I felt sick at the enormity of this undertaking. I have a concert to do, a book to promote, stores to see to, clubs to run and Christian and his Elena problems to deal with too. I now had too much to control. I take in a deep breath of air and meditate. I run my mantra through my head and relax. "Ana, snap out of it Bambino, how will you supply the out of the way state capitals?"

"There are small factories in the back of quite a few of the stores; John made it work, it was just the boys who messed with it! It's just going to take time to get people over there to run the places too. The one good thing is they do not need a licensee like we do in Europe! So I have a lot of ex students wanting to work for me, and other chocolatiers wanting to join me. It is those that I am wary about."

"Get Christian Grey to tell you how he does his background checks?"

"I will, he has a big team, we are only just adding into Pieter's team of lawyers and legal eagles. I guess we need to throw him and Sunny together? I will ask Christian though." I cannot tell him I have a team that is way better than GEH. I mean I am not stupid around NDA and confidentiality agreements. Due to the nature of my clubs. I think I need to let loose in Vegas or even Seattle if he has a place he likes to visit that is?

"How did he fund his rapid expansion into a America?"

"Lust, the Lust range was a massive hit and a big seller for The House Of Hyde and it brought a mass of sales to the firm, having a Presidential endorsement and a plethora of celebratory clients helped too. My first six month bonus was just short of a million euro's, as well as a Belgium penthouse apartment."

"Wow... So you really bought a business that your chocolates funded? He spent some serious money on some of these buildings Bambino."

"John, he wasn't as lucky as me he had to invest money. Were as I got given my stores, I have only had to pay for New York. Papa Frank left me some really nice buildings over here alas not in the big apple, we can look at those too, I need someone to check through them again, Ethan is putting a team together to deal with the buildings themselves, Papa had a team but it's just a small set up and as and when needed team of maintenance guys on a retainer?" I need my head examining, because at each twist and turn I add in more 'problems' I need a reliable and headstrong COO like Rosalind Bailey, I wonder if I can poach her? I laugh and shake my head.

"I know Bambino, I know, but let's get the backlog in Europe done first. Had you known about Hyde's, you could have saved a fortune on the New York store?"

"I know that now. I was going to extend the cafe backwards, but I would love to add in a gelateria for Nonna's recipes?"

"I guess it could be changed? I mean it may be worth waiting until all the work is done at the school and factory there, transfer the machinery and then revisit the factory behind the new store? For now we have enough on our plates. Now, will I get to meet Mr Grey?"

"Yes, I guess he has to come on board and you have to get off?"

"I could stay and go see Mamma?"

"No... I want you here with Uncle Sunny. Jenny is expecting you now the damned flat isn't there; so use Nonna's room, or the Sunny Room." He grimaced. He did the damned red room of ugly.

"Awww, I feel I am missing out on something big here? I guess I will soon be hearing about it, good or bad. Now pack up I do believe we are heading into good old London Town. It's good to be home and back at the rock gods boudoir of sin." I will ignore that, and I happen to know he has some of the more risqué things he had removed of Dad's, the nudes especially, in storage.

"Do you not consider Queensland home, like Uncle Ray?"

"No, here and Paris are where my heart lies now." I see the sadness again.

 _A tiny bit of a bad part!_

Queensland maybe where my family are, but it is also where Preston Rage Harcourt the Fourth is serving life for trying to kill Uncle Marco and actually killing his friend and business partner Jacobi Stuart, and his design assistant Benny, and all in a fit of jealousy. Rage was his true middle name and he was known for living up to it too. He was always a piece of work. He'd attacked Marco hundreds of times and Marco, he went back time after time and every time the asshole promised to change, but he never did and the beatings continued. Marco was finally free from him, or so we thought. We thought Preston had returned to his residence in Germany, alas he hadn't he'd stopped in Australia and had been spying on Marco for weeks when that fateful night happened...

That night he found Marco and Jacobi, who he thought were alone at their new interior design store there and he went mad with a nail gun that the builders had left lying around, but thanks to Benny's bravery, we were lucky the death toll was not more, as three office juniors were saved when he jumped in front of the maniac welding the nail gun. The stupid asshole also fired off several rounds into the Queensland Police, that was until he had his ass tasered, and not just by the one, but by several policemen. He was so high on drugs he was like trying to down a raging bull. They should have used bullets was what they said at the trial. We nearly lost Marco that day, he got a nail in his hip, one in his backside and two through his knee, and since then he very rarely goes back to Queensland and it is why we don't have German stores, he hears a German accent and he is a wreck, it's hard enough in the other European stores, but Germany is a no go area.

I put away my laptop and Nadine tells us we are approaching London. Nice of her to bother telling us anything she has been behind her curtain all afternoon. Sawyer is reading a book. He has been very mouse like. I suddenly get a bout of nausea and take sip of water from my bottle.

"Do you need a Kalms Bambino? Only you look a little nervous?"

"No I will be fine. Just fine Uncle Marco." He throws one of his bottles in my bag for later.

He pats my hand and we head down to meet Christian and I feel like a teenager all over again. The plane taxis around to its allocated spot and I strain my neck to find Christian and I see him stood like a god at the car, how did he know to bring the car? I look at Sawyer and he shakes his phone. Of course. Shit Uncle Marco will be driving my Bentley. I bet I have tickets on it when I get back home? The plane stops and I stand to give my uncle a hug as I do the door opens and the steps are connected to the plane.

"It looks like lover boy is..." He goes silent when he sees Christian enter his plane. "Does he speak Italian Bambino?" I shake my head no and he switches to Italian. "He is super hot. I mean godlike hot, wow what's the body work like Bambino?" I smile and I see the hint of a smile on Christian's face too. "Well hello Mr Grey, I am Marco, middle uncle and the best. Pleased to meet you. Now, how hot are you?"

"Uncle Marco..." Christian smiles and I sit back down Marco is centre stage now.

"What I have eyes. Sit and let me question you." Christian sits to the side of us. "Good, now the first question, Italian coffee or French?"

"Neither, its Starbucks for me or I roast my own Starbucks beans too, I'm an American. If I can't get that I will settle for a Seattle's Best." He smiles again and I swear I need new underwear.

"Doughnuts or a pastry?"

"Pastries and I like the Danish ones with cinnamon on. I rather like croissants too, warm are better, though I like a doughnut too, occasionally."

"Kill me, or throw my intrusive uncle from the plane please Sawyer?" They all smile.

"Million?" What did he ask?

"I have billions?" Christian counters and I am about to screech, he knows we do not discuss money. Ours or anyone else's.

"Nope the fragrance you have on?" Phew... I used to buy him Davidoff's Cool Water, it was very childish, but I loved the smell of the sea, the mint and the rosemary, the lavender, the jasmine, as well as the man smells of the oak moss, musk and sandalwood. I have a very sensitive nose and know my niffs as I sniff. I have to smell a taste too. Believe it or not the tongue is not the best tester of taste it's the nose. The tongue is good for hot cold, spicy etc, but the nose is where the real taste forms. I am wandering as I get more het up with his stupid questions. Christian again smiles and I know its Alien but say nothing.

"I don't know; it was a gift from my sister, it's Alien Oud Majestueux I think?" Give the man a prize.

"Boxers or briefs?" Yummy, commando. I smile this time.

"All dependant on what I am wearing on top of them."

"Brioni or Tom Ford tuxedos?" I love my Tom Ford Shoes and fashion.

"I have both. I also like the ones from my tailor on Savile Row."

"Okay and the last question, marry or date."

"Uncle Marco... Enough..." I scream at him to shut up. "He has been more than accommodating of your silly questions; now do not ding my new car.

"Bentley or a Rolls?"

"Bentley..." Both Christian and I say together.

"I like how you think, now I am not going to give you a speech on keeping your hands to yourself, but if you hurt my niece, you will need more than the suit stood behind you, you hear? I may not be blessed in the muscle department, but I know how to shoot a gun. Listen and learn, treat her right and you will be alright, treat her mean and you will never be seen. I have connections." Christian smiles. I shake my head; it's the horses head and Mafia thing all over again.

"The date and marry question Marco? I'd date first and see how it goes from there?" I felt the heat from my cheeks rising and my mouth was about to stammer... Really Christian, we are dating, as in my family know dating?

"Good answer." He gave me a kiss, he and Christian got up shook hands and Marco left the plane. Taylor followed and I am sure was giving him what for or possibly the car keys. I was stunned by the answer Christian and given Marco and I am suitably embarrassed by Marco's questions.

"I am so sorry, my family are..."

"...Looking out for you, I get it. I really do. Have you forgotten something Ana?" I looked around. He smiled and walked towards where I was sat and leaned down and kissed me. I had forgotten how good he kisses and that Sawyer was still reading his book.

"Okay, I wasn't pushing my luck by running to you and kissing you." He smiled. "First..." He hovered over me and I had the urge to grab him like the sex starved wonton hussy I felt like. I was reserved and my cheeks are still going from red to pink, slowly.

"How has your time in Switzerland been spent then Baby?" He pointed to the seat vacated by Marco.

"It's your plane and that is your seat. As to Switzerland. Better than I imagined it would be actually. Much better now James is staying. How was London?"

"Different. Very different. I spent time with Christian."

"You did?"

"I needed some alone time and it was needed. Ana how have you managed with this heavy weight in your chest and all the thoughts in your head?"

"It gets easier. I know I have told you this before, but it will get easier." Nadine seemed to have found the pleasant in herself as she approached Christian.

"Sir welcome aboard, can I get you a drink?"

"Ana, what are you drinking Baby?" I loved when he called me that and I am sure I came in my knickers when he said it too...

"Vodka and orange please Nadine. I haven't as yet been offered refreshments."

"Nadine?"

"We didn't have time to restock in Zurich Sir."

"Bull shit, why were we empty, did someone have a fucking party on here?"

"Sir?" She says and looks really confused, has she been drinking or taking medication?

"Stephan..." My pilot comes from the cockpit. "Did the plane get restocked in Zurich?"

"No Sir, it was fully loaded in Seattle as it is after every flight Sir. Why?"

"Have you got another girl on standby here, Nadine's employment with me and the company has been terminated. Taylor can you see to it Miss Winkleman and her carry on are on the next flight home?"

"Sir, I was a little busy." She says with a lost look in her eyes, but I continue to press her.

"What the fuck with, the invisible party guests?"

"I, I, I..." She stammers and the tears are there, I am bullying her and I know it, but for some reason I don't realise this until the tears start, fuck I am a bully.

"Exactly, no answer or reason for your inability to see to my guests! I had guests on my plane who were not taken care of. Grab your jacket and follow Taylor."

"Sir, could I have a word?" Stephan asked as I was beginning to feel the steam pour out of my ears. I follow him and Taylor to the cockpit. I hope to get me a new flight attendant.

"Mr Grey, Sir, Nadine had some bad news before she got on the flight, her mother or grandmother, we are not sure which one, but one of them was killed in a collision with a semi on the way to work, her sister called her. She should have gone home, but is in some sort of...

I don't know state? So Bagley and thought it best she stopped with us, rather than delay the flight further, she has been like this all the way here from Seattle. I did purchase her a ticket whilst in Zurich to go home. However when we got back to the plane this morning she was asleep in the guest room. Apparently they had not spoken in years and what you are seeing now is delayed shock. I don't think she ignored your guests on purpose. I think she is deeply traumatised." Now I feel like a fucking bastard. Ana hears this and stands.

"Might I suggest she is given a mild sedative Sir and sleeps in the guest room, we will be able to manage, your needs Sawyer and I?" Taylor says.

"You didn't think to tell me this as we boarded Stephan? I am confused as to why she did not just go home when she was told of her mother's demise in Seattle?"

"I was about to when she saw you and went into this state drone behaviour she is in now. I have no idea how or what she is thinking." He counters.

"Sir?" Taylor is staring at Nadine. "She is getting off the plane."

"Stop her getting off." Ana is already following her. She stops her at the bottom of the steps and Nadine falls against Ana sobbing... "Ana?" Her arm raises for me to stop where I am, and she hugs Nadine, after ten minutes of sobbing, Ana is leading Nadine past four grown men and into the guest bedroom. I follow. "Ana... What happened?"

"Shush, hand me my bag please?" I go and get her it. Pass it her and she takes out two pills and hands her a bottle of water. "Here take these and sleep." She does as she asks. We step out. "Right Taylor, we can head to Seattle, when you are ready Stephan? Sawyer, can you make sure Nadine's grandmother's body is taken care of? Nadine's phone is in her bag, her sister is the one you need to contact, but she wants her mother to die for this!"

"Ana, I thought her Mom had died?" I say.

"No, well yes, the lady who raised her has died, her grandmother. Her mother was driving her to the doctors and was drunk, she lived and her grandmother died. She said had she gone home last night her mother would be dead too. There is a lot of hatred in that poor girl's heart. Christian, so leave her be, she has lost her grandmother and is so sad right now."

"Wow." I say like a moron. "Taylor, see to it Nadine has nothing to worry about, please?"

"Sir..."

"Indeed, wow. Taylor can we leave her to sleep?"

"Yes Ma'am." I lead Ana to her seat.

"Christian, I was so shitty to her. All that time she was plotting to kill her own mother and I knew just how she felt."

"You have found a kindred spirit Ana." I say as I see the sadness.

"I find friends and kindred ones in the most unusual places. I really do. She will sleep or at least be more restful."

"What did you give her?"

"Kalms, an over the counter natural relaxant. My uncle popped the tub in my bag as he left."

"Do you..."

"No I don't take anything for my episodes, I drink herbal tea, run, play the piano and generally battle through my more dark times, failing that I flog a you clone. Now, would you mind if I grabbed a drink for us both, I do believe it is now self service on this flight to Seattle?"

"I may struggle feeding you, unless there is a box of mac and cheese?" I joke.

"I brought with me a box of pastries for you. We are all good." She goes to get our drinks, and as we missed out time slot we have to wait for the next. I am given a whiskey and Ana drinks her usual. Seated and calm I cough a little.

"Ana, thank you for the information on Jennifer Price-King. I bought her hotels this lunch time, but..."

"... What did she do? Did she become super slut again?"

"You know?"

"I know her well enough to know she thinks, sees and hears the words no thank you, and it is then a challenge."

"I thought you said she was nice?"

"She is, but she also has this whole other side to her you know, a whole other challenging side to her psyche?"

"She was more than challenging she was underhanded and devious and using the prince for his money even though I have just made her a millionaire many times over."

"I blame her mother; it's how she was raised. They had it bad when her father cut them off and she and her mother were destitute before they moved into our quiet little cul-de-sac, and they were living in her car. She washed in the swimming baths and it was a little rough for her. Her mother Marla, she found another job and her new boss helped her claim the things from Mr Price that Jenny needed for her safety, he even then forgot to tell his wife and son about his secret daughter, but it was all good because he bought them the house on our row. He visited them occasionally but he was still a deadbeat dad."

"Ana she is marrying a man she does not love for money. Or she was..."

"...The prince? He is the reason she isn't working for me, the money and the places they work in, I didn't like it either, but she takes after her mother, they go into these relationships for the money."

"You said they were nice, that I could trust her and she was good at her job. You even said I should employ her."

"She is good with figures and it wasn't until she told me about you I realised you were on her gay-dar-bust-him list."

"Ana, her mother has made thousands of dollars being a kept woman!"

"I see you have a problem with their choosing to be with a man for money in return for sex? Do you not see this as a little condescending, considering you too use woman this way?"

"I do not use them that way."

"Potato, Patatoe..." I groan. "Marla is different to Jenny, she is devoted to her man and they, not her generally do the finishing of their arrangement. She gets a new house and any gifts that he has showered her with, how is that any different to what your subs get?"

"When you put it that way, not a lot. Jenny though used me to keep him in check the prince who she agreed to marry. She was not nice at all." I sip my whiskey and it warms my throat. Watching Ana warms another part of me and my groin is aroused.

"No, sometimes she is a little bit predator-ish, hence my losing it on the phone a little, because yes, I have seen her at play and I was worried in case she and you, you and she, you know, in case she got her way with you!" I lean in and wipe away a tear. "She is a really good friend, until she drinks and then she is a whole different girl. I love her like the bad sister she is. If I had told her you and I had an arrangement, she would have backed right off. I couldn't though, how can I tell her about you when I don't know what there is to tell about you about us?"

"What would you like to tell her Ana?"

"I'd like to sing from the roof tops that we are together, or that we have something."

"What do we have Ana?"

"I don't know Christian, what do we have besides raging feelings for each other, feelings that neither of us can control or understand or categorise?"

"We were meant to be fuck buddies."

"We were and I too remember that conversation but I just get so confused with you. One minute you are the man I swore I would never let back into my life, the man I needed to forget about and then next I want you to fall in love with me and then in the next bout of uncertainty I wish we had never met. Sometimes I just want to turn back the hands of time and do things so differently. You know?"

"I think I do. Funnily enough I do think about it and a lot more since New York and especially after chatting to Christian, though the conversation was a little one way."

"He nearly always sends the rain to wash away my tears."

"It rained when I was there Ana."

"Were you crying?"

"Yes, Taylor had to help me, I was screaming and crying."

"I have something for you in your room. Well it is in my bag which I will get later, sorry I threw it on the bed."

"My bedroom is your bedroom. Literally too, I fell asleep in your bed last night and Mrs Logan she was less than pleased, especially after the outburst she had whilst I was on a conference call with Ros and several Japanese members of a boat yard, a boat yard they have that I want to buy from them, were present to!"

"Oh lummy, she has no filter and she doesn't care too much for fools either, you are a fool by the way!"

"She actually said; if I can remember it all that is, and remember she had thrown my breakfast at me too... 'There's yer oats laddie and make sure if ye kin they are the only one's yer eating in here Laddie, yer have yer own bed for layin in, I'm a watchin ye laddie. I ain't affeared of smacking yer ass fir what ye did to ma Annie. Think on laddie, think on' I was as I said sat mortified as the prospective sellers of a shipyard, and Ros in Seattle watching all as your elderly Scottish Nanny spoke to me like a fucking kid. I also think she knows about Christian to Ana."

"Do you need me to translate it for you?"

"Nope, I got the gist and a bowl of her amazing porridge and a red face, then hours of Ros texting for info on you and she wants a translator on staff, so in future she is able to fully understand the old mad lady, and the Japanese want Mrs Logan for a main attraction at their theme park. I don't think I missed a thing in her rant. I am sorry for sleeping in your bed too."

"My bed, well I guess it is comfy, seeing as it's the same as your bed. So... Talking of beds, I didn't book a hotel for Seattle."

"Why would you book a hotel room Ana?"

"I didn't know how long we were stopping, or if you had a spare room or even if you wanted a guest! Your email never indicated the sleeping arrangements."

"My home has many rooms, and you can stop as long as you wish. I have handed over the European site checks to Ros's underling. I need some me time. I think it will help me figure some things out."

"Sir, we are about to take off. Are your belts on Sir, Ma'am?" I laugh as Sawyer does the safety check. "In the event of something happening, the escape exits are here, here and..." He flaps his hands at the doors.

"I get it Sawyer, sit down."

"Sir. Ma'am... I shall sit after I check on Nadine. I so wanted to do the mask thing too." He does and sits in the chairs at the back of us with Taylor.

"Is he a hindrance to you Ana?"

"No actually he is really good at his job. Well for the couple of days he has been my muscle anyway. Now, what did you do to Jen and the contract?"

"I played the recording of her confession to her future father-in-law and he may have cancelled Marla's yacht too?"

"Ouch, she had her eye on a very nice wooden one, an old one that a famous actor once owned. Jen will soon move on to the next guy, but Marla has had it being a plaything for a rich man."

"Why if she is so good did you not employ her, Jennifer I mean not Marla?"

"I asked and she turned me down. I think I maybe too bossy for her. Besides I didn't pay what the princes she has worked for pay her."

"Ethan must cost you a fortune? Then there is his sister Kate too?"

"He is my accountant so he does it as part of his fee and Kate? Kate is annoyingly good at her job and worth the money she earns. Papa trusted their father and I in turn trust the twins. I have too I have a lot of money in lots of pots."

"I guess you do."

"And at the moment it is leaking out of my account like seawater leaks from the rock pools at the turn of the tide. A lot and slowly. Thankfully the pot is far from empty."

"If you need a hand?"

"I am fine. I have differing businesses all of whom have their own department and then I have Ethan and Kate who are my overseers and people I trust helping me, thank you for offering, I trust you too." I get a feeling this is leading to some serious talks between us.

"We veered off topic there, sleeping arrangements?" I say to get back to the pleasurable talks!

"Where am I stopping, or rather where would you like me to stop?"Her foot is shoeless and is stroking my leg under the table. I move it to cover my aching bulge. "Okay, I guess you want me with you?"

"Yes..."Her foot twists into my groin and I swear I nearly blew my load as she uses her feet like she does her hand. Fuck me she is talented with her feet. "Ana, I think you are going to have to stop." We are interrupted.

"Sir Sawyer and I have to revisit our schedule, will you and Miss Lambert be okay if we stop in the office?"

"No, we will be fine. Thanks Taylor and you too Sawyer." They pass and Ana bites her lip, I help her feet, which are trying to lower my zipper and as she stares she plays. My god does she play.

"Are there cameras in here?" I look up.

"No, why?"She unbuckles herself and slips to the floor and is at my knees, her chin of all things is massaging my cock. Okay I see where this is going. I also think I will like it, and Ana being the Submissive. "Ana..."

"Christian..." She frees me from the constraints of my underwear, briefs as it goes, and begins kissing and tenderly lapping the crown. I watch her and groan as she starts to give me head. She licks the soft ridge that runs the entire length of the underside, she looks up and smiles. I am literally pushing down my trousers to allow her more or easier access to it all. I am rewarded as she grips my shaft in one hand and plays with my sack in the other, she uses my happy balls like stress relievers and massages them. Then her mouth takes me in inch by inch. She grips her hand around the lower part of my shaft and jiggles my balls and then stops. She kisses crown with wet kisses and her tongue runs the ridge and I stop myself from making her do it again.

"Ana..." I say after she repeats these actions over and over, she gives me head then plays and it's not rushed. I am about to ask for her to take me deeper when her hand grabs the bag she had the pills in and rummages, multi-tasking as she plays and searches, she looks up and I see why she is smiling. She has a cock ring in her hand.

"A new line at the club. I need a willing volunteer and you look willing." I give a grin and she places it over my balls and the vibrating unit she places underneath, stretching another ring over my cock, which is now trust up and my erection looks mighty fine, I await the more... She kisses the end one more time and puts me away! What the fuck?

"Is playtime over Baby?" I say as she grins.

"No..." Oh fuck, when did I suddenly become her submissive?

She gets up and goes for another drink for each of us and as she gets to the bar she smiles and I suddenly feel the vibration on the bullet and the ring as they start to gently pulse. Okay this I like. I have not used one of these willingly in years, and then it was used in a harsh way, the rubber bit into my sack and my cock went a mad shade of blue, Elena and her no safe word session nearly cost me my dick and I was sore for a week. As she passes me my drink she kisses me. Sits down and watches as she reads a magazine and sips her drink. I sip my whiskey and groan as she plays with the speed and the intestacy settings. I am almost there and she stops reading, switches up the intensity, then takes a sip of her drink. Smiles and tortures me for what seems like forever.

"Ana I have never begged for release, not in fucking years but hell I need to come..." She smiles and turns it to a new setting and I groan as it pleasures me.

"Christian, go to your room, strip off and lie face up on your bed and do not touch yourself." She stops the vibrations and I get my hornie dick and balls into my fucking cabin. I do as she asks and I strip; I place my clothes in a pile and my shoes at the side. I guess that is something I must have remembered I had to do? I lie in the bed and my cock is straining and the head is a glorious shade of purple. She is taking her sweet fucking time. I am about to get up when the door opens; fuck me, I have just become Christian the willing submissive...

Wild ride and watches.

I wait ten minutes and then take out my special underwear bag from my carry on Luke placed under the table. I hope he never searches through my bags, as I always seen to have samples and freebies in it. Much to my horror at many bag searches in airports! I head to the shared bathroom to change. After I primp my hair and grab the tingle gel from my pack I take my bag and head to see if he had stopped where I told him too. I also pray to god Taylor and Sawyer stop in their office. I open the door and he looks magnificent, his cock is ready for me and I am ready for him... I step through the door and I drop my bag, and watch from the end of his bed as the ring is turned on again. He groans and closes his eyes. I watch and I play, not once have I touched him and he glistens for me, I stop and start the rings, then vary the settings and watch. I find myself tweaking my already hardened nipples and groan as I see him buck. I turn it to a slow and heady pulse and I see the pre come drops ooze out of his slit. His bulbous end looks amazing and ready for me.

"Ana I need to fucking come..."

"All in good time."

I crawl up his body, and as I do I lick and kiss my way to my goal. I straddle him and watch as he calms and he calls me a witch as I touch his chest and I suckle on his nipple, they are taught and as I suckle, his cock bounces. I treat the other with the same reverence and again his cock demands attention. I turn and put my finger in the rubber around his balls, lift it slightly and let go, it slaps his sack and he growls. I turn on the vibration and he loses it, so I flick the one around his dick as he is about to get up when his dick stands tight and tall suddenly I know he is mere moments from coming, so I impale myself on it, seductively of course! My crotch less leather panties were made for just this happening.

"Ana, bounce on my dick." I turn the rings on full vibrate and as I do he sits up and holds me. I am no longer in control, he is. I am then turned and I am now below him and my legs are spread wide. He thrusts hard and fast and I turn the bullet on and as he gets multiple electronic pulses to his cock and balls he is raised off me to try to stop himself. I turn it off and as I do he slams into me, grabs my breasts and as he thrusts he twists them, he and I are groping and grabbing and slapping kissing and things are getting heated.

"I. AM. COMING. ANA..." And so am I Christian... As he says it he thrusts balls deep inside me and holds me as my orgasmic crash seems to make me light headed and cry out for more. "What the fuck was that?"

"I believe they call that foreplay Mr Grey."

"God almighty, Ana what was the toy?"

"Oh the Penile Pulsator and the Ring of Doom. It was good then?"

"And then some..." He slides to my side and I feel exhilarated and breathless. I take off the rings and he then holds me to his naked body. We are sweaty and a mess. "I missed you Ana." Wow... Okay...

"As in missed me or sex?"

"No, I missed you. The sex too, but you and Christian are all that has been on my mind."

"I missed you too. I got you a gift too, to remember Christian your son, and a thank you for not loathing me like I deserve."

"I don't hate you Ana. I never have." I kiss his lips and we make out, we make love and we make love for an age too. I get out of the shower and change for dinner. Christian goes to get his shower and as he does I leave the red box on the bed. I go and see what I have to work with in the kitchen. I reheat the dishes brought in for the flight and go and ask what the guys want. They are sleeping and the plane seems a very quiet place. I grab some wine from his very impressive stash and two glasses and await his arrival at the table. He isn't too long and when he comes out he has the box in one hand and the watch in the other.

"Ana...?" He looks puzzled.

"Yes?"

"What is this? I mean I know it is a watch, well it's a very good very expensive very nice watch."

"So you know it's a watch good I would hate to have had to teach you the time, but on that one, I think I would need lessons, do you like it?"

"I do, very much, but..."

"...I told you I would buy you things."

"What does it say; my Italian is not too good?"

"It's a good job mine is eccellente, it says... I am the father of an angel..."

"Oh god Ana, you really are an amazing person, thank you thank you for this I will treasure it always."

"I am glad you like it, it's kind of unusual and very confusing, and a little like me I guess?"

"It is beautiful like you." He places it on and as we wait for dinner I sit in his lap... I am mad about Mr Grey, again...

* * *

So it seems they can work together and swap and change their dom/sub stances. Read and review and please tell me what you think... Please!


	17. Chapter 17

This is my story just using the lifestyle of some of fifty shades and the characters.

It is a HEA, but there are bumps in the road getting there.

So, enjoy the longer than first anticipated story and relax there is no cheating either.

* * *

Dreaming of Chocolate and Grey:

Chapter 17:

Dinner, drinks and damage control.

I have always wondered what this would feel like, and it's not as bad as I thought this being cuddled by a woman thing. As Ana sits on my lap I have no desire to make her leave. Instead she sits, and we talk and as we do we cuddle. It seems I can do this more thing.

"You do realise this is not the norm Ana." I say as she kisses my neck.

"I guess it isn't, do you want me to sit over there?"

"No, actually I don't. What are you doing to me Ana? You are changing me and it's confusing me greatly."

"Changing you. How? I haven't done anything."

"Well I would say you have started the changing process. You have, I mean you are making me feel something, something that I am not sure I want to feel."

"Okay, if you say so, but explain how can I make you do anything you do not already want to do? How could I, you have your own brain, it's not fused to mine because of our son you know?"

"It's because of him Ana, it's because of him I am changing and that's all down to you."

"No, you are changing because your priorities have changed, not because of me, well not directly so. Listen I will get the dinner ready, to me this is beginning to sound a lot like you have just had the biggest case of 'what the fuck did I just do' and if you have then it's fine, let me know when you decide what you want Christian." She walks towards the small galley kitchen and I watch her as she sets about making our dinner. She looks over and looks as confused as I feel. Why does she think this is easy for me, does she not realise I have never done the things I am doing with her? Sex in my plane, after sex cuddles, on the lap cuddles, even fucking talking to her and enjoying it is all new to me. Yet, I want what we had again and I'm confusing myself, so I bet I'm confusing the fuck out of Ana? She brings the wine and the glasses through. Sets them and the cutlery down and hands me table mats.

"Are you able to set a dining table?"

"Yes..."

"Good then set it, please?" She walked off and banged a few of the cupboards. I set the table and smiled, of course I can set the damned table. What does she think I am a moron? I best not ask her that because she will probably say yes and throw my dinner at me. I watch her come back and she places the dinner before me. She sits and I pour her a glass of wine. The silence is deafening. The hum of the plane is all I can hear.

"Ana, I'm sorry." I say as she pushes the mac and cheese around the plate. "I am not used to this."

"And I am? I mean yes I am used to being hurt. What is it you're not used to, or is this because you're not totally in control, giving into my wants is not something you relish doing again, right?"

"Wrong, actually..." I eat and indicate she is to eat too, with my finger and fork. "I was wondering why it is I enjoyed it as much as I did, okay? That is why I am being as I am, because I liked giving you the control. I liked switching it around, and that's what is confusing okay? For years I have distanced myself from this, from these feelings and now, now I am wondering why I have? I see you and I feel differently when I do."

"O, k, a, y... I guess it is different, but it's just the same or me, you are the only person I have had sex with, and I have ever finished up in bed with. I do not count Jack before you say anything about that monster. I never thought in a million years we'd be doing this again, I thought if I'm honest after the night in my home, you'd do a runner and not bother with me again."

"I know, the thought did cross my mind, until I spent time with our son, I hoped for more clarity than I got, that said, I want to say this first and get it out there, but wait a moment before you fly off the handle okay?" She nods. "I wonder if it is because I feel guilty over Christian and this is, this is going to sound fucking awful, I'm wondering if my feeling guilty is the only reason I am giving you something you want, am I just doing this out of guilt?"

"Guilt? You said that a lot, so you fucked me to make me feel better? Well I guess you are fucked up."

"Ana, I said let me explain and now I have I feel like a shit. No, I mean has my feeling guilty opened me up to something better, I have been an emotionless bastard for years, and never had any feelings of remorse, and now I do, and guilt is an emotion right, and you are opening me up to feeling these things, whether it is guilt, happiness or the dreaded love thing."

"The dreaded love thing? Are you feeling love Christian?" She smiles.

"I love our son."

"Lucky Christian, and..."

"... and it makes me wonder what else is out there for me?"

"Well, I guess there is everything out there for you. I don't think I want to eat right now. I'm going to do some work, in the office at the back. Alone."

"Ana, what the fuck did I say now?" She looks hurt, even I can see that.

"Good luck in finding this something with someone else out there. There is a lot of world out there; there are lots of women out there, so good luck in finding it out there..." She gets up and leaves, what the fuck?

"Ana, I didn't mean I wanted to look for it with someone else, so sit down and shut up and listen." Wow that sounded like a command, a command that she is going to shove up my butt. She sits and looks shocked. I guess I did shout? "I didn't say I was willing to try this emotion thing with anyone else, I just said I wondered what else was out there for me to discover. My mother is happy I have hugged her, that's new, I have talked to Elliot and asked his opinion on these emotions, that's new. Sleeping with you, and I mean sleeping not having sex with you, that is new, this is fucking new even just fucking talking to you okay Ana, all this is new to me, and it's crazy and it fucking scaring the crap out of me. But I am also afraid that this love I feel is just because of the baby, a guilty love Ana? Am I wrong in loving my son? A son who I have never met? Who has done nothing for me? Who I never held? Who I never spoke to? How and why is it he can make me feel these things? Yet the loving mother and family who I had all those things with, I never showed them any fucking real emotion nor any love? I didn't show them fucking anything Ana I never showed them anything, I was a bastard, all they got was my woe is me thing, my hatred and my bad behaviour and I feel shit about it Ana, that a tiny baby has made me feel things that they never have?"

"First of all stop swearing, it's not clever and it's not nice. Secondly; I am glad you are confused, that these emotions are confusing you, because it's the first step towards being a better you, I'd say normal, but I hate the word normal, nobody is normal and we are far from it. Third thing; the baby didn't make you feel these things Christian, you had these feelings all the time, it's just that they were wrapped in that bubble wrapped heart of yours, do you remember my wanting to pop them like a frustration tool slowly and one by one, each pop leading to another and another? Perhaps the baby was the key to starting the popping of the bubble wrap? Perhaps it's me and I am using witchcraft to entice you into the light. Fourth; this is what discovering you are worthy of something feels like, and finally the fifth reason, after years of being misled and misinformed you are doing something for yourself, you are thinking about things for yourself and finally you are not asking the wrong people advise, people who like you, they too relish their life spent in an emotionless void? I am not saying I am the right person to ask about all lies troubles and woes, but I am the only person you know that feels the same things about Christian as you do. I loved my son and I love his father. That love nearly killed me Christian."

Wow she is off on her crusade, she'd do this on the island and it fucking grated on my nerves, and until now I never realised she was helping me, the tall tales about the monsters in the caves, the little people in the sand dunes, her farfetched fairy stories were her way off helping me to open up, it was her way of showing me she cared, only I was just too dumb to realise it. I knew she'd heard my nightmares and the next day I'd find myself moody and hiding out, and she would find me and try to talk her childish way and had I listened to her properly, even as a kid she helped me, or tried, had I allowed her in, then I would perhaps have not needed Elena?

"I coped with my loss and subsequent self harming thoughts, because I have been showered with love and affection all my fucking life, I knew I'd be leaving a gaping hole in their lives. You, you Christian had a bad start with a mother who you think hated you and abandoned you, and you have allowed that bad start to affect you more than it needed too, you couldn't let them in to help you cope in case they too left you. It should have been easy for you to let them in you were a small boy, unfortunately one who saw things no child ever should!" She sees into my soul and whatever witchcraft she is using is making me uncomfortable, only John Flynn has got this close to hitting the nail on the head, so what fucking secrets did I spill when we fucked and made our son? I must have told her things I haven't told anyone else too, so I do what I do best and shut down and shout, again.

"That is easy for you Ana, you didn't see your mother die, your family only cast her out, your father died and that was bad, but you never knew him. I watched as she did those bad things and took drugs, I was the one she forgot to feed, to clean and to love. Then I'm taken from abject poverty and fly straight into a wealth that was frightening, especially to a small boy who was afraid of getting used to it, because what if they took it away what if they left me what if they did drugs and died because of me? I had a lot of responsibility on my shoulders making sure they didn't do bad things and then leave me."

"Easy for me to say I hear you say? I know right, look at the love I had? I hear the cogs turning and trying to shut me down, but you could have had that, but you were and still are afraid, and being afraid has become a bad habit to break, it's not an impossible habit to rid yourself of, if you let the people who truly love you in, even the phsyco stalker who bedded you and chased you, she can help and I mean me Christian, not the letch you call your friend Elena. You learned to be an emotionless drone from her. I fucking hate what that paedophile did to you." She sobs."Christian, have you ever told your parents this, your therapist?"

"Fuck no."

"Why not you moron, your parents took you, loved you and adopted you to give you that much needed fresh start, they were there to help you and are good and kind people, I guess your most formative years, from zero to when? When Mia came to live with you, I guess in your young and caring brain, even then you were focused on keeping Grace becoming a drug taking crack whore and your Carrick becoming what, her pimp?" I laugh. That is one theory nobody has passed by me yet, but I did worry when Grace took pills and Carrick would shout, not at me at clients and on the phone. Fuck, she is inside my head and I am afraid where else this woman is heading...

"Okay, I guess you are right, I did and still do over think things, it's how my brain works, it's how I am, I am able to recognise the good and bad in business and it is how I have made my billions, seeing what others cannot. Ana how do you see these things?"

"Umm, it's witchcraft, I guess? So I am going to do some work, I have recipe ideas I need to jot down and things to ponder over." She picks up the dishes.

"You swore a lot too but thank you Ana. Can I ask an expert in love to explain to me then why love is strange, and can you fall in love with an idea?"

"I did? Well fuck me it felt good, now love, love explained? I guess you really mean why you love our son? So tell me how do you know you love him?"

"I don't know I just do?"

"Why, why do you love Christian?"

"Ana, I don't know..."

"Yes you do, yes you do, so tell me Christian why do you love a dead child and yet you are afraid to love me or anyone else?"

"Because, because, because..."

"...Because he is dead Christian and he can't hurt you... That's why... He cannot hurt you anymore than he already has done."

"Ana, what if I open up and get hurt."

"Well that's the first of many questions you will start to ask yourself and others, what happens if? Why and what if's are such fucking hateful words, because unless you are all-seeing and all-knowing, then you may never understand why and even the best of the best have not been able to help me and believe me a catholic bishop, who I plied with my Lust chocolates, even he tried to help me and I didn't like what he said and so I marched my backside right out of confession."

"You asked a Bishop to help?"

"I did, Nonno and Nonna have all my businesses blessed, well the bakeries at least, and because I doubt the Bishop would be pleased blessing Satin and Steel." I had to agree "Now if a man of god and supposedly all knowledgeable in why things happen in this universe and he supposedly has gods ear, about all this heaven and hell stuff, now if he couldn't help me to understand my loss and suffering, then unless Christian you are a more than just a sex god, and you have this amazing omnipresence thing all gods and deities have, and I hate to break it to you, you will have to wing it like the rest of us mere mortals and accept that you can't see into the future or around corners, you have to trust in your own abilities!"

"Then you see my dilemma don't you, I don't and cannot trust in something I do not understand. Are you all-seeing Ana, do you see danger out there and avoid it?"

"Paff, I wish, all I know is what I went through and it's taken me over seven years to come this far. Christian, it's been mere days, so of course you are confused. You are confused because you don't know why you love our son, a son you never knew about, never held and never met, so let's face it, all you have seen is the place where he now sleeps. Yes you have these emotions, these feelings, this love suddenly chasing away the dark crap in your life, if you were as hard as you say, you'd have never have spoken to me, or sort me out at the club. Instead you sought me out and asked me about him. Had you been a heartless bastard, you'd have flown back to Seattle, but you didn't Christian so why, why did you want to know about him, your child?"

"He was hardly here at all Ana, you have more to miss because he was alive inside you. You had something to miss and to grieve over, so how can I love something I never had?"

"That's just it Christian, you love him because he was yours. However there is also the guilty love you feel you feel ashamed of not being there too, you feel things for me and I am not sure if that's love or more like you feel sorry for me and think that this is what I want?"

"I don't know Ana, I don't know what this is I'm feeling. I don't know that this fuck buddy thing will work?" As soon as I said that her face was filled with sadness and hurt. Fuck. She stands with the dinner dishes and heads to the galley.

"Think about me and you for a minute, do you want me for me, or do you want me so's you can feel better about our child and be there for the grieving mother? You see if I had the all seeing eye, I would have signed the paperwork somewhere else and not met you again, just so I didn't throw myself at you again, just to get hurt. So perhaps it was meant to be like this, and this is nothing more than a final hurrah for you to see what you missed out on whilst you were drunk, but to me it means a hell of a lot more Christian, I love you and I always will, that's the top and the bottom of it, the long and the short is I know what I want and I always have, and if I have to go back to being Hard Ana, I can do that too, so when you figure out what you want, then come find me, if not don't worry I coped before I can do it again?" She disappears and I sit and fucking think about the impossible, am I falling for a woman? Can I actually give her the more she wants am I able to do that love her like she wants to be loved. Fuck I am so screwed.

Next stop Seattle...

I clear away the dinner plates and grab my laptop bag. Christian has disappeared when I get back and for one minute I had a hope that he parachuted out over the Atlantic. For a minute anyhow. I go and sit in his office area and take out my lap top and my rough journal. I work on the new line of cocktail chocolates. I decide to go old school chocolate liqueurs with some of them. My Brandy Alexander, it started out as a liqueurs and ended up as a mousse, layers of light chocolate flavoured with Liqueur Fogg, which is a very nice Brazilian chocolate flavoured liqueur, then a vanilla bean and nutmeg crème infusion layer, a line of rich brand flavoured chocolate and continue the layering to the top. I stop writing and chewing my pen. How easy would it be to forget about him and just run my shops and the clubs?

I doodle in the margin of the book and it's a lotus flower, The ancient Egyptian flower that means re birth and new beginnings. I didn't realise I was crying too, not until Taylor gave me a tissue.

"Sorry, did I wake you Taylor?"

"No Ma'am. Are you alright?"

"Yeah, I'm fine; I have more chocolates to reinvent. I figured I'd do it whilst we were quiet."

"Have you seen where Mr Grey went?"

"He was there one minute and gone the next, I guess he is somewhere on the plane?"

"He will be flying it if I know him."

"He can fly?"

"Yes very well and not just his jets but his helicopter."

"Oh that's interesting to know."

"Do you fly Miss Lambert?"

"No, no I drive and I can sail. I drive people up the wall and fly off the handle. He has a lot on his shoulders Taylor, is he always so, so...? Hard on himself?"

"He is and he always sees the worst before he sees the good."

"I have gathered that, was he a mess at the grave?"

"I have never seen him cry, ever. That was an emotional trip for him to take. I am sorry for your loss Miss Lambert."

"Thanks Taylor, I am trying to help him come to terms with it. I gather Sawyer knows all about our son?"

"Yes Ma'am it was in your file. Sorry..."

"...Hey I have one on Christian, why would he not have one on me?"

"He has but he didn't read it all though."

"Who Sawyer?"

"No, Mr Grey. He put it down and said he'd prefer for you to tell him about the things in it."

"Okay, so you best go find him before he ditches us in the Atlantic. How long before we land?"

"We should land in seven hours Ma'am, at midnight Seattle time? It's not too long a transfer time from Sea-Tac to Escala."

"Okay, I think I will get my head down for a while, it's been a taxing journey. How is Nadine?"

"Sleeping. Sawyer is keeping an eye open. I will tell Mr Grey you are sleeping." I smile, tell him all you want, I say but do not say. I put away my things and go and feel sorry for myself. I take of my clothes and get in bed. I hug the pillow that smells of him and sob into it. Why do I do this time and again? I thought after our earlier encounter we were a let looking at the same song sheet? No, he is looking at singing a mournful tune and I was doing the damned calypso... I toss and turn for an age and then I wake with a start. The figure on the bed is watching me.

"How long have you been here Christian?"

"Ages, I have been watching you sleep."

"Okay, so we can add voyeur to your curriculum vitae then?" He smiles. "Why are you watching me Christian, its nearly as freaky as me stalking you."

"I have something to ask."

"Okay as long as it's not about feelings and you know like life and death and stuff I hardly understand myself, then shoot..."

"Our being fuck buddies..."

"Not my best idea. What of it?"

"How about we call it quits?" Okay that I wasn't expecting.

"As I said I was fine without you before I will..." He sits closer.

"...I want more than the occasional fuck Ana." He wants more what? I need this spelling out he's a mercurial man at the best of times. "I want to try to have a relationship with you. I want to know why you seem to have been getting under my fucking skin since you were two years old Ana and are still doing it years later."

"You want to date me?"

"If that's what having a relationship is all about Ana, so yes I want to date you."

"You actually want to date me as in go out as a couple?"

"As in just that, girlfriend/boyfriend date."

"Why, why do you want to date me Christian?"

"You have bewitched me Ana and it feels for the first time in my life I can let go of some of this anger inside me, this self loathing and this sheer terror I feel. You seem to be able to see good in me and I want you to make me a better person."

"That's a tall order for a mere mortal like me."

"You are anything but a mere mortal, you are Super Woman, Wonder Woman and Fucking Spiderman all rolled into a beautiful clever woman." I have a Super Woman costume at home too, I giggle.

"I thought you were going to call this thing off, not escalating it."

"It will take some working at, time and space are not going to bend to our will, and we will have to compromise in many areas of our life Ana."

"My work, clubs and book tours and television work you mean?" I say, I knew something would have to give and I know I juggle too many balls. I just need to delegate a little more I guess? This will be a test in itself. They are all my babies...

"I too have work that needs fifty hours in one day all the time."

"So, we are a couple?" I say. I have to stop myself bouncing on the bed.

"If you want to try, then yes. Slow and steady though, I mean slower than the pace we are setting now..."

"Slow and steady... I can do that, what's another seven years?" I say with a sigh.

"It's well over seven Ana..." He corrects me and I smile.

"The well past the seven year itch then and it needs itching..."He leans over and kisses me. I think I'm crying, but as we get lost in the kisses, I don't care...

We hear a knock on the door as we are dressing... We certainly sealed the girlfriend/boyfriend thing and we made love, we didn't rush and cuss and fuck hard, we enjoyed the closeness and it was indeed amazing. As I step out, Nadine is in a chair.

"How are you feeling Nadine?"

"Rested, well rested thank you Miss Lambert. Taylor has said my sister is meeting us and that you and Mr Grey have seen to the arrangements for my grandmother. Thank you, we have money my grandmother was rich; it's why my mother was back. I can't thank you enough though it was a nice thing you did for me, both of you thank you Sir, thank you. I think I will spend a few weeks with my sister like Taylor advised. If that is okay Mr Grey, Sir?"

"Of course, tell Stephan when you wish to be put back on the rota, until then we will continue to pay you and see to it your benefits continue, should you decide not to return then let Taylor or I know."

"I will, I guess the old time will tell thing is in play? Sir Ma'am, we are coming into land, you may want to strap yourself in?" I sit across from Christian and grin like a freak show carnival clown. He holds my hand and we stare at each other, blue to grey and back again. My heart is finally doing happy back flips and I am the homecoming queen and the centre of his universe, I look out of the window and see a pig flying... Because yes, it's going to be so simple being with Christian and like that imaginary pig flying, it's up in the air and not real, or at least it doesn't feel real, I guess time will tell? The wheels are down and I breathe a sigh of relief.

When we get onto the tarmac there are three cars waiting, all Audi's and black. We are ushered into the first Sawyer and Taylor load the bags and Nadine gets into the second car, the third follows us.

"Extra security, I am known here more than anywhere, Ryan and Reynolds are in the rear car. Ana it will be fine."

"I guess it will be if you say so. I need to call Holly it's not too far for her to head here if she can?"

"Call her in the morning; we need some rest before tomorrow Ana, now it's happening I feel nervous."

"What time are we expected?" I ask, " and I wouldn't worry about it, your parents love you."

"Anytime, but I said we needed some time to settle in before we head to my parents home for dinner and I know they love me, but it's not every day you tell the two people who saved you that their friend was the one who turned me into a monster..."

"You say monster, however I say a boy who lost his way at the hands of a vile woman, she was the monster not you, you are changing Christian, changing for the better."

"Keep that faith you have in me Ana, please keep the faith."

"I will, now Escala, do I have my own room?"

"Do you want your own room Baby?"

"I could be all demure and or coy, and say yes, but we both know I'd like to stay with you. I need to test the bed in the bedroom that gave birth to mine. I swear I will not be using Miss Gia again."

"My bedroom is yours, Gail has done us some supper, and then perhaps we can eat and then retire?"

"I did only push the food around my plate, when were having the talk. Where did you disappear to?"

"I went to take the second seat from Bagley, I often pop in and relieve either her or Stephan."

"Taylor mentioned you like to fly. Boys and their toys. I like simple pleasures."

"I do like to fly. I learned to fly in a glider first, then moved on to helicopters and then last year I got my pilots licence, so what are your simple pleasures?"

"My yacht; she is my Sunday morning treat, well she would be in an ideal world, but since getting her she has been used by the Ozzie bunch more than me. She is a only a small forty foot Mangusta yacht, but she like the Bentley caught my eye and the card came out. I tend to do that when I am upset, buy expensive toys."

"Well what's the use in having money if you can't indulge yourself?"

"If that's all it was, I tend to make these purchase when you know important dates come around. I bought the Bentley for our sons last birthday. Last year it was a large amount of first edition children's books, then I bought the yacht for his fifth birthday, for his fourth I got a Bugatti, his third birthday was the most expensive, and that was when I bought an island of Bora-Bora. His second birthday, I rescued a lion from a dead zoo and he is living life to the max in Kruger Park. The first year I got myself a watch." I finger the watch and smile. "So I do spend money once a year usually in August and stupidly."

"Wow, you bought a lion?"

"Yeah, I bought Christian a real Christian Lion... He's cute actually."

"You have been to see him, in Africa?"

"No, we Skype. I haven't got the time to go to Africa, and I didn't want to put him in another zoo, but I get updates on his progress. I've yet to see Bora-Bora, Uncle Marco uses that, he said it's nice. The yacht the Ozzie's have and the Bugatti, he's in Cali... If you're good I will let you drive."

"We're here Baby. Welcome to my home." I look up and see the imposing skyscraper of a building. "What do you think?"

"It's tall. Which one is yours?"

"I own the building, I lease out apartments. I have the top three floors and live in the penthouse on the top."

"Okay then, it's very, very big, especially for one."

"I like my space." We head up towards the penthouse and he has to enter a code. I am stood at his side wondering what the hell are we doing. We both look like we are waiting outside the headmaster's voice waiting to be expelled. That's how off the scale the tension is. The doors open.

"Sawyer, can you put the bags in my room please?" Both Taylor and Sawyer look at him like he has grown a horn in his head. Something Christian notices too. "I don't say please and thank you to anyone, other than this lady here, Mrs Jones. Gail meet Ana, Ana meet Gail Jones, my housekeeper here at Escala. Gail this is Ana my girlfriend..." He said it aloud and I swear I am stood in a puddle where his ice cold heart had just melted away. Either that or he has made me come? Stop being crude Ana, I chastise myself and reach for the hand Gail offers me.

"I am pleased to meet you; you and your food are all that Sawyer has talked about."

"Thank you, and its really nice to see you too. Sir your food is warming, if you'd like to freshen up, it will be ready when you are?"

"Thanks Mrs Jones, we will be out shortly." He leads me to a room that I presume is his. As he opens the door I laugh aloud.

"Yup we have twin rooms indeed." I laugh as he scoops me up in his arms and kisses me.

"Let's test the bed girlfriend..."

"Oh, okay..."

"Ana?"

"I'm sorry, I wait years to hear you call me that and within two minutes you have said it again."

"You are so why deny it? Besides, I like using that term of endearment with you, Baby."

"Baby is the term of endearment, girlfriend is a status, I mean you really did mean it and you are willing to try this?"

"You bet your ass I am. Now, we need a shower and to change. I figure we can get to know my bed later. Besides did you smell that food?" He asks as he pulls me from the bed.

"I did and I am hurt you want food and not my body..." I fake pout and he slaps my backside. "Ouch, no bruising the buttocks..."

"I have creams or that..." He says with a twinkle in the pale grey of his eyes, why do they vary in intensity? I am fascinated seeing them change too?

"Well we can rub in some creams after we shower. Can I borrow some of your sweats?"

"Yeah, help yourself, but your bags Mrs Hogan packed are here, see?" I look and they are. We shower together, we kiss and cuddle under the water and as he holds me he stares and smiles.

"What? Do I have something on my face? Christian, what's the matter?"

"I'm in my shower with a girl..." Give the man a soap on a rope...?

"And... I hardly doubt I am the first girl you have showered with?" I get a pang of instant jealousy as I say it too.

"Actually you are, in here anyway! You are the only girl to actually come in here with an invite. You are the only girl to sleep with me in that bed and the only woman I want in that bed."

"Your subs, where do they sleep?" He turns off the shower heads and helps me out of the shower, great no shower sex. Dumb move Ana mentioning the others.

"Did they sleep?" I nod my head as he corrects me. "They had their own room at the top of the steps, along the corridor from my playroom." He hands me a towel.

"... You have a room here?" Interesting, or not... Confusion and fear hit me at once; he has been with women here, in a playroom, doing those things, with them... I breathe deeply and run my mantra again and again, I need to calm the hell down, for god's sake Ana, he was not a virgin when you seduced him, he is a good looking man, with needs and they met those needs, I am both Yin and Yang today. God my head hurts and my soul will not cry, and instead it will stop wishing for things to be different, there is no changing the past, the future is what we choose to make it, and the past is just the past. Wise words Uncle Marco; I guess I am riding my own magic unicorn now, I need to be fabulous and understanding and there for him tomorrow, I mean later. I stable the unicorn and dry off.

"Ana I had a past, I thought you of all people would understand this?"

"I do, I don't have to like it, but I understand, I also wonder why clubs were not enough or you and why the need to have them in your actual home?"

"I did it because it was better for me to have my needs met here. The more money I made the more of a target I seemed to become. Some clubs are ultra strict others not so." He is so calm and cool; whilst I am in knots and I guess that's because I know the lifestyle and know what submissives have to do, so I know only too well what they would have done for him, to please him, to be with him. I mean look what I did...

"How many girls have slept here, and been here with you?"I stupidly ask.

"Fifteen..." He says like it's just a number, a high number given he has only lived there for seven perhaps eight damned years, that's like saying he has had fifteen girlfriends, whilst I only had the failed plot to bed me with Jack, I want to be sick thinking about him, but the girls who have been here before me now hang around in my head like a bad smell.

"Oh, I was expecting less, considering you are monogamous?"

"Some lasted a couple of weeks others longer and I am monogamous Baby. Ana this is clearly upsetting you, come lets go and eat."

"I'm sorry I guess I am tired and worried. If you think telling Grace and Carrick about Elena is going to be bad, my grandparents are going to be like a herd of charging rhino's."

"We are going to fine, right though?" He asks.

"I guess time will tell. Now dinner..." We dressed in loungewear, dressed for comfort is the best way to relax. Christian holds my hand and leads me to the breakfast bar.

"Mrs Jones it smells wonderful, is it ready?"

"Yes Sir, the bread is warming in the oven. I will get it out."

"No, thank you Gail, go to your apartment I am sure Ana and I can cope. It's late goodnight and again thank you Gail."

"Sir." She nods her head and escapes.

"Do you want me to serve the food?" I ask.

"No sit and let me serve you Ana. I can do simple tasks, like feed my girlfriend."

"Say that again, Please?"

"Does my girlfriend need more reassurance that I meant it?"

"Yes and no, it's just I have waited so long and now it's like you are taunting me with the title."

"Okay, that was an odd thing to say. Why am I taunting you girlfriend?"

"Okay, I guess I'm just so damned happy to hear it okay boyfriend?"

"Perfectly, now help yourself, Gail makes an amazing pasta dish it's her Spinach and ricotta Tripoline. The pasta always makes me think of octopus tentacles." I watch him as I see something of a child like quality about him; I guess he loves food and he smiles as he dishes it out, like it's a reward almost?

"Okay, I guess they do. I like making pasta this pasta too. This smells wonderful, and don't forget the bread it will burn otherwise."

"Aren't we domesticated Baby?"

"Yeah like two feral cats." He looks and laughs at me. "Do you entertain here?"

"No, I doubt that table has ever seen anyone but me sat at it."

"All this seems to be, to me anyway very stark and depressing, I mean it's beautiful, but there is no happiness here."

"Mia says that, and my mother. I guess you saying it means it is true. My home is like me humourless and is devoid of warmth?"

"Who helped you decorate?"

"Elena... I let her help me when I first moved here; back then she did a lot for me."

"Okay, I guess we know why there is no heart here, because the wicked witch took it all away. It's a beautiful space crying out for colour, not gaudy masses of colour, just splashes here and there, the edges need softening, like my man."

"Your man? Your man wants you to eat, please?" I eat and I have to admit it, this is as good as Nonna's! He smiles as I break bread and we drink wine. We talk about everything and nothing, this is a strange thing for him, but he opens up and we talk really talk. We make plans to take a few days away for ourselves.

"Where would you like to go Ana?"

"It's hard to say I have been everywhere, well almost everywhere. I live in Europe, I work over here I have homes everywhere and I guess having a holiday never really appealed to me, I love to work and that's what I did. Even when I first started my business, I'd run home and I'd work in the bakery. When Papa died, my nonni, my grandparents they used to go to Italy and I'd drive there and spend time with them. We'd bake eat drink and be a family. For a week and then I'd have to get back."

"Would you trust me to arrange a trip?"

"When? I have the concert and a crap load of legal paperwork to sign, I get daddies fortune and I am dreading it."

"Why would you be dreading it?"

"I do not know how much I am getting. I know it's a lot but I don't get to see the black and white of it until the day I twenty five. It was the way Papa Frank wanted it. I know what my trust fund stands at, but my inheritance, that's a different matter. I guess it could be peanuts?"

"Okay, so you really don't know how much you are worth?" He asks.

"My grandparents say I am priceless..." I joke. "But no, no I don't know. I am wealthy in my own rights, I was given the properties my grandfather had and given my father's homes when I needed them, but the bulk of the money is invested with only the Kavanagh's seeing to its gains and losses. Either way I do not need it."

"So, can I arrange a holiday?"

"Yes, how about we fly out straight after the concert?" She says as I stare.

"I can do that."

"You do know holidays together usually mean make or break Christian?"

"They do? Well we best make it a great holiday then, now would you like dessert?"

"I'd love to see your playroom and eat you for dessert..."

"Ana..."

"Christian?"

"I thought we'd make love in my bed Ana."

"Okay, I just wanted to see the man behind the mask..." I clear the plates and load the dishwasher, much to his shock; apparently this is why he has staff? Paff, it's also why he can't make his own bed!

"My mask is off with you Ana, but if you really want to see it, then walk this way." I take his hand and he leads me to the steps, his hand is clammy.

"Relax Christian; this is not the first playroom/dungeon I have seen. I had to learn the ropes, if you excuse the pun and used a seasoned Dominatrix to teach me, she and Florence taught me well, I didn't want sex, but I still had to learn about the whips and the equipment, so between tournaments opening shops and generally wearing myself out, I'd go to Noir or to Kirby's place and she and Florence would teach me. I bought her clubs from her when she retired. I still keep the name Noir in the Paris!"

"You were taught by Kirby Black...?"

"Umm, I was and would you believe she likes my chocolates too?" He laughs.

"I have only met her once, she is a legend. Elena and her..."

"She doesn't suffer fools gladly, so I would think that was the reason. Kirby was disciplined and good, like Glenda the good witch. Elena was like the wicked witch."

"What is it with you and movie quotes?"

"It's ma thang... Now you have stalled long enough, open the damned door Christian..." He takes out the gold key and I bite my lip in anticipation... I hear the lock's release mechanism and he takes a deep breath and opens the door, I follow him in and the smell of leather and lemon are the first thing I notice.

"Ana..." He turns on the light and I step into the light. Wow...

"If I said you had no style out there, strike that, because this is beautiful."

"You like it?" Is he f-in kidding me this is beautiful?

"Yes, yes I do. Can I look around?"

"Mi casa tu casa Ana."

"I love your playroom. Its elegant and well organised." My hands wander the racks he has with his whips and canes on. "I don't much care for cane's I actually don't use them, I guess you do?"

"I do..."

"Unfortunately you will never use them on me. I had a bad experience with a client once and needless to say I upped security and checks. He attacked me in my own club with a Beech Bruiser and marked my back."

"Ana. I don't want to play in here with you; in fact this room is going. I have grown tired of it."

"Really? You can give it up?"

"I wasn't getting the thrill and the peace it gave me, the girls Elena sent were killing anything I ever liked about it. They were..."

"...What, you can tell me you know. I know very well you are who you are and what you were and I guess will always be a dominant. That need for power whether you want to admit it or not never leaves you. So, what did they do to make you doubt yourself?"

"That's it they didn't do anything, the need slowly became less and less. I used them when I was angry at a bad business deal, that was it, some weekends they only came out to cook for me."

"Cook for you?"

"Yes they would cook me food and service my needs. Often under that table in the dining area, I'd eat and they'd..."

"I get the picture, naked housekeeping and cooking no doubt?"

"Basically, but the last few wanted more, much more and I didn't have it in me to give them that thing and got rid of them. I guess I was changing way back last year when I got rid of a long term girl, she was falling or me and I didn't know until it was too late. She tried to slit her wrists when I sent her away for wanting more and that was the turning point for me. Seeing her in her room in the tub dying because I didn't want that with her."

"What, what did you do?"

"Taylor and Gail dressed her as I sat stupefied on her bed. My heartlessness nearly cost her, her life."

"I know that feeling; you are a very hard man to get over Christian."

"Ana, did you ever feel like that?" He was struggling with this conversation, that much even I could see, and for a man without a heart too...

"Yes, yes I did, but not just because of loving you, but because of the loss of the baby. I am not hard enough to leave my family to cope with the aftermath and so didn't. This life helped me to cope with the hate I felt and the anger. So the girl, what happened to her?"

"Leila, she went to rehab and counselling and the last I heard she was happy and married and is an upcoming artist. She and I have never spoken since I told her our arrangement was over."

"How many have you had since her?"

"Four, and they were the same young inexperienced and needy of my money and my life, I think Elena was purposely sending me them."

"So... I like this room, I love the detail and the beauty in here, don't get rid of it? Keep it..."

"You want me to keep it?"

"Yes, we can use it, but not tonight, tonight I want to make you feel loved. Perhaps another night you and I can explore this room together and I don't know make happier memories in here?"

"You are amazing Ana. I truly found you at the right time..." Oh my word... He walked towards me and scooped me up. I turned off the lights and closed the door. "I need to make love to you Ana..."

"Lead me to paradise then Mr Grey..." He and I sent the night in his bed and paradise was found. I love him and I am never going to get over him if he hates what we have started...

The Parental talk, in reverse...

Ana and I spent the night making love and I swear it makes me want to be a better man and worthy of her. I gave Gail and Taylor the weekend off, and they have disappeared. Sawyer is still here and is monitoring the apartment with Ryan and Reynolds. Ana and I finally slept after lunch. I woke to hear her singing in the shower, god that woman has the voice of a fucking angel. She is practicing the song she will sing and it defrosts my cold heart hearing her sing it. I walk naked to the shower and listen as she sings...

"Are you coming in, only we have to be at your parents within the hour, there is no putting this off Christian?"

"I know a voice of an angel woke me with her singing."

"How very rude of her. Do you want me to have words?"

"No, it was a nice way to wake, it could have been better had my girl been in bed with me..."

"Your girl aches in some wondrous places. Now, get in and woo me again, I see the woods on display again?"

"I blame you..."

"You blamed me for a lot of that last night, and this morning." I stepped into the shower and embraced her, she was eating away at my bubble wrapped heart and I actually am starting to feel differently for the first time in my sorry life.

"Ana, we can make this work..."

"I was thinking about that when I looked at your playroom, by the way it's too red... It needs to be lighter to mirror your changing heart. I am going to accept the very good offer to buy the clubs off me, from Florence."

"Sell Satin and Steel, are you sure?"

"Yes, they served their purpose and its one less headache, besides, why have a club when I have you?"

"You do, so where were we?"

"You were going to be relieved of your problem." I smiled as her hands touched my chest and she got to her knees, she and I rock this switching thing. It works for us... Oh god does it work, I stand against the showers wet wall and stare down as she takes me in her mouth, fuck she's good and gets better now she trusts me not to be rough and hurt her. Like that dick Hyde did.

"Ana, Baby... Yes..." She takes me deeper and I refrain from grabbing at her head. This is her hard limit. I brace against the shower walls as she gently sucks my cock. She looks up as I look down and she winks as suddenly she take me in fully, fuck me... "Ana, fuck Ana... Ana fuck, fuck, fuck..." I am so close when she stands and her hand then services my need to come... She pulls gently and twist my cock and I swear I see stars as I come and fuck do I come, I shake and as I do her lips take mine by surprise and she kisses me as she continues to milk every last drop from me... Wow...

"I love you Christian Grey..." I think I am getting there too Ana, I know she wants to hear me say those words but it's too soon, too soon to know if this is what I feel, love for her or remorse for the baby? I kiss her and we hug, she is against my chest and it feels tight. It hurts me in the nicest possible way. One day soon I think the words will be there...

We are dressed and headed to Mia Casa. I am literally feeling so sick that my head hurts. Ana and I are being driven here by Sawyer, who we have agreed we share custody of, when we are together. Holly is heading down to California in a week, apparently stunt shooting is dependent on the weather and Vancouver is known for the rain? I try to think of shit to avoid the conversations I am having in my head as I run through what if anything my parents are going to say.

When we get there I am damned angry to see Elena's white SUV in my parents drive... Fuck...

"Ana, that's Elena's car, she is here. My mother, she promised me she would cancel."

"Calm down, Christian calm down. Repeat after me... I am stronger today because of my past, I live for today and make it count, I hope for a better tomorrow because faith in ourselves is better than relying on others. We make our world better not others..."

"Ana does that work for you?"

"It stops me freaking out so I guess it does, now repeat..." I do three or four times and she kisses me as I finish panicking... "So, we go in there as what?"

"Yes if only to prove that we are better people than her, a couple in love..."

"Christian..."

"I guess the in love thing floored you?"

"You love me?"

"I think I do, I know I get comfort in ways I never have before for having you here."

"So, now I feel like we need to banish a witch from Oz..."

"Elena is in there, and Baby she is unfortunately not with your Uncle Ray..." I smile as we pull up.

"She hasn't shown them the photos or there would be more screaming and glass being broken. Come on my wonderful man; let's get this over with shall we?" We head in and I tell Luke to be ready for anything. As we head in we hear laughter in the main room. I take Ana's hand and she forgoes the hand and wraps hers around my waist. I smile and put my arm over her shoulder and pull her close. We enter and the room is hushed... It seems my mother has company...

"Mother..."

"Oh Christian, Ana, Christian and Ana have you you know, have you two made up and you know have you two..." She has had a little too much wine, great and I see the culprit with her beady eyes on Ana.

"...Yes Mom, Ana and I are a couple and we are happy to announce it to the world, and it seems to your book club? Mother did you forget we were coming to see you?"

"No, I told Elena I had to cancel, but it was too late the girls showed up and well the wine was drank. they were just leaving anyway. Girls meet Ana, the one who has tamed my son; she is the creator of the chocolates you are eating... Ana meet the girls..."

"Hello and I am pleased to meet Grace's friends. Christian and I can come back when you are through."

"Is Dad in his office?"

"Yes, he is he disappeared when the girls arrived, but book club is over and Elena was leaving."

"I can stay Grace, I'd love to meet the woman who has tamed your son and captured his heart. Hello, I am Elena Lincoln, pleased to meet you." She holds her hand out and Ana smiles and declines it, which my mother notices.

"I am sorry, I don't shake hands, I have issues with my insurance providers, they insist it's a no go thing. Even the president and the first lady had to make do with a head nod and a cheek kiss." She is good I will give her that. "As to stopping there is no need, we have just come for dinner."

"Name dropping Miss...?" she is pretending she does not know who Ana is?

"Lambert, Anastasia D'Acciaio-Lambert."

"So you make candies? I don't personally eat them; I have to watch what I eat, but Grace's chef knows what I eat..."

"I would think you do have to watch what you eat at your age." Ana smiles, but Elena is far from pleased with Ana's remark. "If you have guests stopping we can rearrange dinner Grace?"

"No, Elena and the girls are leaving; I do believe they have something to share with us..." My mother winks and Elena is as red as her lipstick. "Another time Elena, girls thanks for coming and next week we are reading Me Before You, it's a weepy so bring the tissues..." They head out and Elena hovers.

"Mom, we do have an announcement and it will be public knowledge before too long, but Ana and I are moving in together, when we find a home that suits us." Ana nearly drops to the floor.

"As in living together as a couple?" Elena says. "It's a little soon don't you think?"

"Elena, if they need advice they can get it from me, it's nothing to do with you. You are a friend of the family do not presume to know my son well enough to advise him on matters of the heart. Now I will see you tomorrow for lunch. One o'clock you said at Canlis? Why we had to change form Christian's place I don't know. Christian Elena says the restaurant is full, even for family?"

"Mother if they say they are full then they are. Now, it was good to see you Elena, mother Ana and I will see you when I have ran some legalities past Dad."

"Yes, get her to sign some sort of pre moving in paperwork, its best you protect yourself Christian dear..." She had to go there...Elena went there and I don't know who is madder my mother or my girl.

"Actually, its concerning my selling the business to you. If you still want that, that is?" She grins, of course it fucking is. "Now you will hear from my attorneys tomorrow. Goodbye..."

"Don't you think I should stay, it is my business after all and not hers?"

"Her, is not interested in what's yours; I have plenty of my own businesses to be worrying about besides I am not going into the meeting between Carrick and Christian, its none of my business." Ana puts her hand on my chest and I see the look she gets. I hold her hand there, as Elena is shown to the door by my mother.

"Ana, she knows we are here and up to no good."

"We are moving in together are we?"

"Sort of... I mean we have to work out the kinks and the fine tune the details but yes..."

"Okay..."

"Okay, you want to move in with me?"

"Yes, I'd like that. I need to look for a COO to help me run the business."

"What about your family?"

"They are good at what they do, but each is good at one thing, not everything. I need another me..."

"Okay, we will find you one or even two..."

"Two would be easier, one solely for Europe because it is so large, one for Australia because the country is so big and I will be here in America and all of it can be controlled from a hub here in Seattle, but it means me opening up here and much sooner than poor Uncle Marco envisaged. Now, your mother is here and it looks like your father is here too."

"Fuck..."

"Have they gone? I thought I asked you to do groups of five or more at your parents home Grace Grey."

"Cary, stop being so moody. Christian is here and he has a guest."

"Ana, I saw you arrive, how are you?"

"I am fine; it's nice to see you again." Kisses are given and we take out sets in the smaller of my mother's lounges.

"So, Ana and I have news."

"Your mother told me about the baby. Ana, I am sorry for your loss and Christian it goes without saying you know you can talk to me about anything. Ana you should have reached out to me or Grace."

"I should have done better, but I guess I have learnt from my stupidity that a problem shared is problem halved. Which is why we are here now. Christian has a problem he needs help with. I need you to help him to help himself. He needs your help Carrick and your understanding Grace, which I know you both have given you love him..."

"Ana, of course he has our love and help..."

"Mom. I don't know where to start..."

"What about the beginning, is this about Baby Christian?"

"No, no it's far worse than the news I told you about my son, this is about Elena and I. About the years she and I spent together..."

"You and she spent time together all the time dear..."

"Grace, let the boy speak, this isn't that type of time spent together is it?"

"No, no it's not. All I ask is that you let me tell you first..."

* * *

So Christian is about to tell all and Elena knows something is afoot...

Read review and comment please...


	18. Chapter 18

This is my story just using the lifestyle of some of fifty shades and the characters.

It is a HEA, but there are bumps in the road getting there.

So, enjoy the longer than first anticipated story and relax there is no cheating either.

* * *

Dreaming of Chocolate and Grey:

Chapter 18:

Mamma Bear and her cub.

 _"No, no it's far worse than the news I told you about my son, this is about Elena and I. About the years she and I spent together..."_

 _"You and she spent time together all the time dear..." Grace says and I see the pain in Christian's face._

 _"Grace, let the boy speak, this isn't that type of time spent together is it?" Carrick knows this is bad._

 _"No, no it's not. All I ask is that you let me tell you first..."_

"Okay, but remember nothing is so bad that we won't understand."

"Mom, Dad is right I mean there is more to it than being neighbours and her business partner. This is about something she; I mean we did a long time ago. Do you remember the summer I came back from Scotland and you heard what I had done to Ana?"

"Yes, I remember and that we'd had enough and thought you needed to work off the anger you had, I remember I had you help the Lincolns."

"Well, whilst I was helping the Lincolns, she had me help her with a few other things."

"Christian, did she make you do something you didn't want to do; I mean she is very demanding of her staff, did she make you do more than clear the rubble?"

"Mom, Mom please listen, this is hard enough as it is. Elena Lincoln took my virginity that summer she used me as her plaything and..." Grace looks at me and then at Christian, she stands and Carrick catches her before she hits the floor. "Fuck..." Christian looks horrified.

"Get her on the chair Carrick, Christian get her a large brandy, now!" I ask. He gets a glass and brings the decanter and pours her a goodly amount. She comes around and looks like her world has imploded. Carrick hands her the brandy and she tips it back in one fell swoop.

"Run that by me again, because for one moment in time I thought you said she seduced you, are you saying she took your... Oh god no, Carrick she took my baby boys virtue... Christian, you were fifteen and that woman assaulted you. Carrick, I want her dragged over the coals. She raped my son."

"Mom, believe it or not I enjoyed what she did. I was a mess until she stepped in and helped me, and whatever she did worked."

"Worked, whatever she did worked? How did raping you and doing unspeakable things to you, work or damned well help you? I thought I raised a clever boy. Christian you had to know what she did was wrong?"

"At the time no, in fact for a long time I enjoyed the life we had."

"Life you had, for god's sake Christian you were fucking fifteen and had spot's, your voice had only just broken that winter and you were a moody teenager, not equipped for fucking a woman old enough to be your mother. What did that old trout want with a child, she is a sick bitch." Carrick was livid and pacing the room. "The statue of limitations is well past over to do anything legal. Why leave it till now. Fuck..."

"It was consensual, and nothing we did felt wrong, it felt needed actually and I enjoyed it." I myself cringed hearing him say that.

"You were a minor and nothing was fucking consensual you fool. I thought you were fucked up, but this, this is damned near the stupidest thing you have ever done Christian. Dropping out of Harvard, being a recluse, was this all down to her?"

"Dad, believe me at the time whatever she did to me worked. My grades improved and my temper calmed, I stopped bunking off school I studied and it was all down to her, she would reward good behaviour and punish me if I put a foot out of line, Harvard and being reclusive were all my doing Dad, and they had nothing to do with her, those were my doing. Elena would punish me for being a brat and so I started to behave, you both said I had improved. Dad it's a long story." Which would be better told to a sober Grace and a calmer Carrick. I sit and stay silent. I have heard the tale they have not, but hearing him tell his parents how he admired his 'saviour' makes me wasn't to upchuck.

"She punished you? Cary gimmy the damned brandy and keep your hands off this, and get your own. She punished you? How? Run that one by me Christian, do you mean stand in the corner, sit on the naughty step?"

"That's not important Mom."

"Like hell it's not important. **_HOW. DID. SHE. PUNISH. YOU. CHRISTIAN?"_** Wow Grace is full of furry and I'm not sure who at, her son or her friend?

"She started out slapping me." Thwack... I heard the smack and Christian sure as shit felt it.

"Like that?" She smacked Christian upside of his head. "So all I needed to do was smack you around and you would have been a good boy would you?"

"Mom, it wasn't like that."

"So she rewarded you with sex, and punished you with a smack. So I guess all those damned years of loving you trying to nurture you with kindness and warmth, you know the good parenting shit I did and do, counts for nothing, so parenting is not something I am very good at then?"

"Grace you are an excellent mother to all our children. Ana do you think we could perhaps talk to Christian alone?" Carrick asked.

"Of course." I get up to leave and Christian grabs my arm.

"No, no please Dad, she stops or I go, we have no secrets and that's how I want the rest of my life to be, keeping things in the dark and letting it fester is what has cause me to be like I am."

"So, when did this start and how?" Carrick says quietly. It would have been better had I not been here he is embarrassed and I see that, Grace is sobbing.

"You want to know everything? Really?"

"Yes..."

"Fuck..."

"I think your father and I need to know the basic details not how many times she fucked you and how, was it a summer thing or a few weeks?"

"It carried on for six years, until I was twenty one." Grace dropped the tumbler and crashed to the floor and as she bent to pick it up she cut her hand. I rushed to the kitchen and grabbed the paper towel; I was followed in by Carrick.

"How bad is it Ana?"

"Very and there is more, should I make Grace coffee?"

"Thank you and I am sorry, but this is a little hard on us both, we failed him." He grabbed the first aid kit and the paper towels from me.

"You didn't fail him, she was and still is a predator, she saw her way in and took it, what she did was groom him and the fool didn't see it until recently. In fact until I made him see it was wrong and pointed out to him one small fact, what if this had been done to our baby boy, would he still think this was right and it was a good way to live? He saw it through a fathers eyes and things have started dropping into place, for both him and I, I too kept secrets and I know only too well how easy it is to bury one's head in the sand like an ostrich, rather than to flap around like a headless chicken. Sometimes something's are best left unsaid, but more often than not things need to come out to begin the healing process, this chat and the baby are two things he and I are working on."

"I am sorry you didn't feel you could reach out to us Ana, but I guess things happen for a reason. I need to see to Grace, thank you for being here, we may need some calming."

I made a pot of strong coffee and headed back in. Grace had stopped bleeding and the glass had been picked up and I offered her a black coffee and she took it with a smile. As did Christian and his father.

"Where you the boy Linc caught her having sex with in the pool house?" Grace asked.

"Yes. He came home early and caught me there."

"You were the reason for her cuts and bruises and the reason for their then separate lives? Wait, wait wasn't that the summer you hurt yourself at college?"

"I didn't hurt myself; Matt Lincoln beat the crap out of me and Elena too."

"She it seems deserved it, you both did. But you, you lied to me Christian, you lied to your mother? Was the life we gave you so horrid you had to have sex with a friend and neighbour to get back at me? What could she possibly have taught you that we couldn't, other than sex and if it meant that much to you I am sure Elliot knew people to see to those needs? You went with an old married whore of a child molesting woman, really?"

"I don't think you are explain to your parents what you got out of this Christian." I tell him. They are getting het up and this talk is not going anywhere. "It was never about you being a bad parent Grace. It was always about him being too foolish to realise the help Elena gave him was for her own gain. He was brainwashed into this with sex. Nothing more nothing less. He thinks she helped, but what she did was far from giving him help, but more like helping herself and she did it over many years, years of subtle grooming and punishments and treats. Christian though was too immature to know this and until just recently too he still said she helped him, he really had no clue how wrong it was until I asked him what if it was his son she did this too, and that and a few other things have lead to tonight's reveal, he hasn't done any of this to hurt you Grace, Carrick, he truly believed she helped him. Grace what you see before you now is that fifteen year old boy asking his parents for help, only he is seventeen years too late."

"Ana is right, but what she taught me helped me. I loved the control she taught me, the touch issues were better handled and I had boundaries and yes the rewards."

"What could she possibly have taught you that a girl your own age couldn't?"

"Mother she taught me her way of having sex."

"Her way, forgive me what is she some sort of sex therapist?" Grace is sobering up quickly.

"She practices BDSM. Which is..."

"...I know what it is Christian; I'm your mother not a damned idiot. She taught you how to tie her up and whip her?"

"She taught me how to be comfortable during sex, and I was the one tied and whipped."

"What by whipping you? Beating you and torturing you? How the hell is that teaching you to be a normal boy? Christian do you realise listening to yourself how wrong this is?"

"That's it Mother, I thought she was teaching me..."

"When did she stop teaching you?"

"When I was twenty she then became my submissive. I then learned how to be a dominant. I, I mean we then parted ways and though we remained friends we did not do that again. When I dropped out of Harvard and you refused me the money from my trust fund, she leant me the money and that was the final straw for Linc, he beat her within an inch of her life and she took the money he offered her to pay for her not going to the police." Grace is shaking as I pour her more coffee.

"No wonder neither of them used the firm in their divorce. Christian what the hell did this woman have that you needed to be beaten and punished?"

"She helped me in a way that I liked and needed. It wasn't anything you or Mom did or didn't do, that made me do it, but it was what worked for me."

"You said she lent you the money? Why?" Grace asks.

"She saw the potential you and Dad didn't, I guess?"

"So she has a hold on you and GEH, she has a stake in the company?" Carrick counters.

"No she never had a financial hold on me. She was paid back many times over. GEH is mine and mine alone. I did the hard work she has nothing to do with it, but the control and the patience she put in place they did help, but the company is mine and I did that, not her..."

"So you are still friends with her? I mean you obviously have had sex with others and Ana here?"

"Ana is not to be brought into this ever, but yes Mother I had submissives who Elena procured for me. They tended to my needs and whenever I needed it. I couldn't go to clubs and so I have a room at home I used for their meetings."

"So, you beat young girls and what; use them for that perverted sex?"

"I did Mother, but no longer."

"I don't believe any of this. So, you don't do this anymore? With anyone?"

"No, I do not have a submissive and no Ana is not another of the girls."

"Grace are you okay?" I ask as she looks hurt.

"I am shocked, I thought the baby was bad enough, but this is going to take some understanding, how do I or can I get my head around this life that my son sat there has lead in secret for seventeen years, a son I don't know anymore or understand? There sits a good looking intelligent billionaire who for reasons only understand by him and the vile paedophile, thought he had to pay for sex? Sex that started when he chose to fuck and follow the teachings of an old woman and a pervert, did I miss something? Clearly I went wrong somewhere, I thought you knew good from bad, clearly I should have slapped good into that thick skull of yours?" Then Carrick rounded up on him, as Grace knocked back brandy.

"Why are you telling us now Christian? Tell me is one of these former prostitutes of your suing you? For god's sake you covered your legal butt right? I have to hope you covered your dick or is that what's happened is one of them having your child. Ana, were you a...?"

"...No, I was never his submissive and I never willingly came forward about Baby Christian, that was done because he overheard a conversation, I would never have done that to him or the family or mine."

"I told you Ana was not the same as those women and she is not to be questioned about her life with me or the baby; she has explained it to me. Yes, to answer your questions they all signed ironclad NDA's, and they were submissives and were not paid. No I need help or rather I needed to tell you everything because Elena is blackmailing me with photos she has of me, photos she took of me when I was younger and she was going to show them mom if I didn't gift her the salons. Ana said it would be best to tell you, though I am doubting it was the right thing to do right now."

"Ana was right. So have you given her the salons?"

"Yes they were signed over to her today."

"So she wins?" Grace says.

"No, Ana has suggested I open up a bigger salon next to hers and bankrupt her and make her pay that way."

"I will endorse the new salon and wait until word gets around she is a fucking paedophile."

"Mother you cannot do that. She will go public with all she has; we are hoping she gives us the photos back. We are still following leads and looking for them."

"So mean while I have to be nice to her?"

"No, not nice at all, just don't bad mouth her around your friends, just yet?" We hear a phone chirping.

"Who's is that." Grace asks. We all check ours and it keeps chirping Grace gets up and checks the sofa in the main lounge. She finds the phone and answers it.

"Hello, who is this?" She puts it on speaker, I think by accident?

"Grace it's me Elena, I lost my phone, did I leave it there, silly I must have?"

"Yes, obviously I have it here."

"Did I disturb dinner I am sorry?"

"No, no you didn't disturb anything as yet. We were telling Ana all about Christian as a child. Amusing her with naked pictures of his tushy. Like all Mom's do to their son's new and wonderful girlfriend."

"I must sneak a peek. I bet he was cute _..." My mother nearly vomits..._

"...No, they are not for public viewing, they are family photos of my son they are a rite of passage when son's bring home their girlfriends. I will bring the phone to lunch Elena, as we are just sitting down to dinner."

"Could I join you, my dinner date let me down? You know I hate to dine alone Grace darling?"

"Was it past his bedtime?"

"What did you say Grace?"

"I said I thought you said that it was your bedtime Elena? Yes you can call for your phone, we will be waiting."

"See you soon, I can't wait to speak to this Anya girl, she sounds like she may be serious?"

"She is very and a family friend already, I will be waiting for you, we are having dinner on the patio because it's so nice tonight." _I wonder what the hell my mother is playing at, because the dining room is set for dinner?_ "See you soon Elena..." She turns off Elena's phone and smashes it as she throws it against the wall. Wow.

"Grace what have you got planned?"

"Not a lot... I don't have a lot of time. Let me go and speak to the chef."

"Dad what's, she up to?"

"It's best you leave your mother to her own devises son and keep out of it. If you know what's good for you?"

"Dad..."

"Listen we have had to listen to a glimpse of what I suspect is much darker than you are telling us. Ana would you like a drink? I do a mean Lemon Drop Martini?"

"That sounds great." We watch as Dad does his Tom Cruise impression which had Ana in stitches, me? I am shitting bricks as Ana says, awaiting Elena's return and we haven't even have the arm toss when she waltzes in through the lounge doors. I bet the bitch was still in the fucking driveway.

"Oh Cary Darling you knew I was coming, is that the famous Lemon Drop?"

"It is would you like one?" He says as stares and he smiles at Ana. I can see the grip he has on the shaker, turn his knuckles white.

"You know me so well Cary Darling. Christian did you get the paperwork sorted?" I bet he didn't know her quite as well now, poor Carrick having to play nice! Christian is giving her a wide berth too. I hate her and I don't hate many people, but for her I have a special type of hatred.

"I did Elena. The salons are now yours. I believe you have something for me?"She purrs like a bitch in heat.

"I do, here is the agreed package for your shares of Esclava. Thank you." Ana watches me as I take the package from her and head into my father's office and tip the photos out. Fuck Elena has followed me. "They are all there."

"How can I trust you, I thought the last lot were the last lot?"

"They are all I have left from my personal selection. Christian, this girl are you sure she is the one darling?" She paws at my arm and I cringe as she comes closer.

"She is all I need Elena, here sign this. If you have more I will come back for the salons, if you refuse to sign this then you will lose all the salons and everything else you own. This is a promissory note if you will; if you renege on our deal then I can legally take everything from you."

"That was not what I agreed to."

"Tick-tock Elena, you want the salons free and clear then sign. You have nothing to worry about if these are the only photos you have and all digital images have been handed over, then what's the hold up with you signing?"

"Here give me the damned pen. I hope she has signed the paperwork, I don't trust her at all. She looks like the others, but is she like the others?"

"No, no she is a breath of fresh spring air and just what I need. I think this is the one who will be sticking around for the big party. You know the one, were the men get dressed up and she wears white?"

"Marriage, you are a fool. Christian, she is after one thing?"

"Tutt, tutt, tutt Elena, she is a billionaire herself. So it must me she wants and do you know how refreshing it is to be the one getting the gifts and not giving them? I doubt you do. Now thanks for this and do not contact me again after today. Am I clear?"

"I care about you Christian, so think long and hard before you make that commitment again, love is for fools and I didn't raise you to be a fool."

"Elena you didn't raise me, you fucked with me and beat me for your own gratification. How dare you think you helped me, you did what you did for yourself and not for me. Now do not make a show of yourself and leave my girlfriend alone or you will suffer I promise you Elena."

"Okay, is it alright to at least eat dinner?"

"My mother invited you, so I guess so." I ask her to leave and she does...

Soup of the day, Mutton soup.

Christian has been in his father's office for half of my Lemon drop, when she finally comes out she wipes her lips, is she indicating they have kissed? I glug down the sweet lemon drink and Carrick fills me up. She saunters over and takes her glass and tips it at me. I fight the urge to tip mine over her, and it's a hard fought battle, I have vivid images of her bleached blonde bob covered in lemon liquid and citrus peel. Umm, I am going to do a Lemon Drop in honour of Carrick, they are rather moreish. I think she is frowning or trying too, but her face is so tight I am sure if I had a set of drumsticks I could tap out the drum call of the march to war on her botoxed and tucked too tight face?

"Chin, chin..." Ha you do have two chins. Did your surgeon miss one? Perhaps you'd better sue him? I think and then toast the witch.

"Cin-cin. Si fa, si hanno due mento. Ecco a tutti voi meritate e tutto si ottiene... Nulla..." (You do, you have two chins, and here's to all of you deserve and all you get... Nothing...)

"I'm sorry?" She says. You will be I think.

"I'm sorry I was countering your toast with my own? You do not speak Italian Mrs Lincoln?"

"No French and Spanish, I have to speak Spanish for the help, I really should get English speaking one, the labour market is flooded with immigrants, speaking of immigrants, do you have a green card or is that the angle you are using, are you attempting to get Christian to marry you so you can work here all legal?" Bitch. Christian comes out and his father hands him a tumbler of whiskey.

"Your girlfriend is Italian. How very continental of you Christian. And so very accommodating of you getting her a green card..."

"She is American, so she does not need a work visa as she was born here Elena, in California, and not that it's got anything to do with you, but yes she is very continental and extremely beautiful. Ana do you want to sit on the terrace?"

"Yes, why don't we all head there, I have been here enough to know the way I am like family, isn't that so Christian darling?" Is she deliberately telling me she has more right to be here than me?

"You are my mother's _oldest_ friend after all..." Christian smiles and I giggle.

"Sorry Carrick these are making me tipsy."

"Well let me get you another, what's keeping Grace?" She swans in looking like her name Graceful and elegant.

"Did I hear my name being mentioned? Elena I see you have a drink. Cary darling I will have a mineral water celebrating my son's first girlfriend coming for a visit to see Mamma Grey, it has made me a little tipsy. Such a beautiful girl too. Do you know these two have known each other all Ana's life? Cary tell them what an angel she is?"

"She is that a truly wonderful woman and my son has made a good choice. So, Chris what are you going to do with Ana's island?"

"Gift it her back for her birthday of course, but I will make it fit for my Princess first and make sure it's staffed."

"You are giving me Otter Island back, but why Christian?"

"It was where I met the love of my life..." He what? Is that a public acceptance that he loves me or just to wind up the shrew?

"Christian..." He leans in and kisses me. I hear her choke on her lemon, oops was that shot too bitter like you, you old shrew?

"Do you see that Cary, he's found the one?"

"I am in need of a refill, anyone else?" The shrew says as she takes the jug and pours herself another.

"I had the chef make your special soup and salad Elena, you are still detoxing right?"

"You know me so well. You did get him to leave out the pine nuts and the sesame oil right?"

"Yes, we know it makes you blotchy. I know you well enough Elena."

"I am your oldest friend as Christian says. So Anya how's the candy business?"

"It's Ana, and yes it pays the bills Mrs Lincoln. It is hard work..." The bitch cut me off.

"...Christian is that a new watch, you really do have great taste, its exquisite and very expensive."

"Yes, Ana bought it for me. She has great taste and I love it, thank you Baby." She looks like the lemons in her drink have turned into wasp kisses.

"Oh dinner is served. Elena walk with me." Carrick takes her arm and leads her to the table by their beautiful swimming area. It looks like a natural waterfall and riverside pond we have on the island, which I will not be taking back, I hate bloody golf...

"Carrick, that's my waterfall and swimming hole from the island." I say as I see the rest of it.

"Is it? Christian had it built for his mother for her birthday. Is that where you got the inspiration from Chris?"

"Yes. Ana used to hide from me behind the waterfall."

"Did you hear that Elena, how romantic is my Baby Boy? I told you all it would take was the right woman and he's found her. You can take a dip later Ana, I am sure Mia has a suit to fit you, alas none that would come close to fitting you Elena, and mine are all one piece, _and not your thang,_ you wear those far too young for your butt, butt floss things, but given that ass took some sculpting for your surgeon then why not Elena?" She is rather loose lipped and drunk. I gather that she is not drinking water, because that gin...

"I can't swim, you know that Grace. Not for a few weeks yet and so I bought a butt, it's worth it."

"Oh that's right; you had your ass sucked skinny. I forgot Elena, do you need a cushion?" Christian asks and she stares at the Grey drunk and the confused man she has pissed off.

"Grace, what's got into you besides this upset with Christian and Anya?"

"It's Ana and I had a bad case at work today, so I'm a little emotional... A little boy was brought in and he'd been used by a vile paedophile. I get so angry when I get cases like that, so I say prosecute and be damned, then hang the perverted freaks from a hanging tower in the city centre, butt naked and lets stone the fuckers to death, not very hypocritical of me hic, but there is a place in hell for people like them, and it's called predatory, hic... I mean purgatory Paedophiliac Purgatory." Oh my god... "I had a really bad day at the office, hic. A really crappy day from hell."

"Mother it will be chilly in there; perhaps you should go in and go to bed?" Christian says. As the starters arrive.

"Nope, I need food and Ana wants to swim, and she will have you to keep her warm. Now eat up... Elena is the soup okay, only you look as green as it is?" Grace says as she drinks her wine, yup she is up to something and she's now chugging the wine, it's either really good or really bad...

"No, there was a chunk stuck in my throat. This is wonderful; your chef is the best."

"He is... He knows what I like and what my guests need." I taste my soup and it's a very tasty lobster bisque. Hers looks like lettuce soup? We finish that course and I see that Elena's face is getting red. No... She hasn't had her chef poison her has she?

"That was wonderful. Just the right amount of cayenne pepper, it's full of antitoxins. You should try it Anya; I have a detox every week." I should shut my cake-hole but cannot resist.

"At your age I agree you need to clear away the crap in your life, I mean all that you have had to ingest over the years, you can't be too careful? I mean age is none too forgiving of mistakes made in your youth, well so my grandmother Mimi used to say. I guess I look after my body and have done from the get go so when I get to your age I won't have much of anything to regret and won't need a surgeon to cheat the effects of old age, I do think surgery is a cheats way out, the easy way is not always the best way? I workout and keep in shape running and swimming and I am lucky I can eat whatever I want. But your hearing seems to be on the fritz though Mrs Lincoln, because my name is its Ana, or is that a memory problem? Because they do tend to sneak up on you, these pesky problems of age?" Grace laughs as I turn up my sarcasm volume a little the bitch deserves it.

"Good for you, you petty, foolish, unknowing young thing..." She says under her breath and I smile at her. The next course comes and she is presented with a lettuce salad. Boy that woman is getting her roughage in as all ladies of age must do. I refrain from saying this as she has a thicker skin for insults than I hoped for, I had hoped she's start something so I could pop her in the face; alas she is good at this and is plotting her revenge. She groans as she eats, why it is just fancy grass, and damn it I like salad as much as the next rabbit, but I add in tomatoes, cucumber and a few peppers? That is not a meal it's a side order, and I know that she is faking a 'When Harry Met Sally' moment. Not good done with lettuce in your teeth though. I point to her pearly whites and indicate she had something in her teeth. She cussed.

"Grace this looks amazing, I love steak, but this is massive..." Christian is trying hard to work out what the three women around the table are up to, and is failing, whilst Carrick drinks his whiskey and smiles. I try to cut into the steak and it's still frozen, is this a new Seattle trend I know nothing about?

"It's nice to see a girl eat. That will please you Christian." He looks at the steak too and wonders what is mother is feeding us? The mashed potatoes are good, as are the seasonal vegetables.

"Everything Ana does pleases me." Elena coughs and starts to choke... Fuck has Grace put something in her salad. I stand and rush over and whack her back, okay I may have hit her harder than I needed, how did I know her head would get whip lash and landed in her salad bowl dinner?

"Are you okay Mrs Lincoln, you really should chew your food."

"You idiot, you hurt me..."

"I don't know my own strength sometimes. Sorry, still you are not dying. That's a good thing right? Right of course it is." Grace Grey is up to something because Elena looks like a she has a bad case of hives. Grace bites into her steak and smiles. Okay it seems hers is the only edible steak on the plates. Carrick tops up our drinks and Elena gulps that down too just as Elliot drops by.

"Way to go Bro. Mom said you and my favourite girl were an Item. So when's the wedding?"

"Oh shut up Elliot; no we are not going there, we are however giving this living in sin a try." I say as he stares at Elena.

"It is a sin to forget the paperwork Christian." Elena sneers as the lemon drops seem to be making her woozy, or has Grace drugged her? No she's drunk, she hiccups and I grin.

"Elena, if I have to tell you one more time, keep out of my son's business."

"How's it hanging Elena, have you had another face peal? Your face is red, and damn is that oozing puss? How can you not feel that?"

"That's because she is botoxed to the max. Hic..." Grace too has hiccups. "She can't feel a damned thing, can you Lincoln you old whore..."

"Mom are you wasted?"

"Nope..."

"Grace what is in this salad?" Elena says as she dabs the water coming from the leprosy type red welts on her face.

"Salad. What else would there be in a salad? See there is green stuff for your damned green day, hic, hic, hic hooray... Hic."

"Grace have I done something to offend you, hic?"

"Nope, you passed offending me when I learned of you seducing my fifteen year old son, you fucking troll."

"What, how in the hell did you find out she grabbed my balls way back then Mother?" Elliot says and looks genuinely shocked.

"Elliot shut up I did no such thing? Grace I can assure you I have done nothing wrong."

"Now that's interesting that my son Elliot spoke up then and not the one you ruined with your fucked up life of sin and debauchery. So you have molested both of my boys Elena? Not one but both of my boys, you are going to be very sorry for that believe you me, and I am sorry Christian, but fuck her knowing I know what she did to you, she is going to pay for what she did?" They both look at their mother and are arguably redder than Elena-the-troll-ho-Lincoln, who was about to go down like a lightweight boxer being owned by a heavyweight hitter, Growling Gracey Grey versus Low Life Lincoln.

"No. Elliot is lying and Christian, tell her, tell her I did nothing wrong with you, we are friends for god's sake tell her?" He shakes his head.

"That would mean me having to lie and I don't lie, you know this Elena, lying to you gets a butt whipping, right?"

She got up to leave and so too did Grace; only what came next was like a scene from a slapstick movie, when Grace picked up the massive tee-bone-steak from my plate and walloped Elena with it. Elena stumbled backwards and I knew then why Grace had placed Elena where she had and why I was given frozen steak. Grace then went mad with the steak, swinging it like a woman possessed, she looked like a woman with a handbag, hitting out at the people barging in and battling for a bargain in The Black Friday Sales, hit after hit was rained down on her already red face and I guess my steak is tenderised when Grace puts it down and picks hers up.

"Oops, you have a boo-boo here steaks good for a bruised eye. Isn't that what we used when Linc went mad for no reason? When the real reason for the smashed face was because he caught you screwing my son?" Then Graces rare steak added to the redness as the blood trickled from the steak down the bitches face, it and the steak are well and truly tenderised. Elena was losing the battle of The Steak Dinner, especially as the next one from Carrick's plate Grace picked up and used landed under her chins sent her flying through the air and she went butt first into the pool, and when she bobbed back up she looked hilarious and like pool toy...

"That is just a taste of what is coming your way." The steak and the contents of every ones plates and then the actual plates were set to attack her like scud missiles and then Grace picks up the jet wash thing, the one for cleaning patios, which was oddly placed by the patio? I had wondered if the staff were slipping, because it was I thought an odd embellishment to a once pristine patio? She then hit the button and it sent Elena skimming along the pond like a skimming stone. I would think Elena knew there was something wrong, if not she was too drunk to notice, but she continued to jet wash Elena, and Grace looked like she was shooting ducks in a fairground side show.

The screaming and laughing stopped as the jet wash was abandoned and Grace disappeared in the house as we all watched the drowned rat get out of the pool, nobody helped her, in fact the men stood gawking at the mess Grace had caused. The damned pool looked like a giant bowl of soup, the meat and salad and the bread rolls bobbed in the water and Elena Lincoln had looked like a fucking crouton, bobbing in the messy water, her breasts and butt made for staying afloat difficult; as both her tits and ass battled for dominance on the top of the water. She gasped for air as she slumped on the patio; she looked like a breathless old trout, strike that a rainbow trout, her face was red, her clothes were streaked with pond crud and she had lost a shoe and her dignity.

"I think I need to go home and change before I call the police and report her. You will be hearing from my lawyers and Christian, do your worst, because I have more photos. Boy, you and you mother have pushed me too far, I warned you what I would do if you pushed me and you have."

"Did I hear you have attempted to blackmail my son?" Carrick stepped forward.

"You heard me tell him I intend to carry out my threat and release the pictures to the media. If he tried to best me and I always carry out my threats."

"Smile for the camera Elena. You have just been filmed blackmailing my son." Carrick pointed at the surveillance cameras. "The statute of limitations on molesting my son may have passed but blackmailing him will have to do for us, you fucking paedophile. Get off my property and feel free to sue, because I will make sure nobody good takes you on."

"Oh and I got all that on my phones camera too, You Tube here you come, old lady in the soup. Soup of the day, Mutton Soup..." Elliot laughed as he posted it.

"You are on my shit list too you moron. Christian you could have had it all and now you will lose it all, I told you I made you and that I would break you."

As she got up to walk away the top windows of their home were opened and the staff, who all had a massive smile on their faces, were all armed with various buckets and jugs and as she passed them they let loose with powdered paint of many colours and what looked like treacle and oil? As she screamed and tried to escape the multi coloured deluge, Grace leaned out of a bedroom window and opened a pillow case and out came a sea of duck and goose down, the woman had been tarred and feathered new style.

"Try and sue me and I will make your life hell and one fucked up place to be, now get off my property you old fucking washed up old duck faced fucking child molesting shrew..."

"Wow Dad, Mommy swore a lot. James grab my mother before she falls out of Chris's window, there's a good security guy."

"Sir, I have her in hand." She giggled as the pillow case floated to the ground, before she did. The guy grabbed her and she giggled again. Wow drunk Grace is hilarious.

"I gave that woman what for James. Carrick darling I think I need to retain counsel, but for now I need my bed and a bucket, I don't feel very well, hic give me one of those buckets please? Christian, I will see you and Ana tomorrow, or whenever I sober up." She passed out. Elliot chortled and Christian was still sat with his father looking at the aftermath of Hurricane Gracie Grey...

"I am not clearing her crap up. So care to explain? Oops wait one moment, success my video is uploaded. There you go see Mom round up with that steak, pow... What happened Bro?"

"I told my mother of my prior life style and she is a little angry."

"Son, she molested you too?" Carrick asks Elliot.

"Hell no, she had a good old fondle, and went to town on my pecker and I must admit she is pretty sportily for an old bird. Funny she left looking like a duck. See now I have ran out of bird jokes, except she looked like an angry bird... Now, what food is there left that's not floating in my pond?"

"Elliot I am being serious, did she..." Carrick asks.

"Not sex, but the blow job and a fondle, I laughed at her. Don't tell me you took her up on it Bro?"He asks Christian.

"I did and more..."

"Well, all's well that ends well. Food father I am famished. I only came to see Whisp, because I have been scouting his empty buildings for new stores and I have the perfect one for Seattle... It's right next door to Grey House, his lordships headquarters. You could have the whole ground floor as a store and the second and third floors fitted out as a factory and school? I want the contract though?"

"Can we discuss this tomorrow Elliot, please?" I ask.

"Yup. Daddy is going to feed me. Laters Bro..."

"Dad?"

"Laters Christian, your mother may need some time to sober up and think about things, how long are you here?"He says to his son.

"As long as you need Carrick, we have all week to get to my grandparents." I say, as Christian looks at the mess. As we are leaving he hands a wallet full of cash to a little guy smiling and obviously happy at seeing the battle in the pond...

"Sam, can you please see to that mess my mother caused and I am so sorry for your extra labour and time?" Christian looks embarrassed.

"It is no problem Mr Grey, Mrs Grey she said there would be mess when she had me set up the jet wash. It was fun; I got it on my phone too, it's okay yes?"

"All of it?" He asks. "Did you film everything?"

"No, just her trying to get out of the water. It's good too."

"Okay then, and thanks for that."

"She deserves it, talking down to me and treating me like her servant; she keeps calling me Mexican, the little Mexican, when I am Spanish and I don't work for her!" We head off.

"Ana, what just happened?" _I ask her._

"I would guess she lied about giving you everything back. You can never trust a con man, they live for it. You told me did you not, not to give in to blackmail? I see your point now."

"Ana, she will ruin me."

"Will she though? I mean you are a self made man, you own the company, are you going to lose money or your company?"

"No, but my good name?"

"...Should count for something in business, your personal life is just that personal. I know easy for me to say, the world doesn't know I own Satin and Steel. But my chocolates are fighting to get back their good name, so I know how bad press can harm you. Be upfront about it and be honest and you will be fine. I hardly doubt she will do anything, she was all talk, angry talk."

"My mother nearly killed her and I doubt she even really heard Elliot's tale, I don't believe it, the supposed fool brother did the best thing and walked away, me the supposed brains of the family, got sucked into her games."

"Needs differ from boy to boy, besides Elliot has been having sex since he was thirteen!"

"How the hell did that conversation come about?" He asks, nay demands.

"Cool your heels, he and I had the chat once. He said he'd kill any man who came near me until I was at least twenty five."

"He did?"

"Yes, he did. He was looking out for me when the guy tried to drag me into the bushes and have his way with me; luckily Elliot was there and stopped him."

"That was the year you and he fought and wrestled and I watched like a moody bastard, because that year you didn't bother with me at all."

"I was giving you the space you wanted and he was teaching me self defence." He seemed okay with the truthful explanation I had given and then our bellies rumbled, and we laughed.

"I am hungry Ana... Mom left our steaks frozen for a reason I guess?"

"We missed out on chocolate cake too for dessert. Your mother is going to have a thickhead tomorrow."

"She will, I have never seen her drunk or heard her swear like that before."

"I guess that's the warm up for California then Christian?"

"Fuck Ana..."

"Yes please..." _We arrive at the car and Luke opens Ana's door and she climbs in._

"Did Mrs Lincoln leave?"

"She did Sir, and there could be good news Barney and Welch have found a secure old banking storage facility outside of town in her maiden name of Foster. Elena Thompson Foster."

"Where is it Luke?" _Ana asks as I round the car?_

"Over by the water. By the old docks, it's an old bank, but very secure apparently Barney is digging for information on the owners, Welch is checking the taxes or whatever he does to see who owns it."

"What's security like?" _I ask._

"It's a key coded entry and then another code for the lock up. Security take names and then let you into the elevators where another code is used to gain entry to the floor required. We are looking at finding a way in."

"Take me there please Luke? I think I need to look for a secure unit for my recipes and stuff here in America, Switzerland's too far."

"Ana, we could get caught or someone could alert her?" _I say._

"All we are doing Christian is taking a look see and she will want the photos for her plan to out you tomorrow, so I would guess after she has cleaned up she would make the trip, don't you think?"

"I guess so. Have Taylor and the rest standing by."

"You gave Taylor the night off. I am sure me and my bodyguard here will be enough?" _Good god she's right._

"Okay but just for a look I mean its ten at night."

"Nothing ventured, right?" _She says as Luke drives us there. Tonight was a washout and a confused mess for both my parents and myself, but cool and calm Ana she stayed calm, well that was until mother let loose with the steak and the jet spray... We arrive and Ana smiles as she sees the place. Why is she smiling? We go to head in and she fumbles in her bag._

"We may not need to you know get help. I think I own this building and the company in it. Hold on... Ethan, sorry did I disturb you? Hold on you are on speaker. Do you know when you said all my paperwork needed storing for crap knows how many years?"

"I did and its seven years. Why?"

"When you and your dad said you bought an old bank storage place, was it one in your home town perhaps?"

"Yeahhhhhsss, what you getting at Anastasia, what have you done and to whom?"

"Is it by the docks in Seattle?"

"Yes. Why Ana, what do you need at ten at night?"

"I need to have a look around that's all."

"You have the pass card I gave you, who has pissed you off?"

"Someone."

"You seem to be doing that a lot of late. You have the third floor executive suite in there; but it's late Ana; however I can be there, first thing to walk you through stuff? Besides you have two weeks to wait to see your father's paperwork. Is that what you want a sneak peek?"

"Okay, but does this card get me into any room or box?"

"Yes, but only with an override key which I have, why what are you doing. Ana tell me now."

"Someone is blackmailing me and their papers are in there somewhere."

"Who, who is trying to hurt you? Tell me Ana please. Wait... I can be there in half an hour. Sorry honey I have to work. Ana's got herself in a mess."

"Again? She is a beacon for trouble lately. Go sort out my boss and then we can get back to bed, tell her she owes me, again."

"Is Jose here too?"

"Umm, he and I are looking at places to rent for our surrogate, because the dump she lives in here is just that a dump, why?"

"No reason, tell him I'm sorry and to take off as much time as you need."

"Ethan, it's Christian, take a look at Escala, I have a few vacant apartments."

"Great the gang's all there I will be with you shortly. You two are better than watching my damned telenovela..."

"We will wait, bring the pass keys, the person we want info on won't report this to anyone I swear but hurry she's on her way here." _He says goodbye and we wait in the car._

"Ana, don't lie tell him it's me she is blackmailing."

"What hurts you hurts me. Besides, she got my goat a little. Your mother was wicked with the beef chucking."

"It was a little scary watching her flip out if truth be told. I had hoped for quiet and civilised, and not the bloody comedy of errors it turned into. My mother has been drunk twice before, once when she got the all clear from cancer and when Mia left for Brussels, she said she was not sure she liked her nest being empty."

"Okay, it will be fine, just answer their questions calmly and use your logic, and for god's sake stop saying you admired Elena and were grateful. Neither your mother nor the new girlfriend liked her getting any credit for molesting you."

"Luke thanks for this."

"Sir, I guess we sit and wait? T says they are home and he will be here in ten minutes. He wants in on the action. Barney says ring him. Your phone is off and wants to know if you are dead?" _I take out my phone and I must have turned it off. Crap, it's never off. It pings to life and the messages that flow are too numerous to handle. I call Barney._

"Barney, what did you and Welch find out?"

"The storage facilities is too secure to get in. However, the Kavanagh's manage it for Miss Lambert. They bought the old Wells Fargo secure storage for her father's documents when he died and they upped the security and its virtually impenetrable. If only you had an in with the lady herself?" He laughs.

"I do and we know, because we are sat outside waiting for Ethan now. Barney I know this is a long shot, but check through her personal expenditures for school camp donations, see which school she is sponsoring right now. Then match the names of pupils with friends of my parents or people in and around Seattle. If she is continuing to do this thing she does, she will have a boy going through everything I did, start the search with males fifteen or older, possibly up to eighteen."

"On it, and we are monitoring her calls Sir, I will let Taylor know if she makes any we need to know about."

"Good work and thank you."

"Oh-kay..." _I end the call and look at Ana, she is scanning files._

"What Ana, what have you found?"

"Oh nothing, I am adding in the lemon drop to my chocolate cocktails, why?"

"You are working, whilst all this goes on?" _I can't believe it. I am flapping like the chicken and she is like a swan on the water looking graceful or is she the Ostrich and burying her head in the sand?_

"Yes, I get very creative when my mind is in chaos, some of my best work is done when I over think things. I may be panicking but this, this helps me. It always has." _Swan, my girl is a swan, cool on top and legs paddling to keep her afloat. Then I laugh and remember Elena bobbing in the water, her new butt nearly killed her._

"It's a good job one of us is. Ana I am worried. She is capable of many bad things I know remember?"

"I do, now what does your Dad put in them?"

"Put in What?"

"The Lemon Drops Ninny..."

"You'd have to ask, but nothing is measured he glugs the stuff in and mixes it."

"Okay I will. Now, where were you thinking of living in sin?"

"I...I...I..."

"...Was only saying it to wind her up? I get it."

"Ana, can we do the holiday after the concert and think about it?"

"Yeah, I mean it too; I am just happy being your girlfriend, with the occasional stop over and stuff. Besides where would we live?"

"If we make it through the holiday, then possibly here in Seattle and I will gift you the building next door to me, if it sweetens the deal and free and clear of obligation to me and us, should we not find the sinning agreeable?"

"You don't need to give them me, I may be a little bit rich Christian, and I don't want Otter Island back either, it's time for a fresh start for the old girl. Besides she likes having a man at the helm."

"You hate golf that much?"

"I hate that even more than I hate the Lincoln Troll."

"Ouch... You are really good at it though."

"I know right? You'd think being great at it I'd enjoy it more?"

"Is this a euphemism?"

"Huh? No, well it could be I guess? I'm good at being a Domme, but I don't have to do it. I am good at baking and the chocolate making too, now those I cannot live without. Those and chasing you I have over invested my time in, and the chocolate and baking, thankfully patience and time have borne fruit and they have all rewarded me nicely."

"Have I borne you fruit?"

"You have to ask?" _She giggled. Just as Taylor pulled up. Yes I have to ask, but don't._ "Helps here Luke." _He gets out of the car and she takes off her seatbelt and sits on my lap._ "You are a tree with the most delicious fruit on it, each juicy pear and apple makes me salivate thinking of ways of keeping you fresh and juicy and hard for me, are you hard Mr Grey?" _Fuck me..._

"Very hard as you can feel. Ana what are you doing. Oh god yes..." _I text Taylor to stay where he is and wait._

Thank the lord; the fools finally woke the fuck up.

"What's that T?"

"He and your new Boss are entertaining themselves. It seems we are to wait here."

"This is not his usual style."

"It's his new style and I hope to fucking god the fucking spoiled kid grows up at last?"

"How long have you known about Miss Lambert? T you know she's great right. She is strong and not like the others at all."

"A while, but it's damned odd too. Whilst I have worked for him they have been in numerous buildings and places at the same time and have both managed to avoid each other like the plague, and I don't know if it's either by luck or choice. When he went to the family holiday on St Bart's, she left the same day. He didn't see her but I did. I happen to know the miserable bastard has hated the last few years visiting the golf retreat in Scotland and now I know why, the dumb fuck was waiting for her to show her face and did nothing about it when she didn't show, but he is oblivious to the fucking obvious, for the past god knows how many weeks he has been telling Ros to get her here, just to see her?"

"Wow, really?"

"He doesn't know how to woo a woman, just fuck and screw them. This one is different. Gail likes her already and she treats Gail with respect, so she went up in my estimation right there and then."

"Why what did she do?"

"Washed her own fucking dishes..."

"What? Gail likes her because of that?"

"Listen kid, some of those half baked lunes he fucks, they all but want Gail to fucking wipe their butts for them. This one's a keeper."

"She is different; she looks similar, but is poles apart from the last four I have seen him with."

"She is a world apart from them. The loss they share has brought them together."

"The baby, that's fucking sad."

"He has cried himself to sleep every night since he found out about his son. Gail knows only too well the loss Ana feels, she lost three babies like that and it's pulled at her heart too. So tread carefully if you have to visit the grave, it's very emotional for them both."

"You followed them didn't you, the first time?"

"It's what he pays me for; he doesn't know half of what we do to protect him, so protect her the same way."

"I have done..."

"What do you mean you have done?"

"I took out the trash..."

"In the compactor?"

"No, he went to visit a graveyard..."

"In London?"

"No, in the Swiss countryside near her place there, when I threw Frost in that compactor, as he got out he called Hyde, he then arranged to meet him and so when Ana went to bed that night I went along and followed them to a bar, where they were caught on camera arguing about money and Frost told the whole bar he'd kill him for double crossing him. After Frost left Hyde made a call and left the bar, I tailed him and he went to meet up with a woman, in the next village."

"Who was she, Lincoln?"

"Her mother Carla Steel. From what I heard he was selling her information on her own daughter, so when he was on his way home he met with an accident."

"Sawyer what the fuck did you do?"

"My job... He is all squared away. He owed a lot of people a lot of money, including the Frost guys, which is why they were arguing. Those immigrants they had working in their shops and factories, they were on loan from some bad men and let's just say, when their stock made a run for it they were out of pocket, and are people who, when crossed, they tend to leave their own particular calling card, which I mimicked."

"I won't ask more Sawyer, other than you did cover your tracks right?"

"Damned right, I was taught by the best. Sir... So the weathers wet again?"

"It is Sawyer. Now how was it by the Grey's? I don't mean the weather; I mean the fight between his mom and evil one?"

"T, it was fucking amazing, Mrs Grey is a feisty Mamma Bear. I have never laughed as much in my life. She will be hung-over for days. James just stopped her falling out of his old bedroom window too."

"I know, he called and has ordered a nurse to aid in her recovery for the morning, apparently she is nursing a bucket like it's her new best friend and was ordering Carrick to tie down the bed, and if he needs help with the knots to get his son to help..." We laughed.

"How will us being here help sort the Lincoln woman out?"

"In there she keeps her files, and we know she does a full dossier on all her boys, so if she has a new one or any that are still underage or within the statute of limitations, then Carrick will deal with it."

"All those years of protecting his ass and she is throwing him to the wolves, he trusted her more than you T."

"He trusted the wrong people."

"Yet he trusts Ana, why do you think that is T?"

"They are equal and yet different, were she is mature for her years, he is immature for his years. He is emotionally stunted, afraid and happy to be a loner. Ana, Ana is the one who shouldered all the things about the baby alone and was strong and very mature about it all. Elsewhere in her life she surrounds herself with family and seems to put his and their needs before her own. Now, here comes Kavanagh."

"Who knew she owned this building, what's the chances of that?"

"Pretty good actually Sawyer, his father lives here and his first office was set up here, and he used this bank before it shut for his work papers, so it stood to reason when it closed he'd buy it, but according to Barney, his oldest friend and Ana's Papa Frank needed somewhere to store all the paperwork from his son and he was and still is Kavanagh's biggest client, Ana's father Franklyn Lambert Junior. He and his father both amassed quite the property portfolio so between the Lamberts, the Kavanagh's have done pretty well for their ten percent."

"How the hell do you know this stuff T?"

"I always say it's not what you know but who, and we have Barney and Welch and all the little computer folks locked in the basement at Grey House."

"Taylor, it's nice to see you is Ana here?" Ethan Kavanagh says as he jumps from his car.

"They were finishing off their chat. Here they are now..." I watch as the boss and his lady grin like two lovesick horney kids. I for one am very pleased he is changing...

"Ethan..." Ana shouts as she runs to him, and I swear the boss turned puce... Get over yourself, you know as well as I do he'd prefer you in his bed to your ladylove. I grin and get my head in the game, I Have done nothing but fucking gossip...

* * *

I thought I'd give Luke and Taylor some employee bonding lol... So Jack is dead... Now what's in store behind Elena's storage units door?

Read and review and I love you love this story...


	19. Chapter 19

This is my story just using the lifestyle of some of fifty shades and the characters.

It is a HEA, but there are bumps in the road getting there.

So, enjoy the longer than first anticipated story and relax there is no cheating either.

* * *

Dreaming of Chocolate and Grey:

Chapter 19:

I broke the boy and made the man:

I get home in the foulest of moods, he has pushed me to my uppermost limit and his mother is in for a rude awakening, she is going to be cast out of polite society when her arch enemy Chelsea Madden gets those photos of her Baby Boy Christian hanging naked especially those of him being pleasured by a man. I am nobody's fool and they will find this out for themselves. That is as soon as I have cleared away the smell of meat and fish faeces from myself. Then sought out medical help to reset my expensive and broken new nose and he can do a home visit. Then I need to see to the boy hanging in my dungeon, he's been there since this afternoon, he should have wet himself by now which will lead to another punishment? Daniel Madden is not quite as good as Christian, but he will learn to do as I say eventually, he is a tad younger than fifteen, which is not my usual age, but he is like Christian has anger and touch issues, this one is a little immature at fourteen year old with Daddy Issues. I ride home with rage brewing like never before, I waltz into my home and strip as I walk through the house fuming I cuss the boy and his fucking family...

"I made Christian-Fucking-Grey and I will destroy him and he will be sorry he crossed me."

I am clean and the doctor has put my nose in a splint, he wanted ten grand for that visit, but will bill me fifty for my claim against The Grey's. I head to my dungeon and find Danny is clean, yet desperate to relieve himself, so no punishment for that damn it. I swing him around and allow him to free himself of the urine he has been storing for hours. He is so grateful. I play with my pet for a while; his butt is in training so I change it up a little and use the next size of anal vibrator on his ass, this boy likes ass play that much is clear. I am very good at it after all and Christian loved it, and he could take on the biggest of my strap-on's and took it like a man, long and hard, only he thinks he was just my play thing, the stupid and trusting boy.

Blindfolds are such good fun, he never knew he'd been butt fucked by a man, he always thought it was me at play. Sebastian was very good too; alas he is a long time dead now there's another one who went it alone, when he should have stopped with me. I would have seen to it his Dom was a good one, he was another man who forgot what he owed me and went where the good money was to be had, but with that money came risks and he paid the price of leaving me with his life, he went for danger and I warned him time after time to run and not return, but each time his allowance was increased and the gifts increased and the stupid fool went back.

Now I am paid to keep the secret of his death by his Dom, who with my help made his death look like it was a self inflicted sex act on himself gone wrong, only what the man didn't know was that clever little Seb recorded the whole thing, I knew what he did and when the gent in question left to get himself an alibi and I righted the hotel room, I took all evidence of the gents stay with me, including the recording. A month later I got the million I asked for and keep the duplicate recording as my rainy day stash, I taught Dear Sebastian well. If the gent in question knew I had what I had on him still, I'd have to run and never look back...

I laugh... When will my boys learn that I look out for my pets and punish the ones who run away, one way or another I get what I am owed. Those photos I have of Christian will make him wish he'd been good to me and not strayed from my path, and for choosing that mousey bitch to settle down with, when I offered him all that and more? I will make his life pointless and his business will be done for. Nobody will want to do business with a man seen beating a child and fucking her in the ass, Leila did look like a child of fourteen, especially in the right light too. I am glad their interviews were done in my offices and not in his room at Escala. Though he got wise to that after her, with the following girls I had no chance of taking discrete photos. Trust nobody has always been my teaching and did he listen to my advice, the answer to that is no. I am brought back to the boy in hand because Daniel is fucking crying; what for I do not know why, because this is nothing to what he will have to endure.

"Mistress can I come, please let me down, and let me come..." Tutt, tutt his orgasm denial it needs some work as does his talking. "Mistress Please..." I slice into his skin with the cane, this weekend he as a mixed bag of welts to take home with him later, camp sleepovers are ideal for longer time spent with my younger pets, a full weekend of fucking with them and making them mine. "ARGHHHHHH..." He cries, so I repeat, because I love the sound of the cane on flesh...

"Speaking is forbidden and now you must be punished." I raise the cane and bring it down harshly, Grey has made me angry and this young flesh will pay for his behaviour.

Daniel's Mommy and Daddy are glad to be rid of their unruly child for a couple of days and I get to train him longer. Grace and Carrick never complained at the peace that my taking Christian gave her. Sure okay, she never knew I had him... I laugh and mark Daniel's skin again and again. I'd go to their home for tea and meals and she'd thank god for the peace, and these lacerations to my face are how she has thanked me? Now she knows the truth of how the beast was tamed, she hates me? I whip Daniel a little too harshly, as I get angrier and he calls out red several times, I can't concentrate so leave him tied to the whipping bench, I need to start my payback and deliver on my promise or Christian will think I am weak, and I am far from weak. I make the call.

"Gerry, have the clean car brought around in ten minutes, I have to go to my storage unit."

I look at the kid crying and think of a happy time when that boy was Christian, the promise he showed the first time I took him was impressive, taking his virginity was the best one I have taken to date, I expected a quick fuck and he'd be done, but when he lasted as long as he did I knew I had a good boy for training on my hands. I was proved right, time and time again. He was masterful and stubborn and I knew he would be a natural for more and took the beatings and the punishments well and I rewarded him with my body. How right was I? Very... He was my sole focus for far too long, in fact too long because I became too comfortable being his Domme and being with only him turned my hard heart softer, and then he turned the tables and he beat me and fuck it felt good to be owned by him, I'd have agreed to anything to keep him. I wished I was enough for him and young enough, alas I was not able to stop the aging thing, because I find mother nature is a bigger bitch than me...

He broke my hard heart when he ended things, and I know my eyes wanted to cry, alas I think my tear ducts were blocked with Botox or perhaps he would have stayed had he seen a tear or two, but I taught him love was for fools, and so who was the fool? Me, for teaching him that there was no love to be had in this damned world, I was the fool and making him believe it, it cost me his love and affection, something I noticed he has with this Ana she touches him and he likes it, I could only dream of touching him like that, I had to restrain the boy to touch those pot holes on his body and I touched and kissed each one and because I did, he beat me one last time and he left, when I eventually let him out of the harness that is. I hated the day I did that because that was the day I lost him for good. He ended the sexual contract we had and moved on to his own younger submissives, something to this date I have had to try hard to endure and I hate it, I hate that he gives his gift to others and not me. The thought of him with others kills a part of me daily. Knowing they were reaping the rewards of my training; they get to have my perfect man and my man he will always be and will be again. He will never escape me; I trained him to need me in ways he has yet to comprehend...

This Ana woman, she can't take the life he needs and he will soon come running back. He needs me and the life we had, when he has had a play at this normal little girl, he will come back, he may even come back to me and fuck me again, I hope so? I miss him in ways I never thought possible and looking for the boys who look like him fills a void he left, but no one will ever be my Christian, not even Isaac. My number one submissive, he too is getting too old for me but he is the nearest thing to Christian I have. Danny best start improving and soon. I tend to his welts. Realise him and tell him to clean the dungeon before I return.

"Yes Mistress." He has his head bowed as I leave. There's hope for him yet, he's still painfully shy and is going to be as big as Christian, his dick for a fourteen year old is something spectacular, he is blessed in the size department and he hadn't used it for anything other than peeing out of, and the taking of it was all mine, he even cried the first time I made him come, he was terrified and it turned me on and made me think this one could be even better than Grey, I was indeed fortunate to get one so naive...

I go to get my photo's of Christian, did the fool really think I didn't keep copies of the photo's I had of him? I know his computer guy purged the systems and storage where I had them digitally saved, but nothing beats old school paperwork, even if storing the mass of files is expensive, it's worth it. I live comfortably on the things I have in my files. I get in the car and Gerry drives me to the old Wells Fargo bank, to my second floor storage room. I should consider the third floor for the better security; the third floor is totally encased in rebar steel reinforcements, the whole floor is a massive block of concrete with rooms only the uber rich can afford, that floor I am told is impossible to break into and is in fact impenetrable, with the steel and the elevator doors have all manner of codes attached to having a door on the floor of three, I may have a little floor envy.

Perhaps when I sue Grace and Christian Grey for millions in damages I will pay my smallish debt to this company and upgrade a floor? If people try to get into my room, they can only get in from the ceiling in the one below mine so I am half way covered? We arrive and I take out my card. Trebmal Secure are an old established keeper of secrets and they have kept mine for years. I head to the unit after swiping my card to get in through the gates, I scan it again to get in the building and walk down the futuristic corridor towards the security guards door, where I scan it again and smile, it's like trying to get into Fort Knox, and yes I was told when I took out the contract. Johnson was a rich old fool I married for his money and I didn't trust backs keeping it safe, so I got a box and as time went on with my new business, I needed the upgrade to a room. Now business is struggling I am too, surgery does not come cheap and it is why I was stealing from Esclava and Christian, I did it for him too.

"Name and identification Ma'am?" He looks on the computer before him and takes a call, crap I had hoped their accounts offices were closed past midnight? I owe them a few months in fees, but I am good for it with the Grey payday looming.

"Elena Thompson Foster and here is my identification, it's old but it's good." Unlike my cheques...

"Ma'am. We have upgraded security since you were last here; we need both a fingerprint and a retinal scan now for admittance to the floors."

"Good to know my things are safe here, what do you want me to do?" He is looking at the monitors behind his desk and is smiling. I bet he is watching porn; it is so clichéd, a security guard on a night shift watching porn. I push the girls up and make him lose focus a little. If you have it flaunt it, then the pain in my head makes me remember I have a broken nose and panda eyes and bruises. I pop in another one of the strong pain pills and chat with the guy.

"Place your hands on the pads and it will take mere seconds." I gulp and wonder what departments it checks to get their information to match this print to? I have to ask before I possibly get arrested.

"Where do you store these prints and which data bases do you run them through to check I am whom I say I am?"

"Ever legal one we can Ma'am, Drivers Licence Office, local, statewide and countrywide law enforcement agencies, F.B.I. and C.I.A. and the D.E.A. and any ones the owner sees fit to use. These days there is a lot of people to watch out for and catch. We have Interpol and just about everything added to this beauty. Since Homeland Security came about, this place is checked regularly because we are the best Ma'am. Is there a problem?" Why does he keep looking at the damned screen?

"No, not really only my name has changed. That's all."

"No worries Ma'am, women get married all the time." I gulp.

"What happened to the old pin number and checking my identification system you had before might I ask?"

"The system has just recently been upgraded. It now meets the highest of governmental standards in security and data protection facilities. We wouldn't just want anyone getting a room here. Is there going to be a problem?"

"No..."

Unless you call having an outstanding arrest warrant in my old name of Thelma Brunswick? Which is for fraud, theft and blackmail, those were not the charges that I was worried about the statute was up on those I think? No, the one that could possibly still send me away for a very long time, was the death of another of my Sugar Daddies, his death was my fault, he died because of my lack of knowledge on the type of erotic asphyxiation he wanted me to try on him, yup I strangled the man, just like my mother had done. It seems it is something you really need to master, which thankfully I have. I paid a man to make me disappear, and I am assured my birth name and the fingerprints they had on me in Delaware, were swapped with those of the homeless young girl who crashed into the river in Delaware, in Big Daddies stolen car. I died as Thelma that day and left for pastures far away and with a new name and brighter future.

That day Elena Blanche travelled all the way over to the other side of the country and started living in San Francisco. I was eighteen in reality and twenty five on paper and thought I knew everything there was to know, all I really knew though was how to please and entertain men, I had learned the art of fucking and loved it, I genuinely love to be fucked and to fuck, I would eat sleep and live it, in fact I do. I am addicted to sex like a drug user is addicted to their particular thrill seeking painkilling drug of choice. Mine is having Christian's cock throb and empty inside my pussy, those were the days, those days and times are gone for a while, but he and that dick of his will be mine again. I shudder at the mere thought of being fucked again by my boy, he is the best one I have taken by far, but Danny here could have the more he never had, the caring side I hate, but that caring side is what I may need when I get a lot older and need a nursemaid with gentle hands and a kindly soul.

I mean I think at sixty, which isn't that far away, I may need some enhancements down below a tighter pussy could do it for Chris, the tighter the better. I have looked after the money maker well and she has been used a lot, because hell yeah I knew how to please a guy, I'd been at it from the age of thirteen, and Momma taught me well and all out of our trailer in the trailer park where the male folks of Burrswood knew where a good time could be had, the women folks knew where their men were on payday and at the weekends and where their husbands wages were spent, it was there were the trash lived and the whores fucked 365-24-7 and I fitted in and got as much male attention as I wanted. I'd say hard times were had, but my life was all about sex and I loved it and that was no lie, the feeling I got from the first time I was amazing, I did do from the first man to take me in that way, I love sex and still do, and my Sugar Daddies paid me well. It was great whilst it lasted, that was until the day that Momma got arrested for killing a client, when one of their sex games got a little too heated. I was taken into foster when I was fifteen and was made to go to school and learn things. I'd had to put up with having a few dollars in pocket money, money I had to earn doing menial chores, so having no money for a few weeks was a shit thing for me to endure, I even tried it on with a couple of the foster dad's, but their wives didn't like having a vamp under their roof seducing their men and taking their money too.

So, I returned to my Sugar Daddies for comfort and support and money to buy the pretty things my magpies eye loved, my must have shiny jewels, and they paid me well for my luxuries and my schooling was forgotten and besides I was seeing to their needs, and I found old men are very grateful. That lasted until the state of Delaware threw me out of the foster system the day I turned eighteen, I'd had seven bad foster homes and had no savings to help me put a roof over my pretty head, so with a sort of loan from Big Daddy, my richest Sugar Daddy. I went on the run to pastures new. How was I to know the money I was loaned was not his for me to steal, sorry borrow? I ran my arse to the other side of the country just so the people he was holding it for didn't find me. I had read somewhere he was found in iddy biddy pieces all down the highway. I only took a few thousand dollars too, okay thirty grand, but it went nowhere and I soon ran out of funds again.

I'd ran clear to the other coast to San Francisco, I was free from any and all criminal records, and figured I could do what I did in Delaware and find myself a couple of older Sugar Daddies on this coast, alas they seemed to like to get their girls in clubs. So I worked in strip joints and as a high end escort until some time in my late twenties, dependant on real or fake ID. I moved to Vegas with the money I had, with the intentions of opening my own club, I found out I had a penchant for my mother's darker side, and there was a market for people wanting to be punished, but the club would have to wait, it was far more expensive than I first thought. That was when I started finding clients to entertain in their homes, I was a BDSM in home Dominatrix and pretty damned good at it I was an escort with a talent for BDSM and I learned many tricks in the clubs and flourished. I still wasn't getting steady work though and so I went on the prowl for Sugar Daddies who looked lonely, and there are hundreds in any given day in any casino and hotel on the strip. The trick was not to hit the same casinos twice, as I said there were plenty of old and gullible men out there waiting for me to hunt down and sex their wealth from them.

A couple of months later and after getting pretty damned good at fleecing old men from their winnings and servicing their needs I had a few thousand saved, but the nights I spent trawling casinos and clubs were proving to be not as lucrative as I thought they would be, I needed a lot of money and quickly, I wanted a club and money to bring to fruition the dark dreams of owning a unique and different bondage club and an amazing well equipped dungeon, in which I could entertain and put on one hell of a show and charge vast amounts of money to beat and fuck people for the right price. Then on one of my hunts I met, married and I rode out of Vegas and into my first husbands home, his large house in Utah. Large? It was a mansion as big as the Greys place and sold for a very pretty penny, and he had a bank balance to match and his old dick wasn't that shabby either.

He was called Eddie Thompson, my new husband, whom I married after spending just two nights getting to know him too, two nights of amazing sex lead us to the chapel of love, in Vegas, he was sweet and gullible and just the right type to say yes to my every whim and desire, which included the club I wanted. I took him for way more than I thought too, not only his big win in Vegas, but for everything he had saved over his eighty long years, the gullible fool had a large bank account and stocks in some family wood business, which as his widow was then mine. I fucked the old guy to death, but I can honestly say he died happy and with a smile on his face and I actually did not kill him his heart gave out when he popped too many blue pills or so the coroner said. I sold up and moved back to Vegas.

Then I met Joe Foster, and he was a nice yet lonely man too, if a little too trusting and desperately in need of female company, I mean who falls in love in an hour? Apparently he did, so I accepted the huge diamond he placed on my finger and we got married, he had a lovely little place in Henderson and as a bonus I didn't have to fuck him at all, as he choked on an olive waiting in my hotel room for me to return. I was already scoping the place for husband number three, if truth be told, and wondering how I would get his money from him before I ditched him? I did well out of Vegas two rich old men in two short months.

Then three years later I was approached to sell back my shares to Matthew Lincoln, Uncle Eddie had the controlling shares in the family business. That was the man who brought the rich and the great of Seattle into my life. I met Matthew Lincoln when I was selling him back the vast amount of shares Eddie had in Lincoln Timber... He was younger and a damned sight richer than both my old men combined and for a good few years it was great, he had his young stuff and I had my club, he kept me amused 'til his business took off, then he needed the young trophy wife I once was on his arm. I wasn't young enough for him, and I wasn't I guess? I was actually forty when I turned to young men, and I was forty one when Christian was gifted to me by Grace, Christian was twenty five years younger than me and he will never know my true age, thanks to surgery and a forged trail of paperwork, you see I'd used the first name change to up my age, after all you can't do anything good legally until you hit twenty one. I had the second age change to take off the years before I met Linc. He made me see that old was boring and I took my age range down a couple of decades, okay I liked them at fifteen and they liked to be taught and at fifteen are eager to learn. Though Danny is a little too immature to know that when he is coming it's not a hurting pain he feels but a fucking amazing feeling of orgasm reached. Unfortunately I am having to take baby steps because he is so young. I smile thinking about my old men and my young boys who for different reasons have made me happy, but Christian, Christian he made me delirious.

I press my fingers on the pad, after he tells me there is no getting in without it. He smiles and then asks me to stand in front of a optical reader for my eye. It seems the big money I paid to clear my old name and get my juvenile records sealed and my criminal past to disappear have worked. It seems it does pays to have a Sugar Daddy Judge in your back pocket and keep on the right side of the law with giving away freebies and blow jobs to law enforcement.

"That's fine Mrs Lincoln. I see you have married since you opened your account, according to your driver's licence at least?" He takes a call and I cross my fingers.

"And divorced again. Thank you. Do I still need to use the card and pin number?" I tone down my harshness a little as I do not want to come across as too cocky.

"Ma'am, you can scan your finger into the pad in the elevator now. It may take a moment to recognise the floor you need as you are new to the system and this is a very new security feature."

"How new?"

"This evening actually, you are only the second one to be screened tonight, I am expecting a few teething problems, hence the many phone calls, so they can manually talk me through this new thing." He smiles and I think I smile back. It's hard to say with the pain meds and the Botox.

"I would have loved to be the first." I joke with him, to hide my relief more than anything. "Alas I had a bit of an accident and had to have my nose reset. It was quite painful and I need my medical papers."

"Its fine you don't have to tell me why you need access to your room. Right you have been added to the system, you should expect some new paperwork in a few days. Mrs Lincoln."

"Am I alone in the building, the others are they still here?" I look around expecting god knows who to find me here.

"They have just left and are level three and have their own elevator and entrance and exit Mrs Lincoln. So please take your time, if you need me for anything then press the button at your door and I can have someone there to help you within minutes."

"Thank you, Clive I will tell you boss you were very accommodating." Thank god they are new to this system because I sure as shit owe them money and it will be on there somewhere, or that's what the new paperwork is, upping my fees to pay for this crap. My card and pass code worked very well a few weeks ago. I wonder if big money are using this place and if there are any Sugar Daddies out there still?

"Thank you Ma'am, that is very nice of you but unnecessary as there are sound and vision cameras everywhere."

"Good to know." I say not really meaning it.

"Ma'am, Fort Knox is the only secure storage establishment that is more secure than here and that's only because they have the special forces guarding the country's wealth and stock pile of gold." I hate small talk and head into the elevator. I scan my finger and it allows me access to floor two. I wipe off my finger print as I leave the confines of the elevator and head towards my room. I see the eye scanner and it sends a beam of red to scan my eye, and then the room is open to me... I open the door and what I see makes me sick to my stomach...

In and scanned:

Ana and I are joined by our security Taylor and Sawyer and when Ethan Kavagnah enters the building, there suddenly appears a huge team of workers from out of the vans that drive up to the doors like a presidential motorcade. What the hell is going on? Ana looks as confused as I do. The boss of the team has words with Ethan and then orders are bellowed out. Taylor and Sawyer stand back and seem to be at ease so I guess they are not coming for us then?

"Right start with the fingerprint units on the desk here and retinal unit there by the security station, you tech guys get in the new security offices and do your thing. Teams A and B start on floor one and five, then C and D start on two and four please, then E and F get right onto floor number three and six please, and remember this is a time sensitive job, we have to have all the rooms done tonight. The cables are there we just need them in action tonight, and then as you finish move to the basement rooms.

I am sorry I forgot about the service elevators. So the two elevator teams, we need the finger print and retinal scanners in the elevators working as soon as possible. Then we need to hook the infra red and night time cameras into the secure room, can you hear me in the new security rooms? I want the various cameras up and running ASAP. So move it people." I stand and stare and Ana looks like we have been invaded by NASA's geek guys and in their white coveralls they look like Umpa Lumpas, they have on face masks and blue covered shoes. Ethan looks at Ana and I and the teams all disappear to their floors. Okay not at all odd for a quick who's house is Elena living in question. He comes forward and smiles.

"Sorry about that folks, that all looked to special forces didn't it? Don't worry it's how we have to work, night time is best and they were working for my father at his place here. So Ana who are you looking for, so I can get their info on screen?"

"Elena Thompson Foster or she could be using the name Lincoln. Ethan what are they all doing here? I mean I counted a hundred men at least?"

"One hundred and twenty actually Ana, and all your businesses are covered like this every shop and store is treated like this, but using smaller set up teams of course. This one is the most secure facility in the country next to a few government buildings and we have been working on it for months, this was a week away from being completed, but I pulled everyone off their other job at the head office here to finish it tonight, if it's not finished when whoever it is we want gets here, then Clive our resident thespian here will fake it. Right Clive, James Bond type security scanners you have seen them at my father's New York place right?"

"I think I can do that Boss, but It's not me doing the lessons, my girlfriend is taking them." I smile as he blushes, light hearted banter is just what I need right now but Christian has every reason to be upset and worried, we just have to get into the room.

"Ethan, I won't ask why I need all this crap, but if you say I do, then I do, but eyes scanned and finger prints, _it is very James Bond like but is it worth our clients risking hands being lopped off and their eyes being gouged out though_?"I think I have a valid point, and that this is way too over the top.

"Fair point, but the first three doors are card and codes and when they get to security here they have walked past multiple hidden x-ray machines, its similar to a luggage scanner in and airport, I do believe someone came up with the idea whilst watching an Arnold film; Total Recall I think, and if it's good enough for airports, it's good for here? So there is no way to get a knife or a gun in here. Then as to the hand and the eye, I think the guards would also note if the eyes being presented were in a jar and the hands were not on a living person Ana. Plus the thumb needs to be pulsing Ana."

"Is there a lot of expensive paperwork and stuff hidden here and why do I or rather you, have access to a supposed secure impenetrable room or box? That room or box is secret and they pay enough for all this tech stuff to need and want their secrecy, so surly only the owner should be allowed in?"

"Good question Ana, but we have the power to override it, if members of the law come in with an 'open it warrant' or if legal representatives with relatives come in with 'we have our dead relatives will here and we don't have any codes warrant's' If they have the correct paperwork having an override key is better for us; it saves getting in the safe crackers and dishing out the dynamite."

"So you have the override code then?" Christian asks, whilst I keep my eyes peeled for Elena.

"I do as your representative and you do too as the owner. Your fathers and grandfather left a hell of a lot of property and intellectual copy rights to thousands of songs too. His actual song lyrics and the napkins and books he used are in here too as well as anything paper, or work related things he and your Papa Frank used are stored here and everything we have worked on at your fathers and grandfather behest to keep you safe is in here too. Tax records and receipts for everything from the paperclips you and they use to the homes upkeeps, and everything you buy is kept here. Also here are backups for everything digital. Though there is another offsite storage site too for the master copies of your fathers sessions in the sound booths."

"Wow... I haven't come to look in mine; I just recognised the name was the same as the one on one of those dumb cards you give me when we upgrade security in Detroit, is this expensive all this tech stuff, and is it Trebmal or Lambert spelt backwards for a reason too? Does it make money too, if not..." Ana is shaking her hand; she hates spending money on lost causes, that much I do know.

"...It's never ending Ana, the updates needed are constant. Everyday there are better things at keeping your stuff safe. But it more than pays for itself and buying this even with the updates has paid for itself within ten years of your father's death, and the money now is ploughed back into the building. We have three sub levels, six top floor levels and all the units are full and all your clients pay highly to keep their things and paperwork safe, the wait list to get rooms or boxes here is endless, some people die before they get a room here. Only death, and a warrant and lack of payment to protect gets you past the door to a clients locked room or box. So let's get this woman found shall we?" Christian and I watch as he types stuff into the computer and taps even more keys and two more sets of codes. He then places his finger on a portable scanner device and smiles. "She has a small unit on the second floor, in the name of Elena Thompson Foster, and she is behind in her security payment by six months, good to know she has broken her contract in failing to contact us with a cheque for the arrears. When do you expect her here?"

"Any time Ethan, she has photos of me and this is because of me being blackmailed and actually has nothing to do with Ana. Ana is trying her best to protect me."

"Hey, if my boss wants you protecting, she is doing it for a reason. Now, Elena has made several visits to it in the past year. One about six weeks ago before we started updating security. She opened her account here with a cash transaction of a quarter of a million dollars for a box and then upgraded to a room on floor one fifteen years ago, for a further quarter of a million dollars. Then ten years ago she got a room on floor two below you for two million dollars. This is building is a very expensive lease hold and a very lucrative service and storage fee unit." Ethan shows me her login and her codes.

"Whoa, a safety deposit box coasts you a cool 250,000 thousand dollars and you still don't own it or any of the building?" I get this, but apparently Ana does not. Mine and my father firm and Elliot's is in Grey House four floors below the building and is the safest place in the whole damned building. A building which was built on top of it. "What does everything else here cost Ethan?"

"Ana, you are just giving them a life lease on the room or box and it is not transferable either, death means you find a place for your kin folks papers elsewhere. A box is quarter of a million, the small rooms on floor one can come to you for as little as a half a million dollars, the large room you have is five million. Which is only because it is the safest floor and they are the safest rooms in the whole building. The floor below yours number two and four above it, they both cost two million and then the million dollar rooms are on floors five and six. The three basement rooms are dependent on size and range from a million to a million and a half."I see Ana's head is about to explode.

"They what, they cost how much? Never mind, I just hope that me renting mine is a tax right off or a deductable as you lot say?"

"Ana, it needs to be done. That's what you pay us for to look out for you. Clive, remember the face and the name and if this woman comes in before we leave keep her talking, use those acting lessons you are taking pay, make her do a fingerprint scan and everything else to keep her here until we tell you we are through, have her take coffee in the waiting lounge if needs be."

"Can we get this over with? I want to be sick, why did you never tell me about this place Ethan?"

"It was written in the paperwork we signed for your Grandfather, that you were never to know anything that would cause you pain and suffering Papa Frank guessed this would cause you just that."

"He was right to keep it from me. Christian do you want a room near mine?"

"No Baby I do not, but you are more than welcome to use one of mine, and move your rooms to Grey house, if owning this is too much for you."

"Oh god you have one of these too?"

"Until paper billing and the use of anything paper or plastic becomes obsolete then yes, and the government like us to pay to store the crap we have too, yet allows us to write it off as an business expense. Ethan, does your father still store his goods here?"

"Yeah, we have the room next to The Lambert vault."

"Good to know my accountants like the place then, do I give you a discount too?" Ana says as she finally smiles.

"I believe we get mates rates? I only know my father loves this damned place it's his baby and the Russians like it too, in fact you had an offer from some oligarch a few years ago. He wanted it for peanuts though."

"Good to know I guess?" Ana says as we are stood outside room fifteen. Something I find amusing needless to say Ana doesn't. "Open the door Ethan, have they nearly finished?"

"Yes as I said it's taken a lot to get this system in place, especially on the floor above us, our floor. The door is open, we will reset the floor cameras and door responses once its emptied and it will show the last person was in here four days ago and he was just fitting the security features and was filmed whilst doing it and in a security suit and had a guard."

"Put your hand in there then and get us in, Sawyer Taylor, guns drawn in case she has a prisoner in there."

"They would be cold or dead then; the rooms are temperature controlled Ana." He puts on gloves and lets us in and I swear I am stunned by the amount of boxes and the file cabinets, holy fuck. Taylor gives Ana and I each a set of disposable gloves too. I am shocked and stunned.

"I think she needs a new room." Ana says as she stares at the packed room as she puts on the gloves.

"Taylor are the removers here?" I ask.

"On stand by Sir."

"Ethan this lot has to be out of here ASAP and taken to where I thought there would be a few boxes and a file cabinet." I say as I am shocked at the amounts she has in such a small room.

"Sir there is a van and several movers we can empty this in no time."

"I hate doing this to someone else's property, this Ethan is illegal but we have no choice but to play her at her own game, she is beyond evil and I think what we are doing today will be for the greater good."

"We will have to be quick, as you say she can come in at anytime." Ethan says. Ana goes in and looks at the names on the files and she stops at mine and takes out one of many files. Fuck do not look at them Baby. I think but do not say. She doesn't look but she does shake her head as she hands it to me. I take one look and want to vomit. These are in a file named Downfall. These are the ones she intended to release to the press. I am taken aback and Taylor and Sawyer show the guys to the room. I walk out with Ana and Ethan.

"So, how will we explain all this? I mean we have everything we need, what happens now?" Ana asks.

"She will ask us to look into it, then if she is not happy with what she sees, then she is within her rights to files a police report, the irony of it is she cannot divulge what is in here or she would open herself up to prosecution. We will show the police everything we have and it will show her and them exactly nothing. The workers are finished on this floor and are in the basement rooms, as I said it is a quick job. The video cameras alas were only just being put in and missed only tonight's activities, she won't be able to prove anything came and went as our clients do not like the garages filmed for obvious reasons."

"I took the liberty of using black vans the same as the security firms Sir."

"Good, look Ana and I will wait in the car, what are you going to do Ethan?"

"Help you, if that's what you want. I have signed all the paperwork your man gave me and it's a given I will take Ana's secrets to the grave, as I will do yours."

"I may need help tomorrow, but for now get home to Jose, and I am sorry I disturbed your night." I say to Ethan as Ana hugs me. I don't want hugging though and sort of pull away. "Come over and look at the empty apartments and in Escala. I owe you Ethan."

"Anything I can do to help, I will, just give me a call." We are back in the reception area. "Clive we are leaving, and as soon as the room is empty and Taylor here or Sawyer up there give you a signal, reset the door latches on floor two and get the cameras going when the last van leaves the site."

"I will do. It's been a good night so far, I usually watch a game or play solitaire, or Angry Bird on my phone. Good evening Mr Kavanagh and Miss Lambert and Mr Grey. Taylor are you going back up?"

"I am, Sir we will ride to Escala with the boxes and have them placed in the apartment below yours."

"No, no take them to Grey House and place them in the secure room there. I want people I trust only going through those files... This one I will keep with me, when they are locked away, get back to Escala, it seems we will have a busy couple of days and she will be hanging around like a bad smell, so it has to appear normal, I work when I am here and do not want to change my routine. Ana, what will you do?"

"I guess stop in and work on my recipes if you do not need my help?"

"Ana... The things in this file are repulsive and this is just one file out of a whole cabinet of them. I don't want you tainted by things you will see. Okay?"

"Okay, did you forget I know of your world and that I also like making chocolates, I can either help you or help myself, do not over think anything Christian, I mean it, so if and when you need me shout out. Perhaps we can be seen around the city eating lunch or something?"

"I'd love for you to join me for lunch, but for now do you think we can go home and grab something to drink and eat, I'm starving." Ethan laughs; he knows I have massive food problems.

"I think that will be fine. Don't forget to bring Jose and he can have a sqwiz at the new chocolate lines for me." She gives him a hug and a kiss and he drives off, so do we. I may have been very pissed off with her then and I did not mean to be. I drive us home and we head in the elevator to the penthouse.

"You may want to change the codes for all your properties as a precaution Christian."

"They were change when we found out about her fraud with the salons. Ana, she is out of my life."

"So what was in the file you hated seeing?"

"Was I that obvious?"

"You went the colour of your name, a very pale grey. How does it feel knowing you have the evidence you need to sink her?"

"Do I have it though I mean, I have a room full of papers and photos, she was going to give these to someone and I don't know who, but this woman I do know she's called Chelsea Madden and I know she knows Elena because for a while she was in my mother's book and wine club."

"Okay I know her too; she is the lady who owns The Seattle Society Magazine. She works for the family business, Seattle Independent News and Media, am I right? Her and her brother run it; it's a family business and her husband is a war correspondent for The Times? I happen to know she loves the old Lust chocolates and wants to do a magazine spread, however I have yet to say yes or no. I could ask her how she knows Elena?"

"You don't need to. I know who she is, because she ran against my mother for a seat on the charities board, her and my mother do not see eye to eye about my mother having her own charity and having a say in where Seattle's Board of Trade Charity donations go."

"Your mother has enough with your donation and the ball she does yes?"

"Yes, god yes, I would never see my mother's charity suffer any kind of hardship, but I don't have to worry, my parents make it work easily. They get another billionaire in each year to match my donation and we usually go head to head for the first dance with Mia, last year it was that damned Gideon Cross, from Crossfire Industries."

"Me? She invited me to one up you?"

"She did..."

"The sneaky woman."

"That's my mother for you, she is a hell of a daughter, wife, mother and friend, who it seems knows just how to tenderise a frozen steak, is a bad drunk, but above all those amazing things she is a great doctor and the most determined woman I know, well she was until I met up with you again."

"I like going to war with Grace, I want her on team Ana when this goes down and it will, because it looks like Elena was all set to feed your information to her to upset your mother? So I guess I will have to decline their offer, and do the spread James Kavagnah, Kate's uncle asked would I do an issue for the twenty fifth anniversary concert, Kavagnah Media would get the exclusive, and for that they offered me a million dollars, all donations are then to your mothers charity?"

"Madden would be fuming. It seems I will be digging deep for Coping Together this year."

"She shouldn't have sided with Mrs Robinson. Now we are here and you seem to have cheered up. Is the file bad?"

"Yes Ana, so bad that I didn't know they had taken some of the photographs."

"Can I see them?"

"I'd prefer you didn't Ana, they are of something I had no idea had actually happened."

"Is it bad, I mean as in bad or embarrassing you bad?"

"Embarrassing me bad. So much so if I were to see Elena right now, I would run her over and feel nothing." Ana gets a call.

"Ouch. Hold on Luke... Yes Luke you are on speaker..."

"Ma'am. She has turned up and we are heading out when she goes inside. The room is empty Mr Grey, Sir and the vans are packed."

"Was there any surprises Sawyer?" Christian asks.

"There was a locked safe we were able to torch it from its floor bolts and have it and its contents to look through. Some of these files go back at least three decades Sir. It seems she kept files on everyone she has ever come into contact with."

"Well then take it all to Grey House and Ana and I will see you in the morning. Thank you for helping me today Sawyer, I appreciate it."

"Thank you Sir. Taylor says we are good to go, she is passing through the x-ray tunnel."

"Good I will see you in the morning; I have supplies to buy for chocolates. Do they still have the great farmers market at Pike Place?"

"They do indeed Ma'am." I love how at ease she is with her security, I know Taylor is good at his job perhaps I should start telling him he is occasionally. They all look surprised when I say please and thank you, perhaps I need to learn more of the hearts and flowers shit, I mean the nice and friendly emotion that Ana has by the lorry load?

"Good eight in the morning I need to run and we need to pass the market."

"I will get straight to my bunk when we have squared away here Ma'am." Ana giggles as we pull into the garage.

"Bye, see you at eight." She ends the call. "Wow Christian, you like your Audi's, are they all yours?"

"I guess they are. You may use any you want."

"I will leave that to Sawyer to choose. I am on a happy to being driven trip this time. So, we are home. Home is the weary traveller."

"We are indeed home Ana." I help her out of the car and we head up. Whilst in the elevator I pull her towards me and kiss her, the passion in the kiss warms my cold heart. She and I fit, if that's even a thing fitting? We are the round peg round hole type of fit. We are as one. As she pulls away she has a glint in her eye. "Ana, what's going on in your head?"

"Your playroom is where the action will be in ten minutes... I will be the one naked and waiting." She says as she exits the elevator. "I think you need to use me a little..."

"Ana..."

"No Christian, this is that give and take thing, besides I think you need it. Nine minutes and counting..." Fuck me she knows my needs and is willing to sub for me, fuck me indeed Miss Lambert.

I shower and change into my favourite well worn jeans; I forgo the top and head bare foot up to my playroom. The sight I see when I open the door fills my head with all sorts of wild images. She is sat in the preferred pose, and her hair is braided down her back, she is looking down at the floor, she is knelt with spread legs, her hands rest on her olive thighs, palms up, good. This position shows me that Ana has the will to serve and the position of the hands with palms up also signals that there is no aggression. She is perfection, my piece of perfection. I tug at her braid and smile and wonder what her hard limits are? I have never entered this room not knowing how far I can take my submissive.

"Ana..."

"Sir..." I gulp because I expected her to use my name, "what do you wish from me?"

"I need you to know I appreciate this Ana."

"Sir, I am yours to appreciate. Safe words Sir?" She says with her head still bowed.

"Will not be required, if you tell me to stop I will Ana. This isn't your typical Dom/Sub thing Ana, this is a relationship."

"I am here for both mutual gratification and to be a little more understanding of my boyfriends needs. I have one request; I do not like suspension play."

"Good to know. Keep your face down." I walk towards the drawers where I keep the small tools and toys. I turn to look at her and grin salaciously, she is perfection and mine. I put the genital claps to one side, but pick up the nipple clamps and a small anal butt plug, if I understand her correctly and I think I do, all her virgin territories are mine to claim and train. I grab an eye mask and ear plugs, sensory deprivation is today's scene. I place the things on top of the box and head over and lift her head up so I can see her eyes. She looks at me and I want to just throw her on the bed and fuck her hard and long. I raise her up and she follows me. I point at the St Andrew's Cross and she stands, silent and looking straight at the cross and I grin. I go to my wall of restraints and grab the fur lined cuffs for her wrists and her ankles. She is silent and staunch, her hands are by her side and she waits, I can't even tell if she has seen the things I intend using on her? She gives nothing away as I fasten the cuffs to her wrists.

"Thank you Sir..."

"Ana, we don't have to use Dom names."

"In here yes we do, this is your playroom and you have rules in here, out there it is Ana and Christian, in here it is Sir and what, Slave?"

"I usually do not use anything other than Girl, I use hand gestures and tell them what I want."

"Well Girl I am then."

"I like Slave Baby..."

"Tutt, tutt, tutt I think you will find that's Slave or Girl. Sir? Baby is my name out there" I smile and kiss her mouth to silence her. I may break more than a few rules in here with her. I even feel differently in here with her, it's like this is no longer a room in which I have to rid myself of the build-up of frustration and angst, but a room in which I get to discover the wickedly nice and kinky more with her.

"Girl, less talking..." She bows her head and I smirk. I fasten the cuffs to the cross and her ass in there for me, I take the soft leather cat in my hand and begin letting the loose tendrils fall over her back. The top of the whip traces down to the top of her pert and deliciously formed buttocks, and with the bulbous end of the whip I trace the line from her perineum to her vagina, she takes in a deep breath as I move in forwards and backwards against her ever moistening folds, I whip her gently, softly and with more patience and restraint than I usual have in here.

"I think we should play to music..." I pick up the remote and a Prelude to the Afternoon of a Faun, by Claude Debussy is the first track on my classics list. It seems very apt really. I place the whip to the side and take an ostrich feather and it fans her body and she clenches the cuffs and moans, my hand slaps her right buttock and her left, I leave a mark, a soft pale hue, she groans and I move closer. My hand cups her sex and I feel the wetness of her and as I stroke and tease her, she stays silent, but bites her lips and as the music becomes louder and faster my fingers invade, I don't feel the same, this doesn't feel the same. I move strip from my jeans and my body falls against hers, my hands trace her body starting with her restrained wrists and they search out every curve of her body.

My hand reaches forward and my fingers revisit the wetness. My other hand tweaks her hardened nipples and still she is silent.

"Do you like this Girl?"

"Umm, yes Sir, very much." I grab the nipple clamps and attach them, she gasps as they pinch her already hard nipples as I gently pull at the chain joining them and as one hand torments her breasts the fingers from the other invade and play with her sex, I can feel her getting close. I remove them and make her taste herself, she sucks and pulls my fingers inside her warm mouth and my dick rises between her legs, it's searching for its way home, I enter her and as soon as I do her body relaxes, as mine stiffens and I forget myself and pound my dick into her harshly and what utter joy I feel as her body responds and yet she is still only gently moaning in approval.

"Ana, fuck me Ana, you feel so good... Talk to me Baby, please?" She groans louder and she grabs the restraints and tenses... "You may come Ana, come for me..."I lather her butt with her own juices and suck on the small anal vibrator and as she sings out her orgasm I place it gently inside her. The music changes to the Girl with Flaxen hair and as the keys are struck Ana calms and groans. Slave, Girl and Sir are abandoned as we get lost in passion. Who'd have thought this room would see love within its walls?

"Christian, oh god please give me more..." My girlfriend is amazing... I fuck her hard and as I fuck the vibrator moves within her ass, I grab her shoulders and pound harder and harder into her. Mr Debussy is an amazing composer to fuck to... I have many hours of differing music on my iPod and intend to try all manner of them with her, she tenses again as the music flits from song to song, I need my release and as she comes again for the umpteenth time I unfastened the restraints and catch her as she falls from the cross, I place her on the bed and fasten her to the bed frame using the brass hooks, I free her butt from the vibrator, and when I do her rose sucks back and I smile, that is going to be a such a pleasure to take and only mine... I climb between her legs and she stares. My tongue finds her sopping wet sex and I feast on her juices, I bring her close and stop and as I do she groans.

I look up and smile, she is attempting to gain freedom from the cuffs, I work my way up her body and as I kiss her our tongues seem to begin a war, and I ram my dick in her sex hard and as I do I bite her tongue and groan, fuck me... I slide into her slickness and as I feel her near I take the chain in my mouth and as she comes I pull hard and her swollen nipples turn from near blue to dark purple, I suckle and as she continues to come, I suckle and feast on her tits and as I do I come hard, fucking hard, I fill her and I groan as I pull out and my seed is escaping from her, she is marked by me, she is mine... Truly mine...

"Oh god Anastasia you are fucking amazing." The music has stopped and I am lain on her smiling, she has yet to ask to be released. I get off and go to the bathroom and rinse a flannel in warm soapy water and as I return she is groaning.

"Ana, what's the matter?"

"After shocks and good feelings Christian, fucking good feelings..." She comes and I watch in amazement. I grin and wipe her with the hot flannel and as I tend to her she explodes around my hand. God she is amazing. I continue to clean her and when I am finished I unbuckle her, she looks wiped out. I know I feel amazingly calmed.

"So, this was different Ana."

"Good or bad different?"

"The best kind of different. Here let's get you up and into the shower. Its running for you."

"Do you not want to join me?"

"I was awaiting an invite..."

"Consider yourself invited." I pick up the things we have used and she grins.

"I will clean the room, first go and make it steamy in there Christian."

I have to wonder do the girls do all the cleaning? I tidy away everything we used including the poor abandoned feather, when he whipped me with it the eye split and it looks way beyond fixable. I giggle as I trash the poor things and place the butt thing in a bowl with the nipple clamps and as I do I look down and they have bitten into my nipples. Wow... I find the cleaning products and give the bed and the cross a liberal dousing in lemon scented cleaner. I look at his impressive collection of whips and floggers and I grin, who needs Satin and Steel when I have this, but that's the problem, do I have this? I need to know if we have a future together, I have told him how I feel and he knows I love him, but his reluctance in not saying it back hurts a little, if truth be told, it hurts a lot. I take the things to clean them in the bathroom.

When I get in he is facing the wall and he is bracing himself, he looks to be a glorious shade of pink. I love him more and more each minute we spend together and despite my saying I could return to the life I had before, I don't think I could. I would be heartless and cruel. I have loved him for an eternity, but he has never known how to love, but lord I want it to be he says those three little words to. Do I tell him I need to know or wait? I don't want to push him, for Christ's sake he won't even tell me what was in the file I picked up and did not read, because his eyes begged me not to. I guess I will find out whether this is working for him or not, in his own sweet time. He turns and I drop the things in the sink.

"Ana, Baby why are you crying? Come here."

"I didn't think I was, sorry I just get emotional now and then it's a girl thing."

"Is it more than that though? Ana be truthful with me, please?"

"I love you and this thing we have, you said this was home, in fact you said let's get you home?"

"Is that what's worrying you, my telling Elena we were moving in together and then back tracking when she left?"

"Sort of, I don't know where I stand in this. I want more and you don't want to commit to the more. I mean you do and then you don't, you are confusing me and this, this crap with her and that file, that is adding into the confusion I feel!"

"The file? All this is about the damned file?"

"No, and yes but mainly about the indecisiveness of all this," my hands point to the outer walls and I spin around, "this normal and quiet business tycoon stood before you Grey, me, yes little ole me, she is a confused wreck and yes that fucking file has pissed me off."

"Get in here, please you indecisive shrew, get that butt in here, please Ana?" I pad to the shower stall and he grabs at my hand and I am pulled under the soothing water. "Ana you want to hear me say I love you right?" I blush. "You want to know why I am indecisive and standoffish right?" I nod. "I am how I am because of years of never having to even consider these emotions Ana. I dismissed the girls who became clingy. Ana you are needy, you are clingy and we have our son who is an added yet shared raw and hurtful new emotion, everything we do is new and confusing Ana, fuck just meeting you again has added yet more confusion into my screwed with brain. Ana, just give me some space please, don't get too cling and needy, I don't think I can do that, please just let me figure this crap out, please?"

"Okay." I shower the sex from myself and leave him to his thoughts.

I dry myself off change into some comfortable clothes, grab my bag and head out of the ivory tower he has ensconced himself in. I need air, I need to fight the urge to scream and cuss myself for pushing him. I guess I have my answer and again, it's not the one I want, but I have it, he is not there or anywhere near admitting he has feelings for me. The dawn is breaking and I sit and stare at the water and wonder what the hell have I got myself into? I stare out at Elliot Bay. I am sat alone, tired and watching the day break over Seattle, I am trying hard to find my in the moment zone and make all these crap feelings go away and just live in the now. The bench on the pier is my safe place, but it is not the place I want to be, I want to be with Christian, I want to be hugged by my man and cherished. My phone has been ringing and ringing, and it has been doing since I left the safe confines of his damned Escala. I know I am being watched and I know it is Luke; because he has a different scent than the others.

I get up when my legs seem to go numb. I walk with no particular place to be, because I have no place to be here. I look in my bag and I have my passport and my wallet. I could fly away and not look back, and then coat my heart in some sort of perm-a-seal membrane? I need to do something; I need to encase it in some sort of permanent hard casing, not bubble wrap though. I have let emotion in and now I feel so much dread. I walk and I walk a long way too, all the time keeping the bay to my right. I find the ferry terminal and wonder how far she goes? I could sail away to India and escape to the hills and just walk until I hit the coast like Forrest did?

Instead I head to what looks like a beach, though the shore is littered with wood and some of it, well actually almost all of it is white sun bleached tree trunks and drift wood. I head to a large trunk and sit down; my phone goes again and again and I still ignore it. I take it out of my bag and I look at it, it's filled with missed calls from Christian and as I look at my eyes are suddenly filled with tears and I bawl like a baby.

"Are you going to answer that Ana?" Damn it, he arrives just as the damned tears start too. I wonder if the snitch Sawyer is about too?

"No, no I don't think I will thank you. What are you doing here Christian?"

"I came to look for my girlfriend." I breath in and out slowly.

"Did you find her?" I counter very sarcastically.

"I thought I had. She seems a little down though, are you Ana?"

"As in am I your girlfriend? If so I don't know if it's working for us. Yes, I am a feeling sad and unhappy and I'm not feeling a little down either, but in a fucking great chasm of down. What do you want Christian, I came out to be alone, and you having Sawyer tail me wasn't allowing me time to be alone. Now I find you tailing me too. Intrusive much Grey?"

"I am worried about you Ana, why did you leave me? Why walk away, why not stop and have breakfast and talk to me, Ana why did you run away and leave me fearing the worst?"

"I needed some thinking time. You need your space from me and I need some space from you. What did you think I'd do runaway and hide out or a few more years?"

"How did you work out from that conversation I needed space Ana and for you to leave me to get it?"

"Do you or do you not need time to think about things? Do you do you not need my clingy needy ways, eh well tell me how the fuck can I not be confused Sunshine?"

"Yes, but I want you in that space to help me figure this emotional crap out, I don't need to be alone to think Ana. I just needed time to get my head around this Elena thing. I need my girlfriend with me to help me. My needy clingy girlfriend, who I have been looking for four fucking hours, it could have been easier had they tracked you and your phone, but no nobody helped me because Taylor said you were fine, and I had to think about stuff, I sacked his ass..."

"You did what?"

"He ignored me and went to help at Grey House."

"Oh good, you'd miss him. But I understand this angst thing you have with Elena, I do, I really do but last night you said you wanted people you trust to deal with the things from her room, obviously I was not one to be trusted and then today you keep avoiding that damned file. What was in it that you think I would hate, is it you and another woman doing things that we do? Is she touching you like I do, what is it that is so bad?"

"Ana, there a photo's in there of me being fucked by a man. A man I considered a friend, he and I were both used by Elena and I never once used him like they used me. He was my friend Ana, possibly the only friend I have ever had, and he used me. He fucked me Ana..."I wanted to be in that fucking chasm and drowning, I was such a fucking cow to him.

"Oh, god that's awful, it's a heinous thing for her to make your friend do to you and I'm sorry she made your feel so used and I gather from the pain I see in your eyes it makes you feel dirty, and you feel betrayed by her, more than you did before? I gather you didn't agree to this anal sex with a man?" I hug him he doesn't need fucking lectures from me and my well meaning rhetoric.

"No and that's what hurts, the depravity of her actions. I do feel used and betrayed, and you are right I feel uglier than I have ever felt before, that all happened when I was seventeen Ana and it hurts knowing what she did to me years later years she spent being my friend when all along she had these up her sleeve. I mean she was always pushing me in everything she did, but she knew that was something I would have never agreed to, especially with Sebastian. He was my friend Ana." He looks like a tormented and lost soul and here I am being a brat. I guess I have the answer I wanted he followed me so he must care enough to come and search for me, but at what cost to him? Good god I had made him even unhappier by walking out on him, I am a grade 'A' bitch.

"That was the year you were moodier than usual. I remember that year all too well. Why was that?"

"She followed me that year and wasn't allowed on the ferry across to the island. so I had to go to the mainland and see her there; she needed to make sure I was where I said I was, this was her punishment for not going with her to her hotel room, she fucking knew I was with my father and grandfather for god's sake. But seeing her there, it brought out the anger in me again, that she had tried to invade my once a year good time, I guess they were good times Ana, I know I looked forward to my week away from her, if only to escape from her demanding ways and allow my body to heal, at least for a short while I was out of her clutches. I think it was why I wanted the island; it's the only place I could find peace from her. I loved that island, it even if it came with its resident pixie pain in the ass freaky little girl bothering me all the time."

"I am glad the pixie helped you. So what are you here for? Do you want me to go and leave you to fathom out this mess alone?"

"I came to tell you I love you too Ana and do you know what? I think I always have Ana... I think you are who I should have always turned to. I want to be normal and with you."

"You do?" I have to stop myself doing a happy dance.

"I do Ana, I really do..."

"Well, you are all out of luck I am afraid."

"Ana, are you leaving me?" _I say as she looks at me and I cannot fathom her out because her face is hard to read._

"No, no god no. This normal you are striving to achieve, you do know it's a crock of shit right, and there is no such thing as normal? I mean you can learn to be less fraught and do a lot less bossing folks around, do less of everything you are doing, working so hard especially, but there is no such thing as normal Christian."

"So why did you walk all this way and why leave me Ana? I thought you had gone, but Sawyer saw you leave and followed you. I was at my wits end searching the apartment and the building for you. I thought you had left me. Don't Ana, do not leave me, ever I need you to get me as normal as is humanly possible, you have managed it so far, so it should be a easier for me with you right by my side right?" I shuffle uneasily on the tree trunk next to her.

"Why do you want me, I know why I want you, but do you know why you want me?" She floors me; did I not tell her why I love her? Why is it she needs it carved in stone? Is it a woman thing?

"When I thought you had left me, after being quiet and only saying okay in the shower. I was worried about you, I knew something was worrying you and I knew it was me and this barrier I have, I wanted to deal with the humiliation and the anger by myself, when you left me to wash away the damned crap running through my brain I realised, you would be able to help me if I just trusted you enough to tell you all about the damned file, so I came out of the shower to tell you about it and ask for help and instead I found you had left me, the shear panic of not having you near me again, it hurt. My not being able to say those three little words to you has had me so damned confused.

You are under my skin Anastasia and for the past four hours I have wondered where the hell you have been. Gail called Sawyer as he wasn't answering my calls or Taylors, but he answered her calls. Thank fuck he did I was imagining her having you and the worst feelings of dread laid heavily on my mind, what if the others had you and had hurt Sawyer or killed him and they had taken you. I decided to tell you how I feel, and I still I don't know if this is the love you need Ana, this over protecting thing I do when I am around you, but to me this feeling of need that is a part of loving someone is it not? Fearing for their safety and missing them, especially when they have taken off without leaving a fucking word?"

"Did Sawyer really not tell you where I was?"

"No, he works for you not me, remember?"

"You love me? You really love me?"

"I think I really do... It's new and it feels right, but I will need time to learn to be more, I don't know thoughtful and mindful of hurting you? I was always so selfish before, my needs came before anyone else's and now Ana, I finally have woken up to the possibility of being with someone and having that one person share this chaos with me. Fancy actually being with me that way and yes I mean moving here to be with me, all the damned time?"

"I love you..."

"So you said, and I love you too. Will you please be my girlfriend and live with me in sin and be the one I turn to and the one I come home to at night? Make my apartment a home?"

"My home?"

"Our home... Yes?"

"Yes..." I lean in and grab my woman. God I wanted to slap her butt 'till it was red when she disappeared and I fired Sawyer's ass too. I expected to come out of the shower and fall to my knees and beg her forgiveness, and not being able to find her hurt me, I threw up as I pounded the streets looking around the damned market place for her and the feeling of dread was awful and not seeing her again hurt like some mother fucker had shot me in my dark heart. It was in that moment, that I realised I loved her.

* * *

So, Elena is missing a few papers and a few slates off of her roof... she has also made an enemy of a woman whom holds more power than Elena has ever had... She has the power of being in love and having it returned, so god help her when the paperwork is shifted through...

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Read and review and I will try to keep the laptop for a while longer lol...


	20. Chapter 20

This is my story just using the lifestyle of some of fifty shades and the characters.

It is a HEA, but there are bumps in the road getting there.

and relax there is no cheating either.

* * *

Dreaming of Chocolate and Grey:Chapter 20:

Warning there is some distressing bits!

Time and Again:

Ana and I walk towards the car, she seems more at peace, and she seems happy and until I hear my phone ringing and see the caller so was I...

"Elena, you have what you fucking wanted, what more can you possibly want from me, blood?" She is fuming, that much I can tell because she is grinding her teeth, probably to a point to take said blood.

"Cut the crap, where are my things?"

"What are you fucking talking about Elena? I have had it with you I have given what you asked, so I will ask you again, what do you want?"

"Like you don't know. Where are the things you stole from me?"

"Again, I have no idea what the fuck you are talking about, I am hanging up Elena, I told you we are through, the deal was struck with the devil and we are no longer connected in any way shape or form. You cannot blackmail me with my parents, because as you know they now know everything. I paid for the last photos you had and I am free from your grasp. Goodbye Elena."

"No, no, no wait... I need help."

"Well the ship I had called compassion and called helpful has sailed, and so too has my desire in helping the elderly, especially when the elderly lied to me and she still had photo's of me, I have paid for them Elena and you have Esclava. I will not try to take them from you as long as you stop contacting me?"

"I have been robbed."

"Funny, I know the feeling very well, because I feel I have been fucked in the butt and robbed by you too. So Elena what makes you think I would help you after you tried to ruin me again?"

"My storage unit was emptied, and I need to know by whom. Can your guys find out who owns the place and check into their security, as one last favour to your saviour?"

I think Ana is going to burst into flames in a moment as she listens. I would slice off my balls before I help her and at last I know she is in trouble, she wouldn't me asking me if something in those papers isn't going to bring more trouble than me to her door. I have lied to her well enough for us to be clear and free of her thinking it was me who had the room emptied, or so she thinks at least. I can play the game Elena.

"What was in this storage locker of yours?"

"Nothing much some sentimental things and private papers." Ha.

"Sentimental, you? Hahahaha, pull the other one Elena, you do not do sentiment. What have you really got in there, sorry had you got in there? No forget that I don't want to know. So I suggest you let the police deal with it or the units security, what did they say?"

"They have shown me the footage they have and it's like someone magically let themselves in and spirited away my things. There was a lot of boxes and stuff in there and it has been swept clean and dusted, there isn't a trace of anything in my room."

"Who else besides me have you pissed off enough to have them do this to you Elena, because I can assure you my mother is still in her bed? If you were thinking it was her that is? I can assure you she would ruin you socially and wouldn't stoop to robbery, robbery of what exactly, a few trinkets and papers?"

"I owe people money and I may have crossed a few lines over the years. This was my way of protecting myself and giving me a bargaining chip should the need arise."

"I cannot help you Elena, go to the police and ask their security to help. I am sure you know people to help find the building's owner. I am no longer a friend and owe you no allegiance of any kind Elena, that ship sailed when you blackmailed me again. Though it seems you have other admirers who know where to hit you and make it sting. I wish I'd had their information; I may have rewarded them handsomely for their tenacity in besting you. You are fucking unbelievable asking for my help after what you did to me."

"They have papers on you Christian, I lied I fucked up and I have duplicates of everything, or I had duplicates. Christian they have my rainy day photo's of you. I need the other stuff back, but you get to keep them if you help me."

"You have yet more photos of me, you are fucking unbelievable, tell me Elena, when will this end, when will you stop using our shared past to try and gainer more and more money from me? Don't bother asking, whomever has the evidence will put in their demands no doubt and they may actually give me everything, and I will start this shit storm again, but with another blackmailer this time, I rue the day I fucked you Mrs Lincoln, goodbye." I end the call.

"Wow, your nose has grown at least a foot long Christian."

"Was I convincing enough Ana?"

"I believed you. So, she needs your help? Have Barney and Welch covered your tracks?"

"They have. Have your guys covered yours?"

"Oh yes, yes they have and apparently we have footage of her opening the door to the locker and fainting. She went mad with poor Clive and he even helped her make the call to head office and the Seattle Police Department. She apparently knows people and they owe her a few favours, which she will be calling in. I would say she is one hell of a deluded bitch."

"And then some... So are we okay Ana?"

"Yeah, yeah we are Christian; I guess I am more complicated and demanding than you. It just hurt to hear you tell me I was needy, clingy and annoying and that you didn't trust me with your secrets."

"I hope you now know I do?"

"I guess I just needed to hear it, so where are we going?"

"Come with me and you'll be in a world of pure imagination..."

"Willy Wonker... My dear man you truly are eclectic in your musical wooing of your woman."

"Stick with me kid and I will show you the world."

"I have seen most of it and have a set of whites from every bloody continent and major city too."

"What are whites?" I help her into my car and she smiles as I lean down and kiss her again and those fireworks start to explode and I fall deeper under this woman's spell.

"I compete in competitions and keep the chef whites and if I win I get a little badge to wear on my collar. I have several and many repeats. I think I will miss competing. Still the students we are teaching now will shine for The House of D'Acciaio. I am officially hanging up my competitive hat now."

"For me? Ana you have to do what makes you happy and not make this about me, I too can travel less and try to be with you more..."

"You make me happy Christian, you are the only thing that I would miss if it were to end, so I intend to make this work, this relationship we have it means more to me than anything. I love chocolate and I always will, I love my stores and that will not change, I will have to visit places and we will have to make the distance work, but now that I have you, I will work damned hard to keep you Mr Grey." She sneaks another kiss in and I feel like a ton of weight has vanished within the last hour. I round the car and we head to Grey House, together. When we get there I see Welch on the main desk. He looks worried, or should I say a little more worried than usual?

"Mr Grey... We could have a problem; Mrs Lincoln has been walking past the building all morning, she tried to get into the building in the early hours too."

"She has just called me and told me of her devastating loss, carry on as normal, she has asked for our help and it was declined. She is not to be allowed in. I will fire anyone who allows her past this lobby. I want the safe rooms on lockdown too, and only those who have the highest clearance get in there. Nobody below a two."

"So basically Barney, Taylor, Sawyer and I?"

"My father, my mother and Elliot of course and Anastasia Lambert. Ana meet Fred Welch, head of all security here at GEH."

"Pleased to meet you. Can you add Ethan Kavagnagh to that list Christian; he's coming to help you remember?"

"He is looking at apartments with Jose, he told me to tell you that he will call you Ana, and he is on the list already because he is my personal financial adviser and needs to store my things too."

"Thanks I bet he is one of the many chirps and pings I ignored. Mr Welch how is it really, how bad is it down in the depths of the world?" Ana asks, he smiles and looks at me. I nod my head. "Is there anything we should worry about with her and her files right away?"

"Taylor is chasing up a lead he has on her new boy toy and he is gone to check on a lead."

"What sort of lead and is it Elena related?" I ask as Ana starts to relax. I am holding her close as my employees pass us by. They seem to have believed the gay rumours to be true too.

"Let's take this down to the safe rooms shall we?" He says. "Sir...?" I lead Ana to the elevator.

"Can you make sure Miss Lambert is given an access all areas pass please Welch."

"Sir, Taylor has already entered her into the system and her pass was handed to Andrea earlier today."

"Photo?"

"Taylor, saw to it Sir."

"Okay you two do know I am here right?"

"You are pretty had to miss, Miss Lambert. Now, what did you find out about Lincolns involvement in the local schools, Welch?"

"She is doing as you said she would, she sponsors an after school programme at your old school Sir, for boys whom have had difficulties in school, particularly those with anger issues. The programme she runs and sponsors is meant to give the boys weekends away with therapists and councillors. Alas we have yet to see any of the boys she does sponsor arrive at these camps. We had a list of the boys from this 'outreach programme' she runs and have sent a man to the camp and two boys who were meant to be there this weekend, and whom are actually marked as there and are not. The camp leader says they are working at Mrs Lincolns place."

"Have you checked on them?" Ana says. "I mean you should at least tell their parents? Right?"

"One of the boys is actually doing menial work on her property, he is landscaping her drive way and he has been seen coming and going, but one boy, a Daniel Madden, he seems to be inside the house and has yet to be seen. Taylor has gone to investigate."

"I presume his parents have signed their damned consent forms, because my mother did?"I say very matter-of-factly.

"His mother, yes Sir she has. However she thinks he is at the camp and was surprised to learn he is doing 'chores' for Mrs Lincoln. Taylor is collecting her and he is taking her to collect her son as we speak." We are in the rooms where Elena's papers are currently being stored, and I have to admit there looked to be more in the small room at Ana's Trebmal Securities.

"Wow, this is amazing and the light in here is so bright in fact it's a lot less austere looking than my paper storage place Christian."

"You are more than welcome to have use of it Ana. Welch can show you some rooms we have spare, should you feel the need?" She smiles and I swear I want to fuck her in here and right now.

"I will leave it to Ethan thank you; I am perplexed enough by this side of my business as it is. Papa Frank always used to tell me to keep all the paperwork for a business, accurate and true, and that it should always be kept in order to run an ordered business, if its crooked and false the business would be too."

"Words of wisdom. I guess the eighteen year old you hated paperwork?" She smiles.

"Yes, you know this already, you know when he had his stroke I wasn't able to run his businesses, and I was less than enamoured by the amount of paperwork there was. So I went to the Kavagnahs for help, he was Papa's friend and his son helped me too, Edward the elder Kavagnah and Papa's best friend, and his son Eamon, then I became the responsibility of his children, Ethan and Kate. Eamon knew I just wanted to create and be in the cooking and chocolate world. I employ good people to run this side for me, their side and the trust side of my world. I can do it, and was taught very well. Alas I already have too many fingers in too many pies. Kate and Ethan are my saviours and in two weeks I find out what my rooms will reveal and what my father and Papa left me."

"You really do not know the amount your inheritance?"

"I really don't. It was written in his will, Papa Franks, that I was able to have access to my trust fund for living expenses and it could be used if necessary for surety in any business dealings I had. I used it once when I started the business, I had money of my own from Lust, and then when John Hyde died he left me the Lust brand, the money I got from that paid for the first few shops to be remodelled and the rest they say is history. I haven't touched my trust fund in years, it takes care of my homes and the staff I employ, but everything else is all my own making. I could have a nickel or a dime, or I could be a billionaire, and I don't care, because the money Papa Frank left me and the things I inherited from my father, was theirs, not mine. I will do good with it, if I have it I mean?"

"Wow..."

"I know, wow is a good description, I figure it's a lot, because the Kavagnahs are brilliant, they must be, for you to use them, right?"

"Right and he has never steered me wrong Ana. So in two weeks and you open up the hornets' nest then?"

"Nah, its running fine as it is I hope, and it can continue to be run the way it is now, I guess? I just wonder what is in his paper work; you know my dad's stuff?"

"Have you never asked Ethan for a look at it?"

"Once or twice, but it was a very strict stipulation from Papa Frank, that I only had access to it when I turned twenty five and they said no because of this clause in his will. I guess there is something in there that could hurt me?"

"Like what?"

"I don't know, something like this, or I don't know his autobiography, the fabled diaries he kept and the fan stuff he had? I know that he had security take mementos of every one he screwed, Uncle Wolf has already told me as much and he told me he wrote in his journal every day and that there could be songs in them? I will find out in a fortnight, so I guess that's why he needed a big room, because if rumours are to believed he bedded thousands of groupies and famous women and everyone has a place in his life and a picture was taken to prove it."

"A true rock star."

"Let's get one mess sorted, before I even contemplate searching through the detritus that my father left for me. I mean every young girl loves to read who her father bedded right?" I laugh.

"I see your point." Welch has had a massive row of tables set up and all manner of boards and office equipment is in here, along with laptops and scanners and shredders? Those I gather are for her mementos of me.

"Sir, I have taken the liberty of putting your files on the last table. Each table is then in decade order."

"One, two, three and four... She was at this for game forty years? How old is she Christian?" Ana asks.

"She said forty five, and her paperwork agrees. Though seeing this, she must have started blackmailing at what at five years of age, no wonder she's good she was a kindergarten blackmailer, either that or she lied about her age, what a surprise? How about I deal with mine and Ana you choose a decade? Welch, call me as soon as Taylor gets in touch and have Barney and Sawyer deal with the other decades. Thank you."

"Sir..." He left Ana and I to it.

"So what decade are you choosing Ana?"

"Umm, I will start at the beginning, and get a feel for her when she wasn't as wicked and wild?"

"Wicked and Wild? I have heard her be called a lot worse."

"I have young and impressionable ears Mr Grey. So get shredding your past Christian and good luck in your endeavours of purging her from your life."

"Happy hunting Ana. If anything is too horrid for you, put it to the side for me okay?"

"Okay..." I kiss her for luck and out of sheer need. "Wowsers Grey, you sure can put a girl off her stride, work and shred and then we get our rewards."

"Sheisk, you are a hell of a task master Lambert."

"Yeah and you love me."

"I do..." I smile and take a seat at my own very large section of Elena Lincolns life. I look at the safe and wonder what the hell is in that. I make the call... "Welch, the safe?"

"It will be opened by a professional locksmith; we have tried all manner of combinations and have failed Sir."

"Okay, I have a feeling the good stuff is in there." Ana stares at the piles and opens a file and then places it in some sort of time line. I glance over and see her either laughing or crying and then she is tutting a lot too. Me? I open a file and I shred, she has all my submissives files and they have each have page upon page of very detailed reports to her on what I had them do at any given night or weekend they were with me. Also there are lists of expenses and inventories of what they gave her, it seems they gave her most if not all of the jewellery I gifted them. She it seems had a fondness for their jewels. I am not surprised; her gifts from me were always jewellery. I shred these as I have my own files. I do make a note to ask Welch to re visit them and remind them of the paperwork. If they gave Elena this information, what's to say they do not have the same info on me in their possession? My heart drops to my ass, they could have fucking anything... FUCK...

What the hell...

I have been fired twice today and it's not even noon. The dip shit needs to take responsibility for being a prick, sure I know where she is, but he needs to grow the fuck up and sort out his own fucking disasters for once, Like we haven't got enough on tackling the old stock, and now we are finally dealing with the person responsible for training a young boy to be an emotionless spoiled fucking brat.

I swear it took all my strength and restraint not to deck the bastard when he demanded to know why we let Ana leave Escala, like we were the ones who fucked her too hard and hurt her. Gail had said she thought it was something emotional, not physical and it seems she could be right. My woman knows the boss better than anyone and cares for the arrogant fuck too, so I bowed to her expertise in all things Christian related and left him to find her alone.

Sawyer wasn't even answering my messages, but I tracked his phone and then hers, I realised her shadow was within ten feet of her and gave the brat a helping hand. When he called Gail in fucking tears, she told him that Ana liked to walk beaches and stare at the water. She shrugged her shoulders at me.

"What Jason Taylor, he asked for my help and I gave it to him."

"She likes to stare out at the water? Knowing that dick he will head to the fucking wrong side of the ferry port and run up into Knobs-Corner." This is the part of town where rich dicks like him live.

"He will remember something about her, something in their past and if it's meant to be he will find her and he will have done it himself. She is safe isn't she, because if that woman touches that sweet girl I will pickle her in a vat of acid?"

I shudder to think where she'd get enough industrial strength acid to melt all the plastic, silicone and rubber that fucking Lincoln woman has in her body? I don't doubt she could find some; my woman is very capable of doing Lincoln some serious harm. I laughed as I left for Grey House as she was on-line looking for an oil drum and sourcing several used battery palaces. It seems she has a dark side my lady love. I laugh and head to his lordships heap of shit files. I take a call...

"Welch, what's happening with the school searches in the area?"

"She's still sponsoring his old school, in fact they have a camp out in process now and I have asked them to check and two boys are doing special assignments for their sponsor at her home."

"Fuck... How old are they?"

"Noah Sterling is sixteen and is a mother's worst nightmare, he has been with the project just over a year and then there is fourteen year old Daniel Madden, he has been with them for six weeks."

"So she has her hands on a very young new boy? Do we have addresses?"

"We do and I have just sent you their photos and they look a lot like the boss."

"Fuck me she has a type, I will take Ryan with me. Where are they, do you know?"

"Reynolds is outside Lincoln's place now, she has been coming and going all night and has been riding between here and her home all day too. We have had eyes on her for weeks."

"I knew it was a necessary expense Welch. So where are the kids?"

"One is inside; the other is weeding her front drive with a fucking fork."

"Don't you weed with forks and gardening crap?" I ask. I am no gardener after all?

"No you idiot a fork as in cutlery and he is using a pair of scissors to cut the lawn. She is very queer in her gardening requests. He is doing it in a just his shorts too. The younger of the kids is in the house and has not been seen since he arrived there Friday. I have it on good authority you know the younger kids mother. Chelsea Madden?"

"She was the one who went after the boss's mother right?" I remember her, she and the troll Lincoln are best friends who lunch together every other day. "I know where she lives and the Danny kid is her only child and a spoiled brat right?"

"He is as the boss was an out of control dick, so yes a rich brat."

"We really should not call the boss a dick Welch; he is our boss after all."

"You are right of course, so I should tell him you are looking into it yes?"

"Yes when he finds Miss Lambert that is."

"He is on his way to the ferry port... Security are tailing him too... He is worked up and has puked his guts up T!"

"He has, really? Then he has learned I hope a good lesson. Be waiting for my call Welch, I may need back up."

"She can't surely be as bad as Grace Grey and the steaks though?"

"Mamma Bear's protect their cubs at all time. Speaking of Mamma's any news on the Steel Bitch?"

"She is back stateside, at her husband's Hollywood home, we are receiving updates as and when they have them."

"Good, because she is up to no good. Thanks Welch."

I grab Ryan and we head to Chelsea Madden's place, it's Saturday so she should be home and getting ready for lunch with Lincoln? I get there and she is at home, and I know her husband is away covering the shit with ISIS, he was in Paris when they hit the concert there, and followed the news to turkey, and he was last heard of in the thick of it, so he's dedicate alright and he seems a decent man. Covering this Grey family from domestic attacks is like going into battle with sex terrorists daily. Maybe I should write a fucking book, and call it 'What The Security Guy Knows About Kink' I think it's a good working title. I knock on the door, she knows me and hates me and I do a really mean, mean guy impression.

"Yes, oh god it's you. I have given her a wide birth as demanded by your boss, what now?"

"Actually, I am here to help you for a change and not warn you off Doctor Trevelyan."

"Warn me of what?"

"Where is Daniel?"I ask her. "Is he at camp?"

"What, how, I mean yes he is at Camp Calmez-Vous. He went after school yesterday, why? Where is he really, is he bugging your boss, causing havoc in Seattle, what has the idiot done now?"

"He is doing chores at the Lincoln house, she Elena Lincoln likes to take an interest in the more troubled of the boys in camp. He has been her guest there since Friday and has as yet to attend any meetings with the therapy group. She is overseeing his 'treatment' personally." Surely even she isn't that dumb and can read between my blurred lines?

"I had lunch with her yesterday, she never mentioned it, I mean having Daniel over at her home for his treatments?"

"Can I please ask you what she spoke about, it is important to both your well being and that of your son." I am calm like the wind outside but in my head, nah, my brain is flapping like the wings of a nightingale, fast and furious. I want to grab her and just take her to Lincoln's house.

"Okay, she was meant to give me some insight to a story I am running in this week's issue of Seattle Society, she is meeting me later, she said I should hold the front page and she's give me the information before I need to go to press on Monday, but she assured me it's coming..."

"If it was anything on the Grey's then prepare to be sued, she has nothing you could use without losing all this. And yes he will take everything from you including the magazine. However, my boss wants to me to offer you an olive branch so to speak and he would like you to trust him, do you think you could come with me? It concerns the well being of your son?"

"Well if you put it that way, I have to go with you, if it concerns my son, but why is he at Elena's, she must really think she can help him and this new form of aggression he has, especially taking him into her home. She does a lot for those angry kids, mine included."

"She does a great deal to the children she chooses to help, have you got your bag Ma'am, I can drive you over there and wait for you to get your son, you may need some help?"

"It's just down the road Taylor, or is there another reason I may need a lift?" She may not be as dumb as she seems, she is good. "Taylor what are you not telling me, stop with the innuendoes and just tell me?"

"We have it on good authority she is abusing the boys she takes under her wing and she likes them under her wing at fifteen, your son seems to be the exception!" I can only think it is because he looks a looks like my boss did as a kid, in fact he could be the bosses kid they look so alike. "Can I ask has behaviour changed any in the resent weeks, is he quiet and more studious. Is he more private than he was say three months ago? Is he still fighting in school?"

"He has improved, he is getting his grades back, but he has always been a shy guy, but just recently he has taken to locking his bedroom door more and showering and generally being more... Oh god what has he been made to do, is it bad?" She sets of running and I grab her arm.

"It may be nothing, but I suspect she is grooming your son and others at her home."

"No, no... Elena is my friend, she is your boss's friend and her best friend is his mother Grace. Why are you here and why now?"

"I have reason to believe he is being sexually abused and used by her. Take it from me, I know she is and I hope to god I am wrong, but I know I am not." She gets in the SUV, Ryan and I take her to the Lincoln house, where she gets out as we use the pass code Grace had for the gate, she sees what I do Noah I presume in nothing more than his underwear, and a bondage mask, he is trimming the lawn with hair scissors.

"What the fuck, Noah what are you doing in that get up and where the hell is Daniel." He is silently doing his mistress's' bidding if he talks she will beat the crap out of him, and so he carries on trimming the grass. I shake my head as she calls his mother.

"Lindy, get to Elena's house now. Noah is..." She looks at me and I shrug my shoulders. "He is hurt and needs you, come quick, there is a guy in a black SUV, and he will let you in. Come now and don't call her, don't tell anyone. Come now Lindy, now..."

"Very good Ma'am."

"Where is the vile bitch, is that a sex hood? I mean it ain't a Lucha Libre mask is it? What the hell sort of beast is she. Where is Daniel, will Noah be okay?"

"Yes Ryan here will see to it he is, he won't deviate from her orders not even for his mother, and Mrs Madden be prepared to see the same behaviour in Daniel."

"Who is this woman, I cannot believe my friend would do this to me? Why does she molest boys and how did you know all this?" I call Grey.

"We have a situation; can you come to Lincoln's house and bring your mother Sir?" After a moment he says he will get her security to take her and he will meet us. This is not my tale to tell, but he is the only one who can help, him and his mother have gone through what these two will be facing soon enough.

"Was that Christian and is Grace coming?" I nod and we head in, I know she has staff, but I also know they hate her as much as me, we staff talk and I know Gregg her driver is with her at her salon. I think she is grabbing what she can and is in the process of fleeing. We have eyes on her. I open the door and her maid smiles and points to the cellar.

"Thanks, you may want to grab your possessions and whatever else you can Maria and head to Grey House and wait for me there?"

"It's bad Sir?"

"Very..." She nods and disappears. "Down this way. She has another level and her school is down there, I am warning you this will not be a pretty sight."

"Okay, I don't believe this. I trusted her." We head down and I see the door, I take a deep breath in and as I open the door I see what she does, her sons back is bleeding and he is trust up in leather, his poor balls are tied in twine and his dick is in some sort of training thing, it is swinging below his blue balls and it looks fucking painful, and he has a butt plug with a fur tail attached. He has a tooth brush and he is cleaning the floor. He looks up and he and his mother stare at each other, the silence is deafening.

"Daniel, what has she done to your poor back, Mr Taylor can I have your jacket please?" I take it off and we help him up and I feel her pain.

"Mom, she will be angry and hit me again."

"No she will fucking not. Taylor, take photographic evidence, please and then can we get him seen to in his own clothes." I don't think that would be the first thing I did, but she is the chief of polices daughter, I do as asked with my phone and then we free him from the piss soaked leathers and I free him from the harness he has on. "Can you perhaps bag it please? Daniel where are your clothes Baby Boy?" He points at a room. We follow and he has a cage to sleep in, as does the other lad, and both sets of clothes are stacked neatly on a chair, fuck me the boss stacks his the fucking very same way after all these years, and it's this simple thing that makes me want to weep for the bastard, when I imagine him being like these two boys.

"What do we do Mr Taylor?" Her son and she are both in a deep state of shock.

"Mom, I don't want to be here anymore... Can we go home please I promise I will never misbehave again, I have learned my lesson Mommy..." It breaks my heart to see a child think he deserves this. We hear a commotion upstairs and I hear Grace Grey and Ryan and another kid crying, this day gets better and better.

"We will go and sit upstairs. Come on Danny, you didn't do anything wrong."

I take him and his mother upstairs to come face to face with Mrs Grey. There is another woman dragging her son behind her. She looks like trouble, and god help Elena if she gets hold of her, she looks like she lifts more weight than I do, fuck she's the weight beast, the champion lady power-lifter from the gym. Damn she's muscular and I know she's in training for an iron woman contest.

"What the fuck is all this, why is my son dressed in this shit, he is wearing a damned leather thong and gardening in it where is Elena Lincoln, she is on my shit list, he told me he can't talk to me about his mistress, well his mistress is toast, Grace, Chelsea, tell me what the hell is going on here and why is my boy some old fuckers sex toy? Taylor, your man Ryan filled me in, so Lincoln's a paedo? Living on our gated community, I got that right didn't I? The paedo lives this side of the gates and we take tea and drink wine with the bitch, and apparently she does this whilst she fucks with our sons. How long Taylor, how long has the monster been within?" Shit, she recognises me. She could snap me like a twig, if she wanted too.

"Mrs Sterling, she is being looked into. Her boyfriend's have been over the age of consent for many years, we did not realise she was seeing children here." I don't know where the line is in the sand, have I crossed it and how much will my boss admit to these boys mothers?

"If she knows what's good for her on the way to book passage to the fucking moon." Chelsea screams. "Your son's clothes are in the basement Lindy and take photos of his back and chest, you will need them, though I would think the police will need to take their own, because I am going to call in as many favours as I can to make sure I am that bitch pays for this. Where's Noah's dad? Daniel's father is in Turkey when we need him the most." I will call in a favour... It's the least I can do, get Daniels father home. The Boss will be fine with using his plane, I hope!

"Dane is on his way here, he is going to want answers to a lot of questions. Like Grace, did you know about this?" I should jump in but she needs no help from her son's security guard.

"No, no, no, no, no... I found out she was paedophile last night, I got a little drunk and nearly killed her, Carrick is dealing with her legally, but morally I want to kill her and do her plenty of harm."

"Who else did she do this to Grace?" Lindy Sterling asks. Grace looks like shit, she is about to expose her son and it's killing her to do so.

"She did this to..." I look and she cries. "She did this to my boys..."

"Mom..." I see the younger of her boys, my boss as he rushes in and holds his mother. "I am sorry Mom."

"Why, why do you three keep apologising for this, she was to blame." Chelsea shouts. They sit and they stare at their sons and seem to bond, Grace and Chelsea anyhow. Lindy Sterling has grabbed her sons clothes and he is dressing. He is a fucking mess too, as his back bears the scars of a fresh whipping.

The boss is ashamed that much I can see. He is taking a call and one comes in for me. Elena Lincoln is on her way home. He nods and I make the call.

"Hello. Could I speak to Chief Thomas please? My name, yes it's Jason Taylor, I am with his daughter and grandson at 135 Belleview Terrace, and I would think it best if he sent two cars to that address immediately and a CSI team too. Yes, I have his grandson at the address with me and his mother, and yes he has been assaulted and badly." I then see Christian Grey become a child before my eyes as his mother holds him tightly. He knows this shit's about to be blown out of the fucking water. Chelsea Madden makes a call to her father too, and I stand to the side of the front doors with Ryan. We will await the witches return with pleasure.

"Christian, where is Ana? Has she left you?"

"No, no she hasn't she is with Elliot searching through files and is giving you and I some time together. How's your head?"

"Better than it deserves to be Little Man, better than it deserves indeed. I have had two bags of electrodes and vitamins and still the world seems very disorientated."

"Mom, this is going to be on the local news, are you okay with that?"

"More than okay, are you going to be okay?"

"It's a case of having to be. How are their lash marks?"

"I haven't looked I have only just arrived, do you know if she has supplies, medical supplies?" I nod and head to the kitchen and open the door to the supply cupboard and take it to my mother. She takes it from me and sees to Daniels more urgent needs first. Noah has been out in the sun and they have formed a blood coating and will be harsher to clean. Daniels are still fresh. I know how those feel and they are deep too.

"Why did you not report her Christian?" Chelsea Madden asks me.

"Until recently I thought all the things Elena did to me were done to help me. I was fifteen when this happened to me and it's been a very long seventeen years."

"Mom. He is right she has helped me she knows what's best for me and she cares about me and is teaching me things." Noah says to his mother.

"So these strike marks across your skin, this is okay Noah, I have never smacked you, I have never laid a hand on you and you hate me, but this woman hurts you and this you find is okay? Are you mad, I thought you were wilful, not stupid? Can you not see this is wrong, you are a child and she has been doing god knows what to you. Tell me now when did this start?"

"When I was fifteen, she helps lots of us to be better men, she says we can all end up like Christian Grey and be rich and successful if we listen to her and learn like he did." I see my boss and the colour runs from his face. "All we have to do is be good and learn; we get to learn lots of things that will make us better men." He repeats that sentence like a robot, no fucking wonder Grey is drone like, this is why, these boys are him when he was their age and I see the realisation finally hit the great lug between his eyes. He wasn't special, he wasn't the first nor the last, and sadly he was one of the many.

"No, no she didn't Noah, Elena did this for herself, she is a monster and she has you caught in a some sort of trap, Nothing she does is for you, nor was it for me or for Daniel, it's all about her. I learned this too late, but you two, you can and will get proper help. I have my therapist coming to talk to you both, he will help. Chelsea, Linda you shouldn't feel badly, she had my mother fooled for a lot longer than you. She is good at hiding this part of her life."

"Sir, she is here..." She marches in screaming for us to leave.

"This is private property, get out of my home now..." Really? The dumb bitch wants to take on these three Angry Bear Moms? She then sees the three angry mothers and steps back into Taylor and Ryan. Lindy Sterling is having none of it and I swear, she flies at Lincoln like a cage fighter and I for one am not going to stop her, if it were my son she'd molested there would be no body. We step back and if Elena Lincoln thought the smack Grace gave her was bad, then these from Lindy make those look like love taps, there is blood and teeth and that nose is busted and will not be an easy fix. I pull her off when I see the vile bitch turning blue, damn she has a mighty fine choke hold. I don't think it's worth the District Attorney's wife being hauled before the courts accused of murder.

"Mrs Sterling enough, she has to be in a fit state when the police come to arrest her."

"Help me bury her in the woods then?" I'd laugh but she is serious. "I have a boat, and the crabs will make light work of her off Canada." I nod my head and she sees her son looking distraught. The police arrived moments later and have saved her face from more damage. Chief Thomas flies through the doors and sees Doctor Grace Trevelyan applying the first of many dressings to the lacerations on his grandsons back.

"Who did that to you son?" His grandson looks up and he immediately sees Elena's face and his head goes down and he barely audibly says his mistress. He points at Elena and he begins to sob. "And you, you who did this to you?" He says to the boy Noah.

"She was just angry I had not cut enough grass Sir, I was punished for not doing the mistress's bidding fast enough?"

"What the hell do you both mean mistress, you are kids, kids don't have mistresses and you Grey, what are you doing here? Is this your doing?"

"No, no Sir it is not. Mrs Lincoln here is a dominatrix's and the term mistresses is what she would have us call her, the slaves and pets she trains to please her." That stumped the old man. "She is a master in the hidden world of BDSM she practices Sir." Fuck he is out, this cannot now be hidden away.

"That's that kinky shit right?"

"Yes Sir." Elena rounds up and with blood still pouring and looking far worse than she did ten minutes ago tries to justify this.

"I did nothing wrong. They wanted me to teach them and your daughter couldn't handle her fucking kid and you, you fat bastard have had no time for your grandson. I stepped in and gave him the discipline he needs to improve in life. You and your daughter didn't give a shit, so you passed him on to me."

"Are you saying you beat my grandson and this young boy here too? What are you called Son?"

"Noah Sterling Sir..."

"Lindy, sorry I didn't see you there, where is the District Attorney you are married too?"

"He would be here Chief. Lindy, Noah, what the hell is going on here? Christian, Grace, why is the party here at Lincs old place?"

"You are all of you on private property, get out of my house and I want my lawyer, now..."

"You are going nowhere lady I want her prosecuted Daddy, and strung up as a paedophile. She has raped my son, your grandson. Here see these photos, Taylor show him how we found my son, your grandson, trust up like a fucking chicken..."

"It's the usual equipment for teaching him control, you signed the paperwork allowing him to have treatments you both did. I did nothing wrong. So all of you get the fuck out of my home now." Dane and the Chief look at Taylor's phone, and they both pale...

"Noah, when did Mrs Lincoln first have sex with you son?" The Chief asks Noah.

"Mistress...?"

"Don't tell him anything that is our secret Noah, there's a good boy." He dips his head and then they ask Daniel.

"Danny, can you tell us?"

"I will get a cane across my pee-pee if I tell anyone and it hurts."

I step forward and block Elena from his field of vision as my mother talks to him in her doctor voice; she can get anything from any kid with that voice because it's kind of soothingly good and reassuringly nice and it lulls you into her web, ever so subtlety and seemingly effortlessly, speaking like this she manages in getting you to spill everything. It was a killer when Elliot, Mia or I got up to no good and it seems it still works Taylor is being his usual stoic self and I am grateful he is here, I need him, and more than he knows.

"No, you won't be beaten again Danny I swear you won't, so Honey tell your grandfather what did Mrs Lincoln do, and when did she first those rude things to you?"

"She gave me a treat at my birthday party. She said if I calmed down and I was good, she would clean my pee-pee with her mouth again. The weekend after, she let me put it in her, in her lady parts you know where those private parts of a lady." He is so very embarrassed even I know he is far too immature for this life she has dragged him into and it is embarrassing to watch him cry as he relives the nightmare he had to endure. He continues as Mom passes him a tissue. "It wasn't nice and it hurt when I did it, she said I will get better and be the best. I don't like it, it hurts me. So I cried and she slapped me, then when I didn't like the other stuff she did she started to cane me and then she would tie ropes to me and I dangled, and if I wet myself she would hit my thingy with a whip and then I have to clean the floor with my tongue and a tooth brush." I swear the room of adults, me included can he herd retching. I had forgotten I did this too, though I loved the sex and the rewards for being good, but I was more than ready for sex, he is still a child. His grandfather hears no more and as he gets the cuffs on her and I turn and I walk out, I need air.

"Elena Lincoln, I am arresting you..."

That was all I needed to hear and went to sit in the car... I did a detour to a drain and threw up, this was the beginning of the end for her and I had opened myself up to the scorn and ridicule of others. I should have realised some other poor kid was being used, but she assured me her thing for children was a thing of the past, why am I just now realising that the woman is a born liar? She told me she liked the older boy now and I had met her new boys and they were all over the age of consent. I was it seems just as fucking gullible as I always was with her; I wore rose coloured glasses, tinged with grey where she was concerned.

"You won't get away with this, I want to press charges for assault, I want her arrested or doing this, to my face, I and I want Grace Grey arrested for last night too. I'd also look at her son, he likes boys too..." The police officers look at me and I shake my head, no, no, no...

"Mr Grey?"

"I have a type yes, over aged brown haired women, boys are not my thing. Elena, you are the scum of the earth and wherever they take you now, will be luxury to where you will end up. Officer, do you wish me to come in for questioning, to answer to her accusations of my being interested in boys, underage boys like she is?"

"No, I would however like you to come in and make a statement as to your experiences at this woman's hands? I assume this was your past life too?" I nod my head, to the gasps of the people in the room, including Elena.

"I will come in tomorrow if that's okay? Unless you need me today?"

"Tomorrow will be fine Mr Grey." I wait for the others and as they all pile out I see myself in their shoes seventeen years ago and last night when I told my parents the truth, I see the same hurt in their mothers eyes as I saw in my mother's eyes. The police file in through the doors as she is dragged out kicking and screaming. I smiled as she was dragged by me.

"You will pay for this, you mark my words. I will have the last laugh."

"Why Elena, have you found your files?"

"You have them, I know you do."

"You know nothing Elena, nothing at all. Good luck on your being able to hire a decent attorney. My father has sent a memo out to every good firm there is and has effectively black balled you, besides the good ones cost and you, you are flat broke and I have the salons back. It seems you reneged on your word that there was no more photos and the paper you signed, gives me the salons free and clear of any and all obligation to you. So good luck and say hello to the orange jump suit. Orange it seems is the new black, though I doubt you will carry it off. It may clash with the eyes and the nose."

"You will get yours Christian..."

"I fully intend to Elena and it will be in the hands of my girlfriend, Ana. I'd send you a invite to the wedding but day release won't allow you to attend it." My mother walked behind her kicking gravel at Elena.

"A wedding whose wedding?" Elena was thrown in a car and I waved her off. "Mine eventually. How are the boys?"

"Noah has suffered for longer and it will be harder for him, his mother and father are very grateful for your involving Dr Flynn, they like me suspected nothing. Daniel, he is very ashamed and he is nowhere near ready to have sex, he called his penis a pee-pee for god's sake. At least at fifteen I knew you were you know doing the boy thing, but he hadn't even though of that before she did that to him."

"She it seems has a well established script. I'm just sorry I didn't realise this wasn't normal. Are you okay Mom, with me I mean are we good?"

"Of course we are good, you are my boy, my son and I may not like your life choices up until now, but I realise you are a grown man and have done nothing wrong, the life you chose worked for you and hearing from the other mothers, that they were as clueless as I was, means I wasn't as stupid as I thought I was, in not seeing it sooner, it makes me feel not so completely useless."

"Their sons like me would have got better at hiding it mother; it's not that you didn't see it. I became better at masking the things she did to me; the older I got the easier it got and then we were just friends."

"I will never understand that, you are such a smart boy, I guess it's a sort of Stockholm Syndrome? I mean she brainwashed you with sex and rewards, she made you believe the things she said and did were the norm. So, what did you find out, what did she hide in her rooms?"

"I left Ana, Elliot and the team sifting through the boxes and the files. I am going to get back, will you be okay Mom?"

"I am feeling perfectly well considering I would still blow drunk in a police breathalyser, I am going to go to the hospital and see that their wounds are seen to and that they both have the best people walking them through their examinations. They are not the best for anyone to have to have done."

"Needs must I guess? John is available as soon as they need him Mom, and Mom?"

"Yes dear?"

"Thank you and I love you, just in case you doubted it." My mother seemed to wipe her eye and then she smiled and went with her security. I head with mine to Grey House. I hope they have managed to find something to hang her with.

* * *

This was a quick chapter because some pm's said they were worried about Daniel... read and review and tell me what you think... Laptop back with my daughter... Paff...


	21. Chapter 21

This is my story just using the lifestyle of some of fifty shades and the characters.

It is a HEA, but there are bumps in the road getting there.

and relax there is no cheating either.

* * *

Dreaming of Chocolate and Grey:

Chapter 21:

Home truths are bad:

For the strangest of reasons and don't ask me why, but everything is coming up roses and that is down to my ray of sunshine and my kinky as fuck girlfriend, my mother is happier with me than she has ever been before and being this new and honest and open Christian Grey feels very liberating and free I would say it felt like I skipped to work after leaving my parents home and as soon as Taylor drops me off outside Grey House, I have an Epiphany. I am going to be honest with the world, but only after I meet the in-laws and I fully intend to embrace the crazy Italians as I aim to be in Ana's life for a very long time. She is 'My Mistress of Zen' she is my calm, my rational and my everything, I think I'd even walk away from GEH and be a kept man, should she ask me to that is, because I fucking love her and for a hard hearted bastard like me that's an amazing revelation for me to be having. I laugh and the receptionists thinks I am quite mad. She smiles and after I say good morning she drops her pencil, my fucking name is on a pencil, wow I have made it big time if my names are on pencils, I laugh again as I retrieve it and hand it her back, I whistle a happy tune and I head on down to the bliss of hanging the woman who has not only hindered my world and my recovery problems but she is one hell of a grade a bitch who has ruined a mere boy a wet behind the fucking ears boy...

I think of Little Christian as I travel down... My boy has made me a better man... What would it be like to have had him here? The doors open and waiting at the other side is the love of my life and she seems shocked to see me. She runs at me and I cling on to her, fuck this hurts and the confusion is just that confusing, my being so far from the moody bastard I was a couple of weeks ago has my staff confused too...

"Christian... Oh god you are still in one piece. I have done decade one and it's a good read. Sadly the players she conned and whom she was blackmailing are no longer with us so will not help with her fall from Grace, but it's odd and I have a feeling that the safe holds the beginning of this story, because something doesn't add up. Anyway what did you find?"

She has been drinking coffee I can smell it on her breath, as I step out of the elevator I take her in my arms and kiss her and fuck does she feel good in my arms and her soft lips against mine feels soft and inviting, so I help myself to more. I am not a man who was comfortable with these apparently normal PDA's.

"Ana, thank you..."

"Hu? Okay coming down off an amazing high Grey, what was that for, not that I am complaining?"

"Can I not be happy to see my amazing girlfriend? Can I not kiss her, can I not..." She cuts me off with an equally nice kiss.

"... Kiss away Mr Grey, I swear you won't be sorry taking me on Christian."

"I intend to make a few more steps in the right direction too. Now what can tell me people? Make me even happier. We have a fourteen year old boy who needs our help to put that bitch behind bars for a billion life times."

"Is he okay Christian?"

"No, but with the help of my therapist the good doctor and expensive charlatan, Dr John Flynn and my mother the very talented Dr Trevelyan, ace paediatrician and all round good egg, a still hung over drunken egg might I add, he will get there Baby. He was a mess Ana and so was poor deluded Noah. It wasn't too great for either of their mothers, but we will see to it they are well taken cared for."

"So, Elliot has gone for refreshments, we could be here all night and..." Ana starts to say as Taylor exits the elevator with I presume the locksmith? This turns out to in fact be the case and as he looks at the metal box, he shrugs his shoulders.

"Tink, you could do this with your eyes closed? What's afoot, is this comfy life you seem to have making you less of a soldier, are you slipping boy?" Taylor blushes, fuck, I wish I'd filmed the fucker having an emotion.

"That's what I thought Oscar, but she's not bowing to my will for some reason? Mr Grey, this is Bill Wilde, Oscar, this is Mr Christian Grey, my boss and this is Ana Lambert, his girlfriend."

"Oscar? Oh I get it Oscar Wilde?" Ana asks and answers herself. "What was your service name Taylor? Tink, if I heard right, that's cute." She laughs then hugs me; I never knew that about him.

"Sailor or spy would have suited you better!" I say as Ana is tucked under my arm, she fits nicely there too.

"I took the only one of them left Sir, there were four Taylor's in the unit, and thankfully I didn't get the Made name..."

"There is a joke in there somewhere about dress making I am sure." I laugh as I say it.

"The unit was jokingly called the Sewing Room. So, let's get at this, it's a tumbler and code, so it's just figuring out which she used first."

"She tapped in a code and then used the dial. I saw her open it a few times." I tell him to save him time.

"The combination would be good too, do you have it?" He jokes. I shake my head. No.

"How many numbers?" Ana asks.

"Six or above." Oscar replies.

"Umm, try Christian's birthday 06181983. She had a thing for you Mr Grey..." Taylor smirks. Oscar shakes his head. It seems she wasn't as enamoured with me as she thought. We try her birthday and get no joy there. He then clips on a device and it manually tries to unlock it with a digital safecracking thing. The numbers flick through and fill in the bar, as the end number spins and it ends with 31101959. I hear Ana gasp.

"Oh she is a witch true and proper and an old witch too, fifty six, yuck Christian she was..." I grin and cut her off with a smile. I knew she was older, but not that old. He looks at the dial of the old school tumble lock and threads his fingers together and cracks his knuckles.

"I will try this the old school way, can I have silence?" He uses his ear and the gentlest of touches and I swear I have seen this done in movies but when he puts his hand on the doors handle and it opens, it takes me a lot not to high five Ana, but she high fives Oscar and she sends that warmth, joy and happiness she has inside her, around the room.

"I cannot believe you did that Mr Wilde, it looked awesome." Ana says a she looks inside. Taylor takes the contents out and places it on the table. Ana sits and goes through the paperwork and smiles. Then says...

"We have got her, she is nothing more than an old witch and a shrew whore of Satan; oops sorry..."

"What Ma'am, what have you found?" Taylor asks me as he looks over the jewellery. I giggle and try and do the math in my head, poor Christian fucked an old lady.

"Thelma Brunswick, it seems she has the same birth date as the safe. She was born in Reliance on the Maryland Delaware border, would in fact be fifty six had she not died in 1978." She hands the paper to Barney and he types some things into his laptop and shrugs his shoulders. I knew she was older when she and I fucked the first time, but hell forty one? Wow I should high five myself but it's not a joking matter not now and not ever.

"It seems Elena Blanche, Ms Lincoln's supposed maiden name, was twenty five years old before any paperwork was filed for her, funnily enough she has changed her age twice since then obviously she needed to be older when she left the foster care system. Then before she married Linc she dropped a few years." Barney says and he too is in with the reading and grinning.

"It isn't a life time in prison thing though Barney I need something on her to jail her for life." I say and feel sick. I pray to god she has done something to at least get the police to look into theses other things before they drag young boys into court.

"Would murder do?" He counters.

"The what the who?" I ask? "Are you serious who? The ex husbands?"

"No they were legitimate, when Thelma was just eighteen she had a client, who liked Breathplay and during a hanging trick, she left him alone, to order room service and he choked. She tried to make it look like he'd choked on a burger, alas he didn't. There is an arrest warrant out for her in Delaware, for the death of one Governor Marcus De Blanc, the third. Her fingerprints were on the safe, it was empty and his wife said he always wore his good watch to meetings and it was missing too, its an old Rolex, it's never been pawned, is it with the jewelery T." Taylor shakes his head. "His son Marcus and the grandson Marcus the fourth and fifth, have a reward out for her capture, she apparently took the charitable donation one of his campaigners had donated to the children's ward, some one million dollars? The insurance did not pay up because he invited the girl into his room; the family deny he was like that."

"They usually are Barney and very secretive to their families, but I have both father and the son on my books at Satin and Steel Christian, if that helps get a picture of the men she messed with? Both like Breathplay and both are kind of shifty and no I am not sure what other real life shifty stuff they are into." She carries on reading. "I doubt she had the million dollars either, she may have helped herself to a few bundles, because according to this, she only ran from the governor with thirty thousand. She keeps good paperwork and names everyone who helped her, and she paid that exact amount of money to get her new identification and she used it to escape from Delaware, then she went to San Francisco..." Wow my woman is good at paper trails.

"That she did." Barney states as he taps away. "She stole another thirty off a man holding money for his clients, a drug man down there, he was killed when they did not get all their money, and they are looking for her too. But they don't care how she gets back to them dead or alive."

"Ana look for a file on Sebastian Rockaport, the man in the photos, he died the same way as the governor, and Barney could you please see if there is an autopsy report on Seb please? He should have a file here too, he was her first fifteen year old and came just before me, so look at the third decade, or in my files we it seems were photographed together. Barney I need any records on him, I need to help him, he was my best friend." He looks so sad and I feel the need to hold him, desperately.

"Christian, do you need something to eat and drink?" I ask him as he starts to look a little peaky.

"Yes, food would be good. Thanks."He smiles.

Taylor and Sawyer are filled in by Barney, on what they are looking at. Elliot and his father are here too, and he has good news, she is being charged with everything Daniel's grandfather can throw at her, including hiring illegal immigrants to clean her home. The hefty fine will be way too hefty for her broke ass, if it does nothing else it will apparently leave her too broke to pay for council. I take Christian up to his office, after he has words with his father. Andrea, girl wonder and a girl with far more patience than he deserves, is shouted at by her prat of a boss, for forgetting to order in food and then I was shocked too, but she took it in her stride. I was annoyed because I would sure as shit smack his head if he shouted at me like he does her. He smiles, realises he what he did and thanks her for ordering his favourite deli subs when a picnic basket is presented to him. She fans her face. I smile.

"Please hold all my calls and we are not to be disturbed Andrea and I do appreciate your coming in on your day off too."

"I am glad to help."Ana and I head into my office; I close the blinds and lock the door.

"Ana, I don't want anything from you other than talk and you know, to vent a little? I feel like a fucking failure, how did I not see what is now so fucking blatantly obvious?"

"You were blinkered by friendship and years of put downs and trades. Obviously I am such an expert in this area. However you Christian Grey, you have finally woken up and as the saying goes have smelt the coffee. What happened at the house to make you act like this?"

"Lindy and Chelsea asked why I had not said anything sooner, and my answer was so pathetic, I looked like a moronic fool when I said because it didn't seem wrong to me. Ana it feels fucking dreadful now, but then I thought it helped with the rages and the anger, especially as I'd thrown you over the bedroom and hurt you that summer."

"Okay that was ages ago and my ass was pretty much covered in all that puppy fat thing it and I had going on. Christian can we you know make out like kids?"

"Yep, but how about we make out like adults and fool around like people in love. Ana, I am so thankful I made you come into sign for the island now and you were never fat, though I probably said you were, I was a nasty bastard..."

"Lord, thanks for that, but given I ate a lot I probably was chubby, Mimi and Nonna fed me a lot... Christian, you added that clause in to get me here?"

"Yes, yes I did, and I wanted to give you the chance to pull out if I gave you a hand running it."

"I couldn't run it you have to be visited by the previous McKenzie's afore you get the keys Laddie?"

"I haven't got the keys Baby."

"Oh yes you have the key is the love of the place and here." I put my hand on his heart and gently follow his heart's melodic booming. He leans down and kisses me his tongue persuades mine to relax and then as we start to undress each other... There is a knock on the door... Christian and I fasten the buttons and he flings open his door.

"Sir, I am sorry about this but you have a visitor and she will not leave until she sees you."

"Who is it?" I ask Taylor, he then looks at Ana and then at me.

"Carla Steel, she would like ten minutes of your time." She is meant to be in Hollywood. Fuck...

"Where is she?" Ana asks.

"In the security suite. Miss Lambert."

"Does she know I am here?"

"No, she asked to speak to Mr Grey about a personal matter. She said it concerns your son Miss Lambert, Sir and she has information you need to hear."

"Ana?"

"I have no idea what she could possibly know about Christian, the only ones who know about him are..." Confession time you have to tell her all you know and hope she does not freak, but she will it's a given.

"...Jack Hyde has sold her information to use against you Ana. Sawyer said he followed them to a churchyard in Switzerland."

"I need him found Taylor, I need for his hold over me to stop. He will stop at nothing to ruin me as I have him."

"He is not a problem, anymore... Trust me Ana, Luke Sawyer buried him and he is not coming after you, but he did pass your mother files and they had a chat. Money changed hands and now she is here to see you Sir."What the hell, Sawyer has killed the dickwad? Ana seems to think nothing more of this so I don't push for an explanation, yet.

"Nothing she does is coincidental. What do you want to do Christian, it's you she has come to blackmail, not me?"

"Ana, do you trust me?" I ask, which I know is a stupid question, but it needs asking and answering.

"Yes, with everything I have and everything I am. Why Christian?"

"Taylor please take Ana to my personal secure room, Ana trust me you are my number one priority and some of what you hear may be a lie, okay? I need to know what she knows and I can't have her knowing we are an item. Whatever she is doing here it is to hurt you, not blackmail me."

"Okay, but I need to talk to you have you got a..." I smile and take out a box from my top drawer and in it is an ear piece which I place it in my ear. "That will work I guess? So Taylor show me the comfy house within these walls. Taylor, Sawyer has my back; he has proved that in dealing with Jack, I presume the look was what I presumed, as in he is actually dead?" God she's good! He nods and she says no more."Could you run through the files I have on my mother and her latest husband Bob Adams, he's a writer of crime thrillers and war themed books? If she is here for money, the chances are he has filed for divorce and she has nothing from the prenup they make her sign?"

"Your security have checks done right?" I ask and Taylor smiles. Yes she is like me.

"Yes, yes they do but I have a feeling they keep things from me because they worked for Papa Frank and like the Kavanagh's they were told not to upset me."

"I see, how about we do those reports for you?" Taylor offers, because he knows damned well I will be insisting all her security is overhauled.

"I can't ask you to do that Taylor."

"You didn't I offered, besides we..."

"...Are you on it already because of the boss?" She asks poor Taylor, so I step in, because it seems she does know me pretty well.

"Yes, Ana now move that backside into that room and let's see what your mother wants shall we?"

"It begins with M and ends with a Y." She says as she gives me a kiss for luck, because I will need it, apparently? Taylor goes for her and I take in the picnic hamper Andrea had the deli deliver for lunch. She smiles as she sits in front of the monitors.

"Be careful please? If you need my help holler out and I will save my mans ass."

"I will look forward to you saving my ass and maybe we can have a lunch bunk up? Ana you promise me you will try to eat, please?"

"I will and I like this idea of a lunchtime bunk up too, I love that you're picking up my lingo too, bunk ups and you, umm I cannot wait, ditch the bitch and come find me, and I like this room. I will also have a list of questions such as why is there a king sized bed in your office mate?" I give her a chased kiss and go and await the arrival of Ana's mother. I don't have to wait long either. I do a double take because they could be sisters. Carla Steel is in my office and I haven't a clue why?

"Hello Miss Steel. What if anything can I do for you today?" She peers around the room.

"Is Anastasia not here with you? It's her I need to see. It's important. Very important actually?"

"Why would Ana be here?"

"Because you are dating my daughter are you not?"

"No, no I'm not and why would you think we are?"

"You and she have been seen together and I have a friend who has told me a whole heap of stuff about her."

"Ana and I had a business deal. I bought her grandfathers golf resort in Scotland."

"Otter Island? She sold it? Is she mad?"

"Yes, I bought Otter Island from her and no she is not mad, actually she is very clever and has a very good head for business. Can I ask was this 'friend' you had called Jack? Jack Hyde per chance?"

"Yes he and I were friends, until he tried to blackmail me. I have tried to contact Ana through the Italian mafia I call my family but to no avail something has spooked them into not talking to me, and I cannot get passed the Scot at the door at her London home. Jenny was so good with me before too, I have an idea my mother is behind their sudden failure in talking to me."

"What do you think I can do?"

"I spoke to my brother Marco and he said to try and catch you and tell you what Jack is threatening me with and in turn Ana."

"What could he possibly know about Ana that would warrant you coming all this way and following her around the world?"

"I am with Bobby on a book tour at the moment, so I was in Europe anyway. We are in Seattle for some charitable trust Bobby is a patron of. I am taking a stab at you being able to get her to talk to me? Marco says to ask nicely, so I am."

"Again what about and maybe I could help? How much do they want from you, the blackmailer Jack?"

"What, no I do not need money. I have enough to cover the ten million he wants; no he is going to leak news about her dalliance with him and about their baby."

"She and he had a baby?" I hear Ana scream fuck no.

"Yes, the one she put up for adoption, without his knowledge, he wants the child or the money, either or. There is a clause in his father's will, for the support of a grandchild. Jack told his father Ana had had his child. So there is a very large trust fund set aside for this child and Jack wants the money. He gave me these papers and I am worried about Ana. Ana wouldn't do this; Ana is a born mother and a kind and caring girl. But all it takes is for something like this to hit the newsstands and her business could be ruined and her books wouldn't sell, and if that wasn't bad enough, there would be my parents to tell. That will be hard for her; I know only too well what my mother was like when I apparently sold Ana to her grandparents, choosing Frank's parents and not my own."

"According to Ana you sold her to her Papa Frank and Nannie Mimi for a million dollars?"

"What? I did no such thing. My mother though lovely to everyone's face was a is selfish bitch, Frank was an only child, Ana was their only grandchild, so they needed him back and they offered to help me raise Ana, but I wasn't a fit mother, I was clean whilst I had her, Papa Frank insisted on it, but not before you see I loved to drink and do recreational drugs so I am telling you this upfront as a good grace thing, besides you will have done your homework on the Steel Bitch right?

If Ana cared to ask I would have told her this, I lived with the Lambert's because my darling sweet and kind, butter wouldn't melt mother threw me out of their home. I had nowhere else to go and they took me in. So who do you think I would give my child to? Someone who threw me out or someone who took me in with no questions asked? As to a million dollars? Yes they bought me a year in rehab which I needed but no money was given to me, my mother and I clashed from day one and would tell Ana anything. Thankfully Frank and Mimi were good people. They offered to help me after I got out and clean, but thankfully I managed to land on my feet. Several times as that story goes, but to hear Mamma talk I am a gold digging whore.

Even that's not true, I should go on a television show and have it out in the open, but life is too short for worrying what other people think about you, as long as you know it's a crock of shit, then it doesn't matter what the world thinks of you. The old saying to thine own self be true? Well that's the case with me. I always seem to find men who cannot keep it in their trousers and end up getting hush money; I sign away my rights for an easy life. I am though writing a book and I will set some records straight soon enough."

"Can I see the paperwork you have?"

"Yes of course. He contacted me whilst we were in Zurich and I met with him alone in a graveyard, he gave me those and said the originals were in his safety deposit box, and I could have them when I paid the money, but I have not heard from him and I am worried." I look through them and I smile, he is trying to pass off my son as his the bastard.

"There is no need for you to worry, these are fake. I am sure Ana would love to talk to you about this."

"No, she has better things to do with her life than to talk to a woman who chose to let her stay with her grandparents when she got out of rehab. They said I could be a part of their lives but Dear Sweet Mimi was the only woman who I knew could mother her properly, and let her have the childhood Frank had, yes she was a wonderful and caring woman and Ana, Anastasia Rose was far better off with part time visits to my mother, she is good in small doses but she is very staunch and very unreasonable. I talk to my father all the time and my brother Ray, Marco has been in touch more since he escaped the clutches of that monster he was with."

"So how did Ana only hear bad things about you?"

"I would think from my mother and Mimi, when she got developed memory problems Mom went to help and I swear even I didn't recognise Mimi when we met up again. She hated me too and poor Frank was at a loss to cope with Ana the rebel. So he gave her to Mamma. The rest is learned behaviour from my mother, Vile Vita."

"So you never went to see her?"

"Yes quite a few times, but the poison was deep rooted and I hadn't got it in me to fight my mother over and over again. Ana will learn this the hard way, as I did when I told her I was having Franks baby. Ask my father who put whom in hospital and he will tell you my mother has a fierce temper and hates to be sassed. I would guess she has softened with Ana, but she will snap one day and if Ana wants to talk to me then, I will be here for her. Until she sees what my mother is good at hiding, then the truth will not set us free."

"I will tell her when I see her, but if she needs to contact you how does she do that?"

"I have never changed my number, I am still in the place in Hollywood her father left me and I have the home in New York Papa Frank got me too. They were good kind people and I miss them more than my own family. I have quite the collection of Ana's photos courtesy of Wolfe and Papa."

"You are in contact with Wolfe?"

"Yes he was her father's brother almost, he listens and does not judge, he is a deep thinker and good for Ana too. I mean what could I offer her, apart from how to meet marry and get walked over by bad eggs. But know this If you hurt her again Grey I know people."

"I said we were not a couple."

"So you said, but her perfume is in the air and your eyes change when you talk about her. You best be a good egg Grey and sort this out. Tell her I am sorry about the baby you and she lost, I wanted to reach out then but Jenny said I shouldn't so I didn't."

"Jenny told you about our son?"

"I saw Ana in London, well I actually saw her at a friend's health spar and she was very much pregnant. I asked Jenny about this sudden bump and she filled me in on the murderous rage she felt for the father and after hearing her rant I presumed it was you, the man from the lodge?"

"You know a lot about Ana?"

"I do, she is the best thing I did in my life, the best thing."

"Yet you didn't fight for her?"

"Why take her from the arms of the best people in the world. Christian, one day when you do have a child and you hear them cry for the first time, it imprints on your heart. I was in a coma for weeks after I had her, because of the car wreck and the person who loved and cared or her in those few weeks was Mimi. As I said she was a wonderful mother to Frank and I knew she would love his daughter the same way. I wouldn't wish my childhood on Ana or my worst enemy Christian; it was nothing like Ana's seems to have been. Momma was a very self centered woman, hers were the only opinions that mattered, her and her sodding god. She wanted things done her way and no other way. If you stepped out of line you were not highly thought of or cast out.

I mean take Ray, he didn't stay in London too long after he reached eighteen, because he crossed her when he said no to being a priest for god's sake, he was a non entity and she banished him back to Australia, and so I was then to be offered up in his place as a nun. I didn't and still don't believe in god so that was a no, a big no from me and yet another smack in Mamma's face, the hate was there all the damned time, and I have my suspicions on why she hates me, and one day I may just ask her, but I don't care for my mother enough to let it worry me. She should be used to disappointing the church, because none of her children wanted to serve the church?They wanted their own life to be free and not run around going to church all the damned time and treating the priest better than she treated Pappa. I loved to act and if truth be told I am none too good at it, but I wanted to hit the big time and be recognised and did some risque thing to get there I will admit and I was a great model and I have a good singing voice, so I tried everything to get noticed and be the rebel without a clue, I did stupid teenaged things to get that five minutes of fame, and after I had the 'connection to Lenny Lamb I got it. I was a groupie and a pot smoking rebel, then after the crash I was depressed, angry, you name it I had an issue with it, but and only because I knew Ana was safe and I didn't have to answer to Mamma, I went wild for a few years, which is another reason why I was a lousy parent and role model for my daughter. I wasn't right for her, back then and I doubt I still am, but Mimi and Frank, they were, they were the best people for my Ana and if I could go back I would do it the same way again."

"Have you ever written to Ana and tried to explain your absence in her life I mean I presume you have called her too?"

"All the time, she hears my voice and wham the phone smashes I hear the rage, so I write, but the letters were and still are returned unopened and not at this address. My mother was pretty damned good at speaking for my daughter. Christian, I have a room full of toys, books letters and presents all unopened and clothes and gifts from every place I visited and for every event in her life. I had hoped one day to show her the rooms I have in my home's dedicated to her. She is never more than a moment away from my head and is always in my heart. I loved her enough to know I was not good enough for her and I was strong enough thank god to give her to two wonderful people and stand up to Mamma Vita and say no..." I hear Ana sob, was some of this ringing true?

"So what do you do now for a living? If you don't mind me asking?" I try to stop myself from running in the secure room and hugging her.

"I write books in secret, and a ghost writer pretends she has written them for me, thanks to my mother bad mouthing me every chance she gets, I cannot do the book tours or the publicity needed to promote them and I do pretty well actually from it actually..."

"Oh really, so your work, is it anything I may have read?"

"Do you like teenage detective novels, with a young girl as the detective? My heroine is a sassy young Scottish head strong little lady? I am known as Mauve Bleacher author, I write at least two a year, it's a pretty large collection and in demand. My detective is called..."

"...Annie McKenzie. My sister reads her stuff, your stuff I mean. It's being made into a television miniseries yes?" I act all goof ball because shoot me, okay I love the damned books. There is not much violence, not much bloodshed and very little gory gore and crap, but loads of adventures and mysteries and set all over the world too; they are a modern day girls adventure series. I cannot believe it I am awe struck over her mom being an author, I get shouted at and my ear rings with a very loud Ana screaming Christian Grey wake up... Ouch!

"Yes, I have signed a three season minimum, and an option for five more, dependent of viewing figures, it's also with the premium cable network HBO, are you sure it's your sister who reads them?"

"No, it's me I will admit it, I read them, okay? My family all laugh at me, they laugh because I kind of like them, they are a light hearted read, but it was Mia who happened to leave her book around, and yes I read them! You got me I love them." Ana's Mom is the woman smiling at me, this woman writes them, wow I lied because I am her biggest fan, I love Annie McKenzie, go figure now and I smile because I know who she based it on, her daughter and used the family's name too. I get a little stupidly awestruck; it probably didn't help with the gay thing my family presumed of me either?

"So we skirted over the baby, when did you find out Christian?" She had to go there damn it, the illusion is over and this is now a truth be dared session I think? "I kind of thought it was too early for her to try again, especially with Jack, he was a womanising bastard and he hadn't changed much when I met him again. I knew they were false accusations but they still had me worrying for Ana?"

"Jack spilled the beans at her New York opening and we are slowly coming to terms with it. We are going to talk to her grandparents after we have cleared up a mess I managed to get myself into."

"Even billionaires get into them. Good luck with Mamma, I can assure you Ana will need you after that meeting, but don't let her go through that alone. It was the worst thing that ever happened to me; my telling Mamma a rock star had gotten me pregnant. One time, one time I had sex and wham, I am pregnant with the man I had idolised for years."

"So you stalked him, Frank, Ana's father?" It seems the mother and daughter are alike, I hear Ana say oh fuck me, again and I am tempted to laugh and say yes please Baby!

"You say stalked like it's a bad thing?" I laugh and she smile. "Okay, it was a little freaky, but I was Lenny's number one teenage groupie and loved him more than anything. So when he spotted me in an after concert party we had sex in his room and let me tell you Christian Grey, it was not how I imagined it to be, he was drunk and was getting drunker, he asked me to you know get naked and I did. I would have done anything for him and I did. It was the best time ever and then suddenly it was the worst time ever, because after it I was given a few hundred dollars a signed group tee shirt and a phone number for a sex clinic he used and he said if anything cropped up I should go see his guy there, very thoughtful I thought. I had my illusions dumped down the flusher that night. Then three months later I had the stick test show positive and tried in vain to get his management to take my calls, but apparently he got hundreds of these calls every year."

"What did you do?" This seems like a story I have heard before. I hear Ana sob again...

"I went to see his mother of course and they took me in after the almighty row I had with my mother and had nowhere to go after the fall down the stairs. They took me in no questions asked."

"Mom..." Ana came out with tears streaming down her face. Oh god this is going to be one of two things good or bad. I have to hope for good, because Ana cannot take much more crap.

"Ana... Christian and I are through, read the paperwork Jack Hyde gave me and tell me what you think I should do. I gather wherever you were sat you heard everything?"

"Nonna and Nonno, they aren't like that Mom."

"I hope for your sake when you tell her she receives the news better than she did when I told her about you, I was knocked down a flight of stairs to rid me of the problem..."

"...She really threw you out and harmed you and tried to rid you of me?"

"She did and boy was I sore and I have the hospital report to prove it, I'd embarrassed her good catholic god loving name, and my father stood and let her throw me out too. My mother was a hard person to grow up with. I was a girl and protected from sin by her strict rules and the boys looking out for me. Yet her precious boys could screw half of London and probably did, but I slept with the one man, one time and wouldn't you know it I get myself pregnant? I reached out and asked for help and it was denied me. I know she has told you I was a whore and did it a lot sleep with boys and men; well let me put you straight, I did not. Ana, I lost my virginity to your father. I was stupid enough to think I meant something to him. Well I wasn't anything special. I was just a fool of a groupie." Ana thinks deep and hard and then she softly speaks.

"Mimi didn't say anything bad about you, not until Nonna came to stop. I didn't realise it at the time, but yeah they never badmouthed you at all, Mimi loved you for you letting me raise her, she really did. Mom why did you not try harder to be with me?"

"Anastasia, I did try but after years of rejection, I finally stopped putting myself out there to get hurt, it took a while, but doors slammed in my face, on my fingers and letters and gifts returned, well I got the message, loud and clear when my Mamma had a restraining order put in place... Yes okay I know why she was pissed off with me, for god's sake I let Frank and Mimi raise you, and not her and there was a good reason for it too, Scotland and the good life your grandparents wanted for you, was what I wanted for you, and in the end it was what your father wanted for you, to be a kid, looked after by his mother. I stuck to the agreement Lenny and I made before he died, that living with his parents was what was best for you. It took me years to get my courage and self esteem back, especially after the years of emotional abuse I got from Momma. My mother is a pretty nice looking grandma type of a woman, to the unknowing of you out there, but cross her, embarrass her or worse say no to her and she would make the real monsters out there fear her and her family, they fear her too, all of them not just ours, her own family do not like her, her brothers and her sister, they don't see her if they can help it."

"My father, he really asked Mimi and Papa Frank to raise me, and you agreed to this why?"

"He knew I was weak and would let my mother run rings around me and you. She came to stop for the last month of my confinement and let's just say everyone got a glimpse of the Mafia Mamma I'd had the misfortune to grow up with, Vita D'Acciaio she was not the nice kindly Nonna you seem to have in your life Ana, but she could have changed I guess, but I doubt it? I will never forgive her for starting the row in that last car ride your father and I took, and I know that it was her arguing with your father that caused the row in the car on the way to the hospital, for that I will hate her forever, she killed the only man I have ever loved and nearly cost the world you too."

"She did what? She caused the crash?" Her mother looked genuinely grief stricken and I passed her my handkerchief. Ana simply stood and looked so confused. "What were they arguing about?" She asks as she sobs. Is my baby releasing there may be some truth in this very credible story?

"Anastasia, they were rowing about your name of all things. He turned around when my waters broke in his brand new car; he laughed and said his baby girl, Anastasia Rose was making a mess of her daddy's new car... As he turned to face the road again grinning at me, he smiled Ana and he died with that smile on his face when the truck the drunk was driving hit his side head on."

"Nonna said it was you."

"She would. I mean Mimi was out of it cold, Papa Frank he was in a bad way, sat at his dying sons side, but still he held my hand as his wife lay hurt, I was alone in the back about to give birth and my mother, where was she? My mother was stood in the middle of the road and screamed and shouted at the truck driver that he had pissed off the wrong woman, did he know who she was. She was oblivious about anyone else hurt in the wreck. She was screaming about suing him and having him taken out. It was horrid, she actually thought it was a bloody mob hit on her, she is and was one delusional bitch, she was the wife of a small baker and his family, but hell to hear her talk she had the right connections."

"My Nonna is not like that Mom." I heard her call her mother Mom and saw the smile Carla had, that was not faked. "She is a good good person, she is kind she loves me, she, she wouldn't do that, not to me..."

"She is Ana, she just hides it well, why do you think Uncle Ray does not come over and why he is the farthest away from her all the time and why do you think she does not go to Australia much, why because Nonna hates Ray's wife Mariah, she is a brainless bimbo, who got knocked up to rob her of her son, a woman only good for sleeping with and making babies with, because she is a whore and not a good woman, and all because cannot cook like a good Italian wife should? Ana the only times Nonna goes there is to be at the birth of their children, and that's not by choice but at Nonna's insistence at her naming their boys, Ray is afraid of our mother and he always asks how high he should jump when she asks him to jump too, how do you not see this Ana? Why do you think Marco was hiding his bloody gay closet for so long and why do you think he spends so much time with you, he watches out for you, how many visits did she make to go and see him in the hospital? I went to see him from Hollywood, did she? No, she said it was gods punishment for him being gay and he deserved it?"

"What about Sunny?" She shouts at her mother and I stare and hope to god Taylor can prove any or all of this, because I have the distinct feeling I am gonna lose my balls and flagstaff when I meet the Mafia Mamma, Ana's Grandmother Vita.

"He's a Mamma's boy, through and through, and for some reason he gets more from her than any of us, he is a push over and does everything she asks of him. But he is in for a rude future, because if he is not married within the next year he will be in the seminary, she is determined one of her bloody kids is going to be given to god and he will go too or he will marry this girl he is seeing, the one Nonna dislikes, the secretary with glasses and fake boobs? Lucinda is not a Noona fan either Ana, ask the women in my brothers lives why that is."

"Wow..." I say as her mother lets loose. I guess there is some truth in this as Ana is not screaming and shouting...

"How come you know so much about me and them?" She asks. "And are they all afraid of Nonna? Mom tell me the truth, please?"

"We still talk Ana, we just don't publicise it, because poor Daddy gets it in the neck if we talk. They don't tell you because you are such a Nonna's girl, and let's face facts shall we Ana, because until you see the real Mamma Vita D'Acciaio, she will always be a saint. They protect you from the real Mamma, believe me as soon as you tell her about the baby you had, she will show her true colours."

"I cannot believe you knew about him and you said nothing?" I see the tears in Carla's eyes and I see the pain in Ana's too.

"Had you wanted me there you would have reached out Ana, but like Momma you are very independent and stubborn."

"I need to ask my uncles some questions and perhaps Get the Kavagnahs to release the room to me a little early?"

"Yes do that the truth is in there, I was at the will reading so I know the answers you seek about your father, they are in there, your father kept pretty amazing diaries, we were pretty good friends in those last couple of months. He was the love of my life. He was amazing, but he was too much for one girl to handle, he had a lot of love to give and we often joked he'd be a good candidate for polygamy, he always joked he had a lot of fans and too little time, he'd laugh when he said it too. I guess he never saw the end coming as quickly as it did. Listen thanks for talking to me at last, talk to the others before you tackle Nonna. Perhaps you could talk to Nonno first, he is a wise old man?"

"You talk to Nonno?"

"All the damned time, I have to get my fill of your stories Ana, he is so damned proud of you. He was the one was he not, the one to push you into going your own way and making your dreams come true?"

"Yes."

"He was the one who made sure you were taught well. He encouraged your dreams he pushed for you to be free of her influence and to be better person. He wanted much more than the church and marriage for you, he wanted you to have the world at your fingertips, and be that manic baking god, and he did it alone, she stopped scholarships and bakeries coming after you, she destroyed many offers from chocolate houses, but my father saw the one from John Hyde and told him to approach you at school, not at home." She is a daddy's girl, like Mia.

"Yes but Nonna did too, she encouraged me Mom." Ana is having none of it, she loves her family, they mean everything to her and all of a sudden she is hearing from a very credible Carla, that everything she was told was a lie, including her father's death and his life with her mother.

"Did she? Did she not say you had to settle down and marry, this year, last year? Did she not make the boys work for you in hopes they would get the businesses? Boys run the family businesses Ana; girls stop home and raise a family. This dream you have is in her eyes for the family. She helped you to make it happen for her grandsons future not yours, Ray, he says his boys love the life they have, but he cannot stress to the boys enough that the business is yours and they have to work for what they have, and what their grandmother wants and promises them is not hers to give away."

"What?"

"She thinks Ray Junior should have Australasia, and Sunny Junior will get Europe and America will be split between Rays other boys."

"Wow she has my business wrap up well then and into neat little bundles. What about my hopes for my chocolate empire?"

"What empire? You are headed to the nunnery, and the billions you are getting will be a good dowry for the church, so don't hold too much hope for her liking Christian here, especially if you marry him and do not become a Bride of Christ, and oh the business will revert back to becoming the D'Acciaio family bakeries. There will be chocolate and cafe's but her world is bread and Gelato."

"Okay then it seems I have a few more problem to clear before we go to see the oldies Nonna and Nonno? Christian this is way above madness, it's manic megalomania."

"She is an old fashioned Italian Momma, she rules the roost, she just had you believe it was your plan, but all along it was her plans. I have to be going Seattle Independent want this signing to go off without a hitch and Bobby will only panic if I am not there. Christian my numbers are in the file and everything I have on Mother Dearest too. Included in there are the secret parts of Papa Franks will pertaining to me. Momma never knew he was still good to me right until he died, he thanked me often for the light you brought to his world Ana." Ana was floored and gave her mother a hug, which was warmly received I think? What do I know of such things? "One day Ana those blinkers you wear will be off. Please be very careful mentioning the baby, she will fly off the handle, especially with you Chris. She was so nasty to Lenny and his family. She hated me for sticking to Lenny's last and dying wishes, your name and your living with his parents."

"My name, is it one of his records? It has always eluded me."

"No, it's a place he loved to visit in Florida. He has a house there; or rather I have a house there. Papa Frank left it to me. I love the place and Bobby does some really good writing there. If I get the dreaded writer's block we go there to unwind and it helps a lot being there."

"Anastasia is a place not a woman?" I ask. Ana too looks a little shocked. She thought she was named her after the Russian lost princess.

"No, it's the place he was happiest at. He loved Scotland, but he said he'd die a happy man if that was the last clear water he was ever to see. The view from his house is amazing, it overlooks Anastasia Island. The Anastasia State Park is just over the salt run and it was where he and I spent that last weekend together, it was an amazing weekend."

"How come I do not know any of this? How come she said they hated you and my father could not even remember you?"

"He and I saw a lot of each other in those final weeks, he sort of liked me and he was kind of glad to be having a daughter and he was mellowing towards fatherhood and being a better man, in fact he thanked me for keeping you all the damned time." She winked and Ana wept. I think she meant they had a lot thank you sex! I see the look of love her mother has. "Papa Frank knew what my mother was like and kept the visits to a minimum. She insisted she was there for the birth, as she has this 'tradition' where she picks the babies name. Your name, gheeze she did not like it, she wanted you to be called Vita Vallette, and for obvious reasons I did not like the name, and luckily loved the one your father had already picked, Anastasia. Had you been a boy you would have been Franklin Andrew, that was a given." She sobbed again and I stood looking like a lemon. I am not too good with these tears women seem to wet their faces with. When Ana cries it's soul destroying, she could ask for the moon and I would give it her just for the tears to stop.

"My mother was very demanding. When Mimi died, I tried to come back for you but she was having none of it. Papa Frank was like a lost soul and she took advantage of him, and the result was your going to live with them in London."

"Miss Steel, how did you allow this to happen?"

"Please call me Carla, and as I said I was a family black sheep, I was a model and an actress and I once took my top off in a fashion magazine. She made it sound like I was a porn star. I swear I have only ever had sex with five men, including your father I was married to the other four before we did the deed. Anyway she had some photos of me with husband number two, he was into some pretty shady stuff and god knows how she did it, but she has photos of me in not much clothing, actually I wore some rather risqué panties and a bra set and I was being lead around with a collar, it didn't help that I was leashed, it was my husband's kinky habit, sort of a thing, and as luck had it, I happened to like it." I know I stared at Ana and she sat down. "Anyway the judge looked at those photos and I lost out to her again. I came to take you out and spend some time with me, but you were drip fed her poison and I was made out to be all sorts of things I am not."

"Why did she hate you Mom and make me hate you?"

"You would have to ask her, but be warned Ana, she hates to lose at anything. Look now you know my side, ask your uncles to be honest with you,tell them you and I have spoken and perhaps you will see the truth for yourselves, but take the warning about your baby seriously, she could get violent. I have to be going Bobby will be trying to fix his tie and panicking. It was nice of you to see me Ana, and thank you Christian." Ana hugged her mother and I did the cheek kisses. I think I believe her? Taylor comes to see her to her car. With the promise of more visits, she left, as she did she said she is more likely to be a good friend than a mother, because even now, she says she hasn't got that mommy bond. I beg to differ. She seems to have had the fight taken from her, and now I am dreading the Nonna visit.

My grandmother the control freak:

As the lift doors closed I wondered what the hell my mother had let loose? I think I believe her, it certainly made more sense than my father and grandparents hating her, Papa Frank never bad mouthed her and Mimi thanked her for letting her raise me. Then I suddenly remember when I was little Mimi used to hate Nonna's visits and now I know why. The fact she knew about Baby Christian was a little bit of a shock and awe moment, one none of us dwelt upon. I doubt I will be going into the lion's den and if we do we know what's coming at least, for the first time in my life I say these words and mean it.

"My poor mother. Christian do you mind if we sort of speak to my uncles first, before we you know, we have to see Nonna?"

"Me and my balls thank you. That was one hell of a visit Baby. She seems very up front about not being a great mom. Had she wanted more kids to replace you she would have had them."

"What do you mean?"

"Sorry that sounded like having another baby would replace you, what I meant to say was perhaps she really doesn't feel the mother thing? Mia is the same way, she is inclined never to want children because she says she doesn't feel it, this mother thing?"

"I guess it's not a given. A lot of men feel that way. I mean there are a ton of absentee fathers out there. I was glad to know my father actually wanted me and he helped my mother. If I read it right they were more than friends in the end?" Christian is laughing.

"I nearly choked when she mentioned the collar and leash, who knew you'd inherited your mothers kinky side Baby?"I giggled; I knew how hornie I got when I was having my baby, so I don't have to imagine her needs being met by my very over sexed daddy. Taylor knocks and walks in.

"Taylor do you have Miss Steel's file?" He smiles and passes Christian a thick file and I take it to the 'suite' Christian has in his office. I hate to ask what he needs a bed in here for, but the question will be asked. "How is the file hunting down in the basement Taylor?"

"Not bad, we have a lot of her former boy toys coming in to speak to our people; she has all the files on you, and the other girls she found for you. Most of her 'pay-checks' are dead, which does not surprise me seeing as they were all of them of a certain age. She didn't seem to do much of the middle age thing, either really young or really old. Sir..."

"I kind of worked that out for myself. How many of the files on the boys can Dad still use to prosecute her to the fullest?"

"Too many, Sir. She has had the pick of the boys from Camp Calmez-Vous; she was and still is a true predator, she picks two a year and grooms them to greatness, so far none have made her high expectations, because none of them are you it seems."

"I swear I believed her when she said she found training the young guys too much trouble, then again I was still friends with her until very recently. How foolish was I?"

"Very... Sir... Barney has passed the file on Sebastian to your father, it seems he did not die from the choke he got from his 'man friends hands' he died from the belt she tied around his neck to make it look like a sex game gone bad." So Elena was the one who really killed Seb, interesting news.

"Who was the man friend?" I see Taylor smile.

"Your old sparring partner and the man who likes to say no to your expansion plans to the boat yard next to his church."

"Reverend Randolph Jackson, he was the rich guy Sebastian was seeing?" I am shocked and surprised the man is a staunch born again Christian and all round good egg, or so he seems, interesting.

"According to Lincolns very detailed files, then yes. Rev Randy Jackson was the man paying her ten thousand a month and he paid her a million in clean up fees. Too."

"I wonder if his ministry know they are paying a paedophile hush money? Because I doubt he has those sort of funds readily available Taylor?"

"I don't know there is power and money to be had in god and his ministry is big."

"He has a lot to lose then."

"Mrs Adam's file is thick with court dates and declined visitation appeals, I think if I were a betting man, this nice little old lady Miss Lambert calls Nonna is not so damned nice."

"I think I figured that out myself. Thanks for this Taylor, whats next?"

"Your father is taking the boys statements and Daniels Grandfather is personally interviewing her, when they have them, she was denied bail, as she did not have the surety of the ten percent needed."

"Is that a conflict of interest?"

"Nobody is getting her off were his words. And the public defender she has is useless. Might I suggest you take Miss Lambert home Sir, she has had a lot to face and an uphill battle with Vita to come." We both hear Ana cry. It seems there truth in those files and Carla was telling the truth, because there were a few oh fucks to be had.

"I may take her out on the Grace, can you have Mac make the arrangements, have her stocked with provisions for a couple days. And thank you Taylor. I do appreciate your hard work."

"Sir..." He heads back out and I go and see my lady.

"Ana, what's the matter?"

"Oh look you have to read the file too. My grandmother, my Nonna, the sweet old lady, wow she is a piece of work. How did I not see this before?" She points at the file I we have on her mother. It is quite a good read and she has in fact spent a lot of time since Ana was twelve trying to get her away from her own mother. I admire Carla Steel and wonder what the hell her Nonna is really like? I have the theme from the Godfather running through my head and try not to laugh but hell I thought my life with Elena was fucked up, Ana's and her grandmother's faked back history, may make my current situation with the Lincoln woman, pale into nothingness...

"We each believe and choose to see the things we want to see. I choose to see my mother as a crack whore and not a victim, thanks to you I am a much changed man. Mom always said I was too easy to judge and it seems Baby so were you."

"I am going to make a call. Please stay with me, I may need a lot of soothing?"

"My pleasure..." She stabs at the number on her phone and I wonder who she is talking to, until the Scottish voice comes into play... It's Jenny... They exchange words and Ana cries as she tells Jenny I am looking out for her and she confirms she always knew about the wee laddie and her mother had been stopped from interfering in her life by Nonna. They spoke in a soft voice and a few more tears were had. I know she called me out, but Ana told her she loved me and to stop hurting her and to get used to me being a fixture. I liked hearing that conversation, though it was a little hard to understand it all as they talk very weird and pretty damned quickly. They ended the call and Ana came to sit on my knee.

"My mother and Jenny clashed because Nonna told her she'd be out on her ear if she found Carla at the London house again. I need to make chocolates it's been ages since I was in a kitchen, I need to unwind and create, I have my best thoughts when my heads a mess."

"I was going to take you out on the Grace for a couple of days and work out some of your kinks at sea?"

"That would work too, a nice sea breeze... Oh and another cocktail idea too. I need one for my Nonna? How about a Witches Tit, nope that's Elena Lincoln's cocktail, umm I know, An Italian Sour, perhaps?" She sobs about the Nonna betrayal. I doubt I should laugh but I do.

"Ana, I do a great Screaming Orgasm, how about we give that one a tryout?"

"Oh yes please... Can we try it on this bed, by the way why have you got a bedroom in the back of your office?"

"I sleep here some nights, that's why. Some meetings go on until the middle of the night."

"Have you, have you, ever you know..." I wish I had not started this conversation. "...Had sex in it?" I asked him now I wish I hadn't.

"Does it matter Ana? If I have or haven't?"

"Yes, I need to know did your girls service your needs here?"

"No, nobody but you has ever slept in any of my beds."

"So, I guess we could try out the Screaming Orgasm then?" I give him the eye and I see the look in his, oh boy.

"You need only ask Anastasia, I live to please."

"Um, really well Mr Grey it would please me greatly if you were to make me scream an orgasm, on this bed, after all this here is all new virgin territory."

"I think it's been used Baby, by Elliot..."

"Way to spoil the moment Grey. Urk..." He laughs.

"Oh I don't know Ana, I do believe I can still make you have a mean orgasm Baby."

"Oh, yes please..." He strips as he walks towards his bed and I shake, I know that look and its sheer desire and as I take off my dress he tutts.

"No, striping I want to take your clothes off, I want to unwrap you and ravish you." He purrs as he stands at the foot of his bed, oh my god, orgasm number one right there. He is so hard to figure out, but then this is all new for us both. He and I made love until the skies started to darken. When we had showered and re dressed, he smiled.

"So, I am not meeting Nonna then?"

"Umm, I need to make the calls, but for now no... I want you in one piece I may love you a whole lot more and oh the Sex Bomb is your cocktail..."

"Umm I think your Pink Pussy would agree."

"Yeah well I didn't have time to get it waxed, I am sorry for the mess it made of your face I am none to steady at shaving my huhar dear?" He grinned.

"There is a solution, when we get to the boat I may have to do the job correctly."

"Oh my, that sounds like it could be fun?" We head down to the car and find Taylor talking to a man in black.

"Taylor?" Christian asks. "Who is this?"

"This Sir is Elena Lincoln's worse nightmare..."

"I thought that was me?" Ana joked.

"No that's me and son, you have no idea how pleased my boss is to have finally found Thelma..."

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Who is the man in black? I wonder if Nonna is a good or bad Nonna? Find out next time lol...

read and review and I may do lemons in the next part lol...


	22. Chapter 22

_**DREAMING OF CHOCOLATE AND GREY:**_

 _ **Summary of characters, as some of you are getting a tad confused lol, sorry...**_

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Ana is she is almost 25 when this story begins; just to make Ana's career path work, because it takes longer to establish herself as an ace chocolatier. She was born September 10TH 1990, and the current year is 2015. (The original was written over the years 2008/09/10 and published in 2012.)

Christian is 32. Elliot is 34. Mia is 23. More fitting with the ages of the actors chosen for the movie characters...

I will add in now because the story is older lol... The Baby Christian, he was born sleeping at seven and a half months, directly after her thirty week scan... He was born on the 22nd August 2008. Which would have made him a little over seven years of age, had he still been with them, born approx six weeks short of Ana's 19th birthday. I think I said he was six so have corrected the story hopefully; it took a lot of re writing lol... Now the mad Italian's... (The confusion in my story?)

Nonna- (Italian for grandmother) is Vita...  
Nonno-(Italian for grandfather) is Santino I (senior)... Oh and NONNI, means grandparents!

Their family are Ray, Marco, Carla and Santino II, Ray is married to Mariah they have Ana's 7 nephews, (not all of whom will be in the story other than you knowing he has seven sons... Ray Jnr and Santino III (the turd) the twins Marco Jnr & Salvador Jnr are bakers in training and will be in the story.

Marco is gay yes and his ex, Preston Rage Harcourt the Fourth is in prison for murder. Marco has the hots for Sawyer. (Luke - As yet his sexuality has not been decided by me, though Holly does make an appearance soon lol!)

Santino II (AKA Sunny) is seeing Lucinda, and yes he is a spoilt man, both by his niece and his mother, and doesn't want to settle down, however he is a mommy's boy who if he is not settled will be made to go into the church.  
Carla has very valid reasons for hating her mother as it seems does Nonno Vita has for hating her, all will revealed, but it has something to do with their Uncle Salvador. (Hint Hint lol...)

I hope this cleared the story up for you thanks for pointing out I had made a mistake in the dates of Ana's age 18-25 and my writing the baby as 6 when he should have been 7, he is now, lol... It is not fifty shades though... But all is right with the story it has been tweaked and changed in the parts that deal with their sons darned age... The last chapter was also re tweaked to address some valid issues, adding a little more detail into the story and in Carla's explanations the hatred between mother and daughter... I am also sorry for delay; you are only getting this now because I managed to borrow a laptop, my daughter on a course for a few weeks. I may have to get one of my own this month lol...

* * *

Dreaming of Chocolate and Grey:

Chapter 22:

She did what...?

After Carla's departure and after Ana and I made love until the sky turned to dusk, and as we headed to the marina to take a ride on my boat, because Taylor had told me she likes to sail, so I intend to take her out on The Grace, and perhaps just sail the coast for a while and anchor in a cove and be totally alone. She is deeply troubled and understandably so, her whole world seems to have bottomed out. Her mother has provided us or Ana with all the proof that what she told Ana was the truth and she is, as I imagine I would be if my family had lied to me all my life, hurt. Thankfully my parents are staunch believers in the truth and honesty thing. This I have just realised does as the slogan states set you free. It's a small wonder my parents have not disowned me over the Elena debacle. My mother can put a spin on anything to make it sound less harsh. It's a monumental fuck up is what that is. Now we are faced with Ana's truths, which has caused her a great deal of emotional pain. Pain I hope to help her shoulder as she is doing with me. That we hit the parking garage and Taylor and his guest greet us...

"Taylor?" I ask as I place Ana behind me, "who is this?"

"This Sir is Elena Lincoln's worse nightmare..." Okay, Taylor seems okay to see the man in black, so I relax.

"I thought that was me?" Ana joked, please Baby this could be some serious shit.

"No that's me and son; you have no idea how pleased my boss is to have finally found Thelma..." I wonder what the fuck he means?

"So should we go back up to my office to discuss this?"

"No, no we can talk in the ride to your boat. I will have my car follow us there..."

"Okay, Taylor introduce us at least." Ana says. "You look like a federal agent, are you?"

"Yes, I am Miss Lambert. I am agent Hunter McCall; I have been trying to track Thelma for many years. She took something other than the money and the governors watch, she took a book. A book your people have handed over to my department as well as the rest of her paperwork, yes I had a search warrant, and so I thank you for your cooperation."

"Taylor?"

"His team headed in as you came down; they were working on a tip from Mrs Lincoln that we had her personal papers hidden in your secure room Sir. They knew what they were looking for. They have left your files Sir."

"Damned nice of you McCoy." I say the sarcasm is meant to sound off; we do the leg work they sweep in and take the damned credit.

"We asked her earlier today if she had the book. It seems that she didn't know that in the book of his is a list of contributions and a list of people who he bribed and blackmailed, also those of whom donated cash to his campaign, and what they wanted for said campaign donations and what they got after he was elected, who they paid off. Then the general sleazy crap, with Thelma and her buddy that they used to get the first governor in his seat and later the son." We climbed in the car, Taylor drove and he sat in the front as Ana and I listened from the back seat.

"Sleazy stuff?" Ana asks.

"Thelma and her friends used to give favours to their Sugar Daddies, and in return they were blackmailed. They were quite the team the old dead governor and Thelma." I shudder.

"So, why did she not use this information to then blackmail the new governor?" Ana asks. I am impressed, she did understand Elena well.

"She may have done had she had she understood the coding of the book Miss Lambert? She needed the code and the book is useless without it. She didn't know what she was sitting on all these years. She was mad as hell and told us where she thought her stolen papers where and wants to use it as a bargaining chip to get herself out of prison. So you did indeed have the papers as she said, nice move sonny." Is he fucking serious? Is he thinking of bargaining with the devil? Ana must feel me tense up and tries to sooth the situation, I then wonder what the penalty is for hitting a fed?

"Yes, we had her papers moved here. We needed the information on the children she harmed. As owner of the rooms and given her huge debt to my company, I took possession of the room when she had not paid the last six months rental fees. I did nothing wrong and have the legal right to the contents of the room to settle her debt, she signed the contracts allowing me to do this, and she was warned of the impending emptying of her room." Ana is very sharp with the agent.

"We only needed the files pertaining to this case, the other stuff has been left and I am sure you have taken the files you need and the ones that will seal her fate concerning the children?"

"We have, but why do I feel there is a but coming here?" Ana asks.

"We need her to tell us where she got it, the book and I suspect she will want some sort of a deal to tell us what we need, you see I highly doubt she is going to cooperate and tell us seeing as the owner of said book, was the same said randy bastard she choked with his own belt. So we have to try to get her to talk, and if we have to strike a deal with the devil, then we will."

"I feel like you are telling me she is going into witness protection and will get away with his murder, am I right Agent McCall?" I ask, knowing full well the answer is yes.

"She has used that as her bargaining chip to get out yes, but what she doesn't know is that we still have her on the murder of your friend Sebastian Rockaport and we cannot possibly strike any deals concerning the child endangerment, and or the distribution of child porn, or her having sex with minors and everything else on the legal table. The distribution will put her away for years on its own! But and this is the strangest thing, mid way through our negotiations, an attorney came in to see her and we had to stop questioning her and it is why we are approaching you Mr Grey."

"But..." Ana asks again.

"She won't talk to us anymore. Her lawyer is telling her to stay silent until all the charges are off the table." McCall tells us.

"Who is her lawyer? Whoever it is, is a fool she hasn't got a bean to pay their high fees with." I ask.

"This is the kicker; its someone working for or who knows the late governors grandson, they it seem are paying for her legal counsel."

"How in the hell did they know where she was and why would they help protect the said murderer of their patriarch, isn't that a legal clash or something?" Ana asks Agent McCall.

"A clash of interests, yes that was my thought on the matter. We believe, like us they have friends in the right places and were waiting and looking for the name Thelma Brunswick to be called up on several criminal databases, as were we and at some time today someone did just that. They managed in retrieving her police records. As to helping her, they are helping themselves, his son was made the new governor and his grandson is up for filling the chair in the next election, keeping the family business going. They are a slick pair of bastards who know how to hide their 'connections."

"Barney could help the officer trace the perpetrator, I am sure they have someone just as good as him on their payroll Sir." Taylor says but I see the damned look and the way this McCall is sat in my vehicle he already knows who unsealed Elena's/Thelma's past, and that he is sitting in their car.

"So, what do they want her to say?" Ana asks? "I would want her to hang if they had killed my grandfather. Though if it were my grandmother I may let them hang her... Sorry I have a few grandparental issues at the moment, not connected to this though." He smiled and was eyeing Ana up and not in a good way, and I got rather protective of the way he looked at my woman and pulled her closer.

"To deny to us that she stole the book of course." McCall says smugly.

"And that's our concern why exactly?" I state, so matter-of-factly. I am so annoyed at some fucker right now and I'm not sure who, Barney or damned Taylor for allowing this fucker McCall into my building. Then McCoy turns and grins.

"Because your man Barney could face a lot of time in prison for hacking into sealed government records."

"If he did it, then so could they then, right?" Ana asks. "Who knows who it was, them or us?"

"Yes but the search was traced here to your offices not theirs. They jumped on it after your man hacked it, so technically they just got a free ride of your mans hacking."

"So what do you want me to do about this? I gather you are here to make me do something or promise something to Elena Lincoln in return for her selling out the late governor and his remaining family?"

"You are quite correct. I want you to wear a wire and talk to her, and get her to tell you where she got the book you found in her things. Our sources at a certain watch company says you have in your possession the governors stolen Rolex too?" Fuck... Taylor what the hell did you do?

"I have an old Rolex yes. I have not had it on in years and yes, yes it was a gift from Elena. It was a watch which I actually thought was a copy, as the usual Rolex security markings were not there. When it stopped working years ago it was left in a drawer, I thought nothing more about the watch until Barney Sullivan said a million dollars in cash and a Rolex were taken from the departed governor, I gave Taylor here the watch to check out, because I had a feeling it was the same one. I did not know it was stolen when I accepted it, as I was only sixteen when she gave it me for my birthday."

"Perhaps you could wear it and get her to admit giving you it?" It would burn at my skin wearing it.

"I could, but what's saying she will tell me about the money and the book? She is far from stupid?"

"It is a case of trying to get her to talk. Lie to her; tell her what she wants to hear. As long as we have her confession on tape, I don't care how you get it." McCoy is a man on a mission. I thought he was a hit man for the governors family when he was in the garage, and not a fucking fed out for my damned blood too.

"What about the attorney she has, surely he will have to be there?" I ask said smug bastard.

"Not if you are only visiting her, she could ask for him to sit in with you, if you are law enforcement or the prosecutor, but as an old and once trusted 'friend' you can and will visit her, I guess you do want to help Mr Sullivan, not face charges Mr Grey?" Fuck and judging from the smirk he knows of the things Elena and of my involvement with her, but what he doesn't know is she won't talk to me because of my lack of support when she was carted off to the pokey...

"Christian, you have to help Barney. He was helping me; I gave him the name to check out." I shake my head at Ana to shut up.

"Interesting Mr Sullivan had help."

"Okay leave Ana out of this all she did was tell us of a name that was in her paperwork, she did nothing and neither did Barney, he has top clearance to do security checks and was simply checking on an job application from a would be employer called Theresa Brunswick. I can have the job applications sent to you."

"I am afraid I now have you on tape trying to obstruct the path of justice Mr Grey, by lying to a federal agent."

"Taylor, you are fired for not checking him for a fucking wire." I am livid that I walked into that.

"I did Sir..."

"Don't blame him Mr Grey, we are the feds right, and have all manner of devices at our beck and call. He did pat me down. So do we have a deal?"

"I guess to save myself and my girlfriend and my employee, I will have to talk to her won't I?"

"I knew you would see sense, and whilst we are here Mr Grey, don't leave the marina. I want you bright eyed and bushy tailed for your visit to jail tomorrow morning, first thing..." Fuck... He gets out of the car and goes to his own car.

"Mr Grey I am sorry, but as soon as I entered the serial number in the Rolex directory, it came up as stolen, and I doubt Barney was careless enough to leave any trace of his wrong doing, this McCoy was just fishing and you both landed yourselves in it." I am so livid right now, so Ana speaks, before I fire his ass again. Taylor looks like my firing him hurt, I guess it would hurt, he is on good money, I pay his daughters school fees and he gets good employee benefits and the medical crap he gets is the best available.

"Taylor it's fine. Christian, let's go back to Escala, and leave the sailing until we have some Elena closure at least, but Christian, she cannot get off with everything just to make a case against one greedy man. The public would be up in arms if they even bargained with Elena Lincoln, the paedophile. I will get James Kavagnahs best reporter in on what we found in the secure rooms, all of it."

"I am not happy we walked into that Taylor. Not happy, but I don't want her out of prison ever and I will make her talk."

"Be careful, she is not stupid Christian." Ana states as she holds me tightly.

"Neither am I anymore."

We head home, my plans are in tatters and my head is throbbing with the news I have to face Elena again. She will know this is a set up. I try not to think of coming face to face with Lincoln, as we drive home. Getting there we have another fucking unannounced visitor, The fucking governor and his son. Well bring on the fucking dancing girls, the clowns and the lions and tigers and my life will defiantly have become a circus. Fuck...

"Mr Grey?" Says the younger of the two men stood at my parking garage blocking our way in with the pair of Black town cars and their security positioned at the front of said cars.

"You know who I am so cut the crap, what can I do for you?"

"You have something that belongs to us I believe?"

"I do, or rather I did, your client sold you out Governor, take it up with her, they came for her papers an hour ago, so I have nothing to help you with, so as I said take it up with your client. I am sure you can cut her a deal to keep silent, but beware she is a double edged sword, she will want more and more believe me. Good night and good luck, because McCall the man in charge is a bastard." The younger one steps back and makes a call.

"He has my father's book?" The colour drains from Governor De Blanc's face, junior is ending the call.

"So you are not deaf then? Yes and they have the other one, the pair. Your destruction and the end of your political career and shot at the presidential office I gather?"

"I see, so does Agent McCall have plans for the book, I presume he asked you to do something when they picked you up, if so can I ask as a favour?" What, like I want favours from a two bit hoodlum? Who it seems was desperate enough to get here to silence her and have words with me. I wonder if I have a mole? I wonder too is this fucking day going to get any fucking better?

"I would think he wants to bury you and will use anything he can to do it. All I know is you have pissed off some pretty damned important people, and Thelma or Elena is the only one standing in your way. I have to go and talk to her in the morning and will need to wear a wire, thanks to your shit, so if I were you I'd get out whist you can and head to wherever you have your stash or say hello to your new home at San Quentin, or whichever shit hole they put you in. She is looking at walking with the deal she struck, and if they do get her to testify, I think they have what they call a slam dunk against you, Goodnight Governor De Blanc, I hope I never see you again?" They nod and get in their vehicle and I take a deep breath.

"Sir, you do realise they are going to either run or deal with her right?"

"I have my suspicions they will deal with her and then run. I am so pissed off Taylor and damned angry, I want Barney and Welch working on the leak and if there is one I want them firing. Then they have to make sure to beef up the security in the server rooms and at all of our businesses, I noticed Ana used her laptop so have that checked too. Ana?"

"What, yeah of course. I nearly got sent to San Quentin Christian? Really? God..."

"No Baby you didn't he was fishing. So how about we get some food and hope for a governmental intervention. Taylor do you still have the damned watch?"

"Sir? It is in the security office, why?"

"I want them to have back their fathers watch. With any luck I won't have to wear it."

"Christian, do you realise what you are saying?"

"Yes I don't like Rolex's anymore. Besides my over indulgent girl bought me a frigging great watch that is never going to leave my wrist." I smile.

"She did?"

"Oh she did. I have to find out what ticks her boxes, to reciprocate."

"Sir, if you need me..." We are home...

"I know where you are, you and Gail take the evening off and Taylor I am sorry for my firing you, again."

"Sir." He leaves looking deep in thought. I think heads on his side will roll, I know how he feels because I am still mad I was blindsided by McCall.

"Christian, can I cook for you? It looks like Gail was in the process of making you and I a steak dinner?"

"Please, I'd offer to cook, but hell I don't want to kill you now I have you in my life Miss Lambert."

"I... I... I..."

"Ana?"

"I don't know what today was about, how the funk has my life gone into such a frigging nosedive into the shitter?"

"I have just had the very same thoughts Baby."

"Is it because we have taken our eyes off the ball? Stupid Ana, of course it is. We need to get out of this mindset we have had since New York and focus on work as much as we do our private affairs."

"Ana?"

"We have to learn to multitask better, or learn to delegate better. I have now to have a family conference and see what Vita has planned for my business too. I will make dinner and focus on that whilst I think about what to ask them, and then if I may could call them from here? Call them and ask some very upsetting questions?"

"Of course, my office is your office Baby, and I will have Ros look at a few of her high flying friends, she has a few really good people she turns to for my staffing problems, so much so she does the hiring a lot. I do the firing more."

"Yes that would be great thank you. I think Uncle Ray will be pretty good and tell me the truth and I think deep down I always knew Marco was hiding something; I really did because he never really badmouthed my mother as much as the others. God she is a piece of work Vita The Vicious, Christian she was my world after Mimi died, she was kind and now it hurts, was it all just lies to get the damned money and businesses? What if she is lying just to through petrol on the fire?"

"Who, your mother, I'm sorry Ana, I liked her and found her to be truthful? She could have sugar coated her love of you and she didn't, because she still told you she was a crap mother and did the best thing for you?" Ana smiles.

"No, I believe her too, I was thinking of Nonna Vita of course. I do wonder why she hates my mom? Mom did seem pretty honest and hard working right? I mean you nearly hugged her when she told you she wrote your girly books."

"I did not, well I was awe struck, who knew she was an author?"

"Not me, I thought she was a gold digging, serial marrying tramp daughter hating bitch. I wish I knew then what I know now." She smiles as she takes off her jacket and sets about dinner. I call Mac and tell him to put the Grace to bed for the night, as we won't be able to use her for a couple of days. I watch as she chops and she sings, fuck me she really does have the voice of an angel. My angel.

"What you looking at Mr Grey?"

"You of course. You are very good at that you know?"

"I like to cook and I am actually having chocolate making withdrawal symptoms at the moment, this is the longest I have gone without working..."

"What do you usually do to fill that desire?"

"I usually go to one of the stores that I am near and create, it calms me like nothing else I know. It's funny really, the more angry and het up I am the better my ideas are and I am more focused in the concept of inventing and honing the chocolate ideas I have, but then actually making them, I calm right down, as you have seen."

"So, where will you create here then?"

"I will look at moving into the Grey Annex that Elliot looked at, if that's okay I mean, being in the next building to you?"

"More than okay, how about we sign the papers and get the ball rolling?"

"Thank you I will sort out the money stuff with Ethan."

"I don't want paying for it. It is my gift to you for gifting me my son and for giving me a glimpse of what it feels like to be human again..."

"Wow... Christian I don't know what to say, other than what if we don't work out?"

"You really do not have much confidence in my ability to do this do you Ana?"

"Umm, hu yeah I mean, yes of course I do, but this is one hell of a commitment Christian. Are you ready for it?"

"I'm not asking for your hand in marriage, but gifting you a reason to at least stay here and you know try this us thing, seems like the first step in growing up Ana you know you make me a better man?" She smiles and chops at the same time and I watch and fall deeper for her. This reminds me of something I read once, god knows where or when, but I laughed at the time, but now, now I think there is truth in the words I read.

' _People think a soul mate is your perfect fit, and that's what everyone wants. But a true soul mate is a mirror, the person who shows you everything that is holding you back, the person who brings you to your own attention so you can change your life. A true soul mate is probably the most important person you'll ever meet, because they tear down your walls and smack you awake. A soul mates purpose is to shake you up, tear apart your ego a little bit, show you your obstacles and addictions, break your heart open so new light can get in, make you so desperate and out of control that you have to transform your life, then introduce you to your spiritual master!'_

I don't know why I suddenly remember the quote, a quote I believe by Elisabeth Gilbert? But it does seem that Ana and I are the epitome of everything on the poster and I smile, because yes she is my soul mate and I am falling deeper and deeper under her spell...

"Okay, I was just thinking out loud, I mean yes I want to try, of course I do. It s all I have ever dreamed about. Which is sad really that you are the only one to make me feel this way, you are my soul mate Christian Grey, but are you ready for this to get as serious as moving in together and working so close." How the fuck does she do it, read my mind like that, its witchcraft...

"Sad? Why is loving me a sad thing, I quite like the way you make me feel Ana, and it's not a sad feeling at all. I am very happy, yeah I maybe pissed off at the world, but I am happy that you are in it Baby."

"No, I mean how sad am I pining my hopes on you needing me as much as I seem to need you?"

"Perhaps Miss Lambert, I may be the sad one not doing this sooner and for the record I do need you Ana, just as much as you need me."

"How did you work that out?" I laugh aloud and watch as she looks at me for clarification, why is it women need all the things spelling out to them in triplicate?

"Ana, I have been going to Otter Island since I was nine, as you know, and loved it more than I realised, but the last few years it lost something, and I had it pointed out to me, that it seems the lost thing was you. I apparently was desperate to see you and angry when you were a no show. I didn't realise it was you I was missing."

"You missed me, really?"

"Yes and I am a fool for not realising it sooner. I was lost and though I loved the golf and the time spent with Dad and Grandpa Theo, I didn't know why the spark wasn't there anymore and it wasn't until Mom reminded me I had gone back home miserable after our break and I had been upset and angry and I stayed that way for weeks, and yet nothing had changed in all the years we went there, you were annoying you were a pain and you were always there, then after we slept together you weren't there anymore, it was then she and Elliot pointed out the obvious, it was because I was missing you being annoying and just being there."

"Oh, you missed me, really?" I nod my stupid head.

"Yes, I guess deep down that's why I had you fly in to sign the paperwork, I think I was testing out my own deep seated theories as to why it wasn't like the old days, was it Papa Frank or was it you, and yes when I saw you I was so damned happy. I realised it was you I missed and I was under your spell again, that's why I wanted to take you out for a drink and see if it was there, you know this thing I had for you."

"You did? Wow, I didn't realise but then again I was just as damned frustrated, I knew as soon as I saw you I'd be a gonner again and I knew you were at the island and I so wanted to go and see you, but my training and building a business, it always found a way to keep us apart and then I guess I found more solace in building my businesses, than I did hunting you out to get hurt all over again. I saw you and I knew I was falling down the rabbit hole again." She sighs and I see the sadness again. Our world could have been so different had Sasha not been a bitch. "How come others could see what you could not?" She smiles and I ponder that fact.

"Okay, I wasn't thinking straight, god damn it, even damned Ros pointed out I was drooling. I had to admit to myself that yes, you had cast that spell again. We it seems have wasted far too long and I am making up for my tardiness Miss Lambert. Bear with me, I am just getting used to sharing emotions. You witchy woman you." We laugh and that sound makes me hard with lust and need for her.

"I must remember to pack the black cat and the rune stones and my lotions and potions, have you a west facing room for me to practice my witchcraft in, oh and a cleanable surface for the blood sacrifices and not forgetting the pentagon I need on the floor too?" We laugh. "Seriously today has been ultra crazy and now you want me here all the time, really?"

"Seriously, I really do. So let's call that an end of the past and this is our new beginning, where I guess I get to keep my balls a little longer. So, what are you making?"

"I think giving my grandmother a miss is what's best for a while. As to dinner, I am finishing off your steak dinner and all the fixings that poor Gail started. So sit and look pretty for the cook. You can do that right? Of course you can, you roll out of bed looking like a damned model."

"Okay, you do realise this is just a face right? I happen to think I look rather peculiar actually."

"Okay we need Taylor to make an appointment at a specks place."

"A specks place?"

"An ophthalmologists, because your eyes are playing up if you think you are odd looking."

"I always thought my face had a thumb thing going on?"

"You really have a dumb thing going on. How do you like your steak?"

"Medium rare thank you." I watch as she flips the steak and works like a well honed machine. I have set the wheels in motion and I haven't a clue where this fucking ride is going to take us, but when that dumb fuck McCall threatened her I became overly possessive about her and felt the need to keep her safe. I guess this cold heart of mine is thawing. I love her and I don't know why it's happened so quickly, perhaps she is a witch? She is a witch who cooks me dinner.

"Christian, can you get the plates and the cutlery out and set the breakfast bar, whilst I finish off?"

"Wine too?"

"Oh god yes, I think we earned it today perhaps two bottles?"

"I think getting hammered is just what we need. For tomorrow is another day in Lala Land. I hope they do their stuff and make my visiting her pointless?"

"You mean you want them to have her blood on their hands and not have it on yours?"

"Yes, I may be harsh but I know she will get off, don't ask me how, but she will. Ana, she cannot escape what she did, the boys need closure, fuck I need the closure and her lording it up under a new name, and being able to start again somewhere else, isn't something I relish thinking about. This way they get their revenge and I keep my hands clean. Besides I can't get to her, but they will be able to, because sure as shit the feds will have her in some sort of secure unit and safe. So unless they do something tonight, I think I will be going to see her anyway."

"Here pass me the plates, then we eat, then I make the call to Ray, then I think my man needs some quality time with his mad for him girlfriend. How about you and I have another play in your playroom, later too?" I drop the plate on the counter top, fuck me yes...

"Oh god yes please... I need plenty of quality time..."

"I thought you would agree. Besides I rather enjoyed the last playroom visit, but your rules went out of the window after a while."

"I blame you; I lose all control around you." She laughs as she hands me my dinner.

"I am a pain in the arse where you are concerned too." She smiles and sits at my side. "Oh and arse means butt. Literally..." I snigger as we eat.

Oh Uncle Ray, how could she?

I have put off calling the family long enough; I clear away the pots and tidy Gail's kitchen much to Christian's annoyance, because apparently that's why he has Gail. Paff was all I said and cleared away. I walked into Christian's office and slumped down into the empty chair.

"Is there something wrong with my knee?" He asks.

"No, I thought you were pissed off with me for pot washing?" He smiles that damned smile and my underwear is soaking, god that man, that smile and those damned grey eyes, I'm goo-goo about Mr Grey...

"I am, but not to the extent of ignoring you, I employ Gail to do that for me Baby as you have Jenny."

"Jenny would kick my ass if I left a mess for her to tidy. I am not a slob or slothenly. Besides I am used to clearing away its one of the first things they tell you in catering college, you make the mess, so don't be a slacker on clearing it away and clearing it away as you work makes the end clean up easier. I guess I am programmed to clean up after myself. Mimi was the same, she had Jenny and staff she too hated cleaning. Nonna was different, she made us clean and scrub the house, she cleaned too, but every Sunday after church, we scrubbed and cleaned, made the Sunday Lunch, cleared away the dinner plates and then we'd bottom the kitchen again before bed."

"I hate cleaning. I hate making my bed and I have no clue how to wash my own clothes, before I got Gail and Taylor, I sent out my assistants to buy new shirts. I had quite the hamper load of washing every time my mother called around, she'd take it and bring them all back freshly starched. I thought it was a given Mom's did their sons washing." She smacks my arm.

"No, most people learn, you are a lazy ass Christian, but surely your sub's cooked and cleaned for you, didn't they do your washing and pander to their master?"

"No, by the time of their arrival here I then had Gail, now let's get this done and then have some us time?" I was shut down from sub discussing, so I gave him a lacklustre smile and a nod of my head. I passed him my phone and he sought out the number and we sat back as the Skype thing did its thing. Eventually Uncle Ray's head appeared on screen and he smiled.

"Ana, how are you?"

"I am a little, what's the word, erm... Yes that's it disappointed and hurt, yes hurt."

"Ana? Is it this new guy, has he hurt you again?"

"No, no Christian has been my rock and he is here for me and loves me. Have you spoken to Uncle Marco?" Christian strokes my thigh and I relax on his lap.

"No, hell what's he done now?"

"He told Mom about me and Christian in his weekly catch up, so please can you tell me Uncle Ray, how was your chat to her?"

"Fuck, has she been around to see you?"

"She has and she spins a very different tale to the one Nonna span me, tales you and the rest of my supposed caring uncles backed up. You all made me hate my mother for almost a quarter of a fucking century, what the hell Uncle Ray, what if someone kept Ray or Santino or any of your boys from you and filed their heads with lies about you to keep them from you?"

"I know but your mother wanted it this way too. She, we I mean... I don't know how to explain this life we had Little One; we were all under Mamma's thumb. I guess you believe Carla's story?"

"I guess I do, now that I'm having it confirmed, yes I defiantly do? What happened and tell me everything, all of it not some of it."

"Some of it I can tell you, but I am not sure what happened after I came back to Australia, I, I well, I guess I was just happy to be out of there and away from her again. She is very domineering and I am not sure why she changed, but she did, but that said she has always hated your mother."

"Even when she was a baby?"

"Yes Little One, she always hated her, and she never hated anyone before Ana, she was a nice Mamma before she left for London, she was happy and nice and baked and sang and we loved her very much Ana. Then Mamma and Papa left us again with her sister, you know her old Aunt Silva, because they were to be in London for ages and we were still in school and had everyone here to look out for us."

"They left you with family there and didn't take you with them?" I see my uncle ponder his nest words carefully. "Did they do that a lot leave you?"

"Mamma went a lot to London when we were little, to help out there and then they both had to go and look after Uncle Salvador's big London bakery and his other businesses, but you won't remember him, because he died when we were young, he was Papa's older brother and he was ill a lot and there was nobody else to run it after his wife died he was in and out of hospital a lot. I remember Aunt Silva told Papa that it was too much for just Mamma to run on her own when he got ill the last time, and they both had to go and help run it."

"Okay and she went alone before, why, why leave the farm and go to London?"

"He was in hospital for a long time the last time, before it was always just two or three weeks at a time but the last time it was so very long and I do remember we missed them Marco and I."

"Go on..." My cogs can see his cogs turning and its bad I feel it.

"I was about ten and Marco was just eight when they left and they were away nearly a whole year."

"Why so long?"

"They came back and they had this baby with them, I guess they had to wait for her to be able to travel, Carla Mae was so damned wonderful, and we loved her she was so cute and tiny, but Mamma she didn't like her at all she told us to leave her be all the time and would shout when we played with our sister.

Aunt Silva said she had a bad time and we were to be good boys and do as she said, but Papa, Papa he loved her and he spoiled her and Mamma, she left for London again and took Carla away. She said she was leaving her there, Papa and Mamma argued and she ended up staying with us, Carla, not Mamma that is."

"She left you and the baby again?" He nods.

"We were glad she had left, because she was horrid Ana and much changed."

"Oh god, so how long did she stop away that time?"

"Until Uncle Salvador died two years later, and then we all moved to England and well we did not have a great childhood there, it was not like Australia and we hated it. Mamma was different there, she was a tyrant at the best of times, but there she was not a nice person at all and it wasn't until she got you did she change, and she has changed Ana. I got out of there as soon as I could and so did Marco, we came back to run the business here. We hated England and Mamma."

"So what are the plans she has for my businesses?"

"She did have plans, but we have put her straight Ana. Please do not worry; the boys know she is speaking out of her ass. They know they work for you and the stores are yours. She has been telling them for years they will be wealthy boys if they do as she asks. We don't let them see her as often as she wants. They know why their mother and I do not allow them to spend much time with her, because when they were little it used to be hard telling them no, but after she got you it was easier to keep them away from her and her mean tongue. Now they see her differently too, they know how hard you work and realise that if they want what you have they have to work hard for it too. The boys love the business Ana and do not worry they know their places."

"So you are there for a reason?"

"Yes, it's the furthest away we can be from her. I miss Papa, but her not so much."

"Why?"

"When I said no to the church, she went mad and there was no way Marco wanted it either, so we were sent back to Australia. Carla stopped there as she was younger, when she was about eighteen she got spotted by a talent scout, she then began working as a model and then she hit the rebel years hard, this did not go down well with Mamma and then of course she managed to get pregnant, because of her whoring ways and sinful living, so her only daughter ruined their being a nun in the family. I swear it's like she had to have one kid in the damned church, it was like she had struck a deal with the big bugger in the clouds. I swear that woman is as crazy woman."

"What do you think happened? Why did she change after she had mom?"

"Marco and I think she had something bad happen to her in London, but nobody spoke about it when we were around."

"Bad as in what?"

"I don't know but they suddenly had enough money to buy the new bakery in Australia. They got the family farm here too and all the other stuff from Uncle Salvador when he died too. Aunt Silva said it was guilt money at the funeral, she thought Marco and I didn't hear, but we did."

"Do you think...?"

"Yeah we think..."

"It can't be confirmed though Ana."

"Does Uncle Marco think this way too?"

"Yeah, we both do. Aunt Silva said a lot of stuff before he died about Nonna and her being a slut."

"Oh god, she was her sister too."

"She hated her sister for stealing her man."

"Nonno was Aunt Silva's missing beau? She stole Nonno from her own sister?"

"Umm, the eldest boy Salvador was already promised to someone, so she wooed Santino D'Acciaio, second son of a made-man."

"Oh god and I told Christian all this mafia crap was just that, crap."

"It ended with Uncle Salvador going legit in London. He married a wealthy heiress, but not for long she died having their baby boy. He was sad after that and in and out of hospital with his heart, Aunt Silva said he hadn't got a heart, but either way Mamma went to help a lot."

"So you think he could have been having a thing with Vita D'Acciaio, his own sister-in-law?"

"Hummm, we do..." I have been silent all this time, but this is confusing me.

"Ana forgive me what do you both think; you think she hates Carla because she was born as a product of rape?" Uncle Ray looks upset.

"Sorry Uncle Ray, but this is Christian, I am stopping at his home here in Seattle for a few days. Uncle Ray meet Christian, Christian meet Uncle Ray." I popped my head into the picture and sort of smiled. Looking at my face though you'd think I was having a rectal examination and my prostate glands squeezing. I was so worried and pained for Ana.

"Hello. I would say pleased to meet you Grey, but I am not pleased because you hurt my baby girl Ana."

"Uncle Ray, please..."

"I won't be hurting her again Sir."

"Apparently Marco says you are a good guy, and Sunny, well he says you are okay too, but he is a fool and easily pleased. So, what are your intentions towards my niece, cos' I do shoot very well son?"

"Mr D'Acciaio, I love your niece very much. We are taking this new romance if you will slowly, Ana and I are just getting used to each other and then she hears this and it has upset her deeply and I am worried for her."

"Um, good to know you care about her. Ana, I cannot tell you what happened, but I think yes Carla is not my father's child. I do think she was a product of her and Salvador's relationship. Why else would he leave Carla all his money?"

"What, he left Mom all his money, wasn't he like loaded?"

"Yes, another reason for her hating Carla, she refused to share her inheritance with her family and rebuild the big bakery back, because it burned down mysteriously when first moved there and they then had to work and live in the tiny bakery in Soho. Carla inherited a lot of money just before she had you, actually she got the lot on her twenty first birthday, and our mother thought to control her with it, but she couldn't control Carla not then or ever, it seems their hatred of each other was a two way street Ana, and then after the crash Carla gave the Lamberts you to raise and that ended whatever contact they had."

"I think she did the best thing ever, I had twelve wonderful years there, it was the best thing my mom ever did for me and now I realise why."

"To know why Nonna is as she is, you had better ask Nonno or if you dare the lady herself. She hated Carla and still does and I am sorry for helping her poison you against your mother, but you and she are very alike, my mother and you are very headstrong and opinionated."

"I would have taken that as a complement up until today. So, you and Marco, do you think what Christian sais is true?"

"No, no because she willingly went back year after year and in the end she was at his bedside when he died, I think they had a thing."

"Oh god poor Nonno..."

"It can't have been that bad they had Sunny after Carla."

"Is he Salvador's kid too?"

"I don't know, you would have to go to the wolves den, but either way Papa is still with Mamma and they are happy, or at least seem happy?"

"Okay, so everything Carla said was true, is true?"

"I guess so; she is a pretty cool sister and did what she did because she loved your father and his parents more than she did her mother." We talk for a while and then he has to go and open the bakery so we end the call. I hug Christian.

What the hell have I done?

I head into King County Adult Detention Centre and as I do the only sound is the clacking of my heels of the floor, there is a distant scream and sound I know only too well the opening and closing of cell doors, god I hate prison visits. I hate that I have to be defending this bitch and I hate that I am going to be complicit in breaking this whore out of jail.

"Elisabeth Hague, here to see Mrs Elena Lincoln."

"It's a little late isn't it?"

"Cut the crap Dobbs, you know why I am here, so do me a favour and get her for me."

"Ms Hague, please sign in and I will have Mrs Lincoln brought to the interview room, and please keep your voice down, they record this crap you know."

"You are being paid enough to turn a blind eye."

"My wife thanks you for the new tits and I am sure as hell gonna like them too."

"Urgh..."

"So, why are you here again, didn't you just leave her at the start of my shift?"

"Yes, but my boss wants to put a new proposition to her, now that he knows more facts, and it has to be before the damned talk she has tomorrow with McCall. Did they not tell you this?"

"Nope, just that someone would be in touch." A young boy, wet behind the ears and not so long out of college enters the room. "Falk, get the Lincoln from her cell and take her to interview room three, she has a legal visit." He nods and looks like he is going into hell to remove the devil. I guess there is a special place reserved in hell for paedophiles? I hope she rots in hell for a long time, but she will be out before tomorrow and free and clear of America the day after, if she takes this offer I have for her.

"So, you know you have that fifteen minute suicide watch on her?"

"Yes, what of it?"

"There is another ten grand in the Post Office Box, if you made it go away?"

"For ten grand I can have her dealt with?"

"No, she has information we need. Just switch it to a wake-up call at seven for breakfast and we will do the rest."

"Okay, if you are sure, ten grand buys a lot in here."

"I will bear that in mind..." He taps away on the keyboard and smiles.

"All done. It will be shift change in an hour, get it done by then, the next lot can't be bought Miss Hague. Now, she is in the room. Falk, please escort this lady to see her client." He nods and unlocks the doors and follow him into the depths of hell or rather the short walk to the interview room. I find her sat in her orange scrubs and handcuffed to the table. Okay, I like her in cuffs. I guess she went for the agent after I left, or rather when she told me to get lost...?

"Lizzy, we should stop meeting like this."

"Mrs Lincoln."

"Call me Aunty Elena Lizzy."

"Mrs Lincoln, my employer has a new proposition for you concerning your selling him out after I left you earlier."

"They can get me out of here. You couldn't. Neither could your boss."

"Tomorrow you are going to get a visit from Christian Grey, he will be wired and he will get you to admit the book you had was the one stolen from Governor Marcus De Blanc, the third. Apparently you took a deal they offered you, a deal which even if they had the power to grant you, which they haven't, they have you on the murder of a young man named Sebastian Rockaport and for all the child sex trafficking you have done, one they could have skirted over, but not all of the crap you have done."

"That shows how much you know, Christian would not do that to me."

"Really Mrs Lincoln, he is all too willing to come and send you down the river, so the best you can expect is being a widow woman in Wisconsin or a cat lady in Alaska, going into McCall's Witness Protection, well Mrs Lincoln, they do not let you chose your relocation, where as The Governor will." I watch as she relaxes.

"So Lizzy, your father is giving me a choice of my final destination is he?" Urgh, like I need reminding I am working for a dick-wad, who happens to have been my sperm donor...

"He is not my father." I was raised by my kindly foster parents and she knows this.

"Oh I beg to differ, Mommy had a high 'ole time with the old governors son and you are his kid."

"So you say. I will take your word for it as per usual. Now the offer to get you out of here, do you want to discuss it or my DNA?"

"Listen Honey, me and your mother go way back and I knew her better than I knew anyone we were quite the tag team her and I. Take it from me; you are a part of the family. Now, what's Daddy offering me for my silence? Oh and I don't mind a cat or a little pussy for that matter darling, the pussy is nice to play with, you do remember my teaching you a thing or two Lizzy." Urgh she is vile.

"It's simple, I am to slip you two tablets, you take them and an hour or two later you will have a heart attack and the prison doctor will send for an ambulance when you die. Once in the ambulance you will be revived and then escorted to the airport. All he wants is the book evidence to go away, all he wants rally is for you to deny having ever seen it."

"Actually for a few million more I will tell him where the real book is. I made a copy and that is the one the feds have, it's my book, I added in a few scribbles and scratch marks and a few numbers here and there. It's not going to help them any. Your grandfather the late governor, he told me what the book was and to guard it with my life and I recorded his last conversation so that's there too, but I guess that will be very old school for them now and not very modern. Still it's all there in the locker..." I find this fact interesting, very interesting and it is one my sperm donor and my brother did not know about.

"You have the real book? Then I have ten million in his clear-a-way-fund still left for allocation, tell me and I will put it in your bank as soon as I get my phone back, but I need the details first and sorry that is all you get from me, my word, book details first and then payment and unlike the others my word is my bond as you know Aunty Thelma..."

"I do trust you, you always had to be better than anyone else, and so we have a deal. Now this heart attack, how bad will it be, I mean I love a little pain, but too much and I am not thrilled."

"It will render you to look dead and lower your heart rate to a near fatal rate and that's when the prison doctor will declare you dead, the ambulance to take you to the hospital will resuscitate you and then its goodbye Mrs Lincoln and hello whomever you want to be afterwards."

"So, Christian is coming to see me is he? Do you miss him your ex-Dom?"

"No, no I do not. I had fun whilst it lasted and he paid my tuition and gave me a place to stay; he was only a means to my leaving university with no debt, seeing as my family did not pay for my upkeep. You Aunty Thelma, you, you were and are nothing more than a pimp. Now let's get this plan into action should we?"

"Umm, tut, tut, tut... You did very well out of Christian Grey."

"So did you, you got the jewels and a very healthy fee. Now I suggest somewhere warm, perhaps the Argentine, because hell isn't ready for your type of vile yet."

"You are so funny. You are no more than a used prostitute, so don't get high and mighty with me Lizzy."

"Funny, you said submissive, I was the one who said I was no more than a prostitute."

"Potatoes, patoatoes... I want to go to Europe..."

"Not happening, they have extradition treaties..."

"Switzerland then..."

"Too many money men go there and too many Americans and it's too cold for someone of your aging years, besides they have better plastic surgeons in the Argentine and just imagine how well your near sixty year old butt could look, better than the steak job Christian's mother gave you I bet?"

"Ouch... Well they search me for contraband in that little room, I have to strip and have an internal, which last time I really enjoyed and got off on it actually, umm and Falk looks up for more, so Lizzy I will have to take the pills here. How will that happen?" I smile and wave at Falk to enter the room.

"Mrs Lincoln has a migraine, could she have some pills and could we have a couple of bottles of water please?"

"Sure Ms Hague, I will go and see what she can have and bring you some water." He scurries off and I see her watching the poor guys butt. She is no more than nasty and evil filth. Thanks to my debt to my 'family' I am being thrown in hell with her, but the money they are giving me is enough for me to move, and the plans for me to disappear and live in London is already in process. I hate this damned place, I hate them and I hate talking their dirty dollar, but needs must.

"Do we make small talk Lizzy?"

"No, we don't. When he brings you the pills drop them on this magazine and the ones to do the real work are under the next page, swap them around and I will dispose of the ones he gives you."

"Sleight of hand. I am good with my hands."

"Urgh..." I screech at the woman preening, I fucking hope they really hurt. The boy comes back with the two pills and she does the very neat drop and distract and takes the two pills I brought in for her 'death'. "Mrs Lincoln and I will be through in a moment, thank you Mr Falk." He smiles and heads into the corridor and continues to watch.

"So here's the deal then Lizzy, the book is in the rail lockers in San Francisco the one I got to when I fled home, the locker is number is 69 very apt, and the combo is 5673. I hope he appreciates it, your daddy?" I make notes. "I am trusting you Lizzy, so make sure my money is there for me to use in Argentine to get a new face, this one is too recognisable." I snigger and too old and stretched to look any younger.

"I will do it when I get home and I am sure he will be very grateful." I signal and the poor and afraid boy Falk comes for my client. "I will see you in the morning Mrs Lincoln."

"I look forward to it councillor." She winks and heads to her cell. It is then as she goes for a grope of poor Falk I realise I am helping in letting a monster go, and for what, so called family loyalty? I think a call to McCall is in order. I get out and the refreshing cold rain is falling and the wind is getting up, good, it's just what I need to get rid of the stench of Lincoln. I run to my car and get in, damn my head hurts. I drive out of the prison parking and head across the road to the payphone. I make the call...

"McCall, Hunter McCall what can I do for you?"

"Nothing but I can do something for you Mr McCall, the book you have is fake, the book you need is in a locker in San Francisco, along with the evidence of whose book it was and when it was 'stolen'..." I give him the details she gave me. "You may also want to keep a close eye on your client tonight; because all is not what she seems, get there and make sure she is good and dead not just play acting..." I end the call and get back in the car; I feel a worse and my pills are at home, so I take the damned migraine pills she stashed in the magazine and head for my apartment to grab my things to run, I need to get away from my old life and start a fresh and I can with the money she should be getting for the book, it is after all in my bank. When I get in my head and chest start to hurt, I drink more water and I suddenly feel like crap... I cutch at my chest and it hurts, I get a searing pain and then...

MR X...

"All the loose ends are tied up and squared away Sir... Miss Hague did very well and our pills were not even needed as she actually gave the pills she had to the Lincoln woman. Yes the guard in your pocket provided extra pills as requested Sir. Yes Sir, Ms Hague has the other pills with her, she didn't like being there Sir, but she spoke to Elena Lincoln and got her to take the pills."

"Good your money is in the bank, my father thanks you. Did my sister seem pissed off Falk?"

"A little, she seems too nice to be in your game Sir."

"She is, and that's why we are sending her away from all this and on to her dreams."

"I have to go and thank you for helping my mother out with her problem Dad."

"You are welcome Son, you are welcome, now get home..."

Soooooo, what happened?

* * *

OrangeTeaWithHoney: Thanks for the endless supply of quotes you send me, all are amazing, so thank you, I used one...

Read and review and I hope to have another chapter done before the laptop has to be returned lol

Thank to all the new readers and thanks to the loyal ones for your continued support. xx


	23. Chapter 23

Dreaming of Chocolate and Grey:

Chapter 23:

Fun time in the playroom:

Ana and I head to the play room, as my loins desperately need the work out, because my dick has been strained to the max today. Ana has promised me some distressing and I am looking forward to it. We hold hands like love sick teenagers as we head down the passage way. I take out the key and open the door. She smiles and bites her lip.

"Jeans, please can you put on your very nice ripped 501 jeans Christian. Please?"

"My ripped jeans, really?" I grin and head in dragging her with me.

"Yes please. Master..." She says master and I swear my dick wants out of these trousers, she is a minx, she laughs as we head into the room and as she takes in a deep breath, she smiles. "I love the smell of lemon and leather; it is such a turn on, it would be even better with you in those jeans."

"Umm, you are quite the demanding slave today." I take her in my arms and sit on the leather couch. "I think you are a little too demanding. I think you need to learn your position Miss." I tug at her hair and pull her down across my lap. "I think you need to be spanked." I take off her jeans and lower her panties, her buttocks are soft and pale, they need to have a blush coloured pinkness to them.

"Yes please Sir, I think I may have been too demanding Sir, spank me please." She lowers her head and I slap her right buttock and caressed the left, then alternate the slaps and the caresses. As I slap her skin finally gets to the right shade of pink I like to see, she gasps as I lean down and kiss her ass. "I knew one day you would kiss it Christian you dear sweet angel, kiss my ass again please, I do like a little kiss ass?" She laughs.

"Well, my little Wench, you get your way yet again."I kiss her buttocks and lick her butt ridge just for good measure, as I finish I tap her ass again and tell her to stand. "Be stripped and waiting for me in the usual position, I have some jeans to find." I head out of the door and to my room, as I put on my jeans I wonder what we will do tonight, usually I have a game plan or a scene already planned, but with Ana anything normal is thrown right out of the window.

On my way back to the playroom I grab a bottle of wine, a glass and another glass, but this one is full of ice. When I get back in the room Ana is there head down hair braided and kneeling as requested, I place the wine and ice on the table at the side of the bed and go and have a look through the things on my wall, I choose four lots of soft red silk rope, I place it on the bed and go for a blindfold and a few other essentials. After I have placed those items on the table I take the blindfold and I glance over at Ana and she has not moved, good. I head toward her and lean down and kiss her neck.

"You are wonderful to watch Ana, just wonderful."

"As are you Sir..."

"Unfortunately Ana, you are not going to see me in my jeans." I place the blindfold over her eyes. "Stand and walk with me." She gets up and I allow her to take a second to get the blood circulating in her legs. "Good, now walk with me Ana." As we walk I caress her naked butt and I know she has groaned; she is not a good submissive. I place her on the bed gently. "Scoot to the middle Baby."

"Where have all the rules gone Sir?" She purrs.

"Out of the damned window, again. I can't punish you Baby because I love hearing your voice. Now shush..."

"Is it too late to tell you I am afraid of the dark Sir?"

"You are? Let me take off the blindfold."

"No, I am fine I just want to see your butt in them thar jeans, I do hope the top button is open and your happy trail is accessible, I mean when you're done doing what you're doing to me Sirrrrrrr." The r roll's of her tongue and she giggles, damn we should be more sensible in here, but I laugh too.

"It seems the dungeon has finally become a true playroom Baby."

"Umm, play away all night long Angel, play away pleaseeee..." She groans as my hand touches her soft skin, I kiss her nipples and suckle, she murmurs her approval for more and my dick strains to get out of the confides of these jeans and into the inviting place my fingers are exploring, I place in one finger and watch as she bites her lip, two fingers and she groans, my fingers are working her into a slow and heady release, she screams _**YES**_ loudly as she comes around my fingers and I thrust them in her mouth.

"Taste how divine you are Ana..." She groans again and fuck do I need to be inside her. I want to play more, so I do.

I take one end of the rope and tie it around her wrist, and tie the other to the brass restraint on the bed, I do the same with her right leg, her left leg and finally her left wrist, she looks magnificent and open to me. I open the wine and pour it in the glass, I take a mouthful and sigh, god this is a good wine and needed. Ana bites her lip and I grin, and take another mouthful and kiss her, releasing the chilled wine into her mouth, the drips that fall from those lips I lick away.

"Christian, more..." I oblige, never has drinking wine been more arousing. "Christian, what are you doing to me?"

"Playing, now shush you inquisitive and impatient Wench and be silent or I have a fierce cat with your name on it Ana, it has teeth that will bite into your flawless skin."

"Yes Sir, silent and still for your pleasure..." God my pleasure is just watching you Baby; I think but do not say.

I walk around the bed and watch her tied to the same said bed and I am pleased that she is at my total mercy, she looks amazing and I just want to stare at her. Her beauty is eye watering and her body, her body is perfect. I lean over and kiss the place that my son slept and see the faint scars of his having been there, each time I see them I shake and feel strange and it's a difficult feeling to process too. She is my everything and I am drowning in this pit of worrying emotion and need for her, it's unnerving how in such a short time she has become the centre of my universe and I want her in it all the damned time. I will do anything to make her world a better place and for me to be in it. I drink the glass of wine slowly and savour it, as I will the time we spend in here. I place the empty glass down and take a rapidly melting ice cube from the other glass and place it in my mouth; she distracted me from my scene, naughty Miss Ana...

I take to the bed and as it dips she stays silent, then as the ice water trickles on her she moans softly, I begin the 'water torture' to her nipples, which are already pert and hard for me, the cube drips its cool water over them and her body raises from the bed, she groans as I trail the cube down her body to her navel, she shivers and moans and as she does her body undulates, she can't stay still but tries hard to fight the urge to scream at me, I see it as she grips the silk ties, I watch every little movement, her delicious body is mine to do with as I wish, but all I want to do is bury myself in her, I want to play, yet I also want to torment and torture her, but I am the one being tortured, my control has long since left the room and my desire for more fun has taken over.

I leave the melting cube in her navel and take another; the drips make her squeal a little, they must be colder? The goose bumped dimples on her skin are amazing to watch as they rise from her body, you strange thing Grey. I chastise myself and suck the cube, crunch it between my teeth and sigh. I take another one and it drops from my mouth on to the rough stubble of growth on her lady area, her pussy, her hu-hu as she calls it, either way the barely there hair guarding her folds looks like a badly plucked chicken, she needs to have that desperately waxed, I have a thought and a wicked smile comes to my face. I can do this...

"Wait right where you are little one, I have something to find..."

"...What, no, no you bastard don't leave me like this, urghk... You will pay for this later Grey..." I chuckle like a naughty schoolboy and head to Mia's room.

I head to her bathroom and find my supplies. I also make a note to ask Gail to restock my sisters room here; she is out of lots of her usual things. My pampered sister wants for nothing and yes, I make sure when she comes here she has everything she needs, I spoil her a little too much, but she's worth it. It is then I notice the pregnancy test and it stops me in my tracks, I grab the box and it is unopened, what the fuck? I then breathe a sigh of relief as the tray where her feminine products are usually kept is nearly empty; she must have gotten her period before the test was necessary? Still that means she is having or has had sex, but with who?

I know it was full last time I was in here because Suzie got her period, and being her Dom I had to take care of her. I of course sent her to Dr Green the day after and had her checked over, she was taking the birth control pills called Lybrel, they were to stop her menstrual cycle, not my preferred method of contraception but the only one she could tolerate, it has to be said it was then that I suspected she had stopped taking them, so after the doctors visit, she and I did not have sex again. I lost trust in her and given that after the doctors visit she had blown me out those last three weekends; I suspected she was seeing someone else. This turned out to be the case, when Taylor took her things around she had company. Apparently she was in love with a boy, that was the same week I found Ana again, so it turned out that someone up there was making this happen for us.

"Okay Miss Grey, you and your man friend will keep, for now, but only because my lady is tied up and probably getting pissed off with me." I say to the man looking like his world has imploded, the worried man in the mirror. "Shut up Grey, she is a woman, not a kid." I chastise the prick in the mirror. "Yes but she is my kid sister mister." I sigh. How hypocritical of me, I got an eighteen year old pregnant and Mia, Mia is older than Ana was when I ruined her, what sort of dipshit manic hypocrite am I? Okay there's nothing I can do about it, so I will get Elliot on it, besides he is way more protective of her than I am, but I will have someone's balls, I just don't know whose? I put the waxing things in a tray and grin. It's been a long time since I have done this, I wonder if I am still good at it? I head back into our playroom. I see her lay there and she seems to be cussing under her breathe, she is so gonna have my balls for the small interlude.

"Good you are still there."

"I am hardly going to a damned ball am I, I seem to be a little tied up and funny you are not... Christian I was so close and you fucking stopped, do you know how mad I am you right now?"

"Pretty mad I would imagine, but the last time I went down on your pussy, Baby it scared me, and my pretty face had a shaver rash look about it." I grin and think about letting my beard grow back and return the favour of the bush rash my poor face got, but that would mean marking her and I think better of the idea. Though it does appeal to me, the thought of growing a bushy beard and delving into in her pussy and playing.

"Hu?" She says, as I get lost in thought about growing a serious beard.

"You needed a hand in shaving if I remember rightly?" She gulps.

"Erg, yeah I am like a damned cactus down there, sorry my grooming seems to be a tad lacking of late. I have not had time, give it another week and you will need a weed wacker to get in to the house of pleasure." She giggles. "Why what are you going to do, help with the lady garden trimming?" I place the bowl next to the rest of the clutter, god I have many a task to perform before the day is out. Step one; trimming and styling of la bush, well waxing her smooth that is. I am very good at this and was trained well by 'the witch' to do her gardening. I sigh and wonder if the meeting is still going to happen.

"Christian, what are you doing?"

"Giving you the best waxing you have ever had, I am setting up the playroom beauty boutique, for one night only."

"Please tell me you know what the hell you are doing, because if you rip or tear me, you do know the no sex rule right?"

"Oh hell yes and do not worry, I am pretty damned good at this, I even did Elliot's back sack and crack, not at all pleasant having to remove Elliot's pubes Baby, but he only cried for a minute."

"You did what? Is that some kind of a pervy brother thing, a frat boy thing, what?"

"He met a lady, in the cloakroom at a friend's party, she stopped him doing the cloakroom mambo, because she said she had never fucked a hairy man and wasn't about to start with him. So the weekend after, he went back to the lady he was desperate to impress, with the hair still in situ thinking she was joking, but the woman he wanted to 'bone', his words not mine Baby, wouldn't entertain him, she was a skin and smooth skin only type of a lady, so desperate was he that he waited outside a salon all day and chickened out. Later that night, he and I got drunk and he told me she was amazing and he thought he was in love, so I offered to do it for him, after he was smooth and free from all hair follicles on his body, including yes, his back, crack, sack, chest, neck, legs and arms, under and above and I even removed those ugly bits in his nose, then even after he had the body wax from hell she still turned him down, his reputation preceded him and this was her revenge for her little sister whose heart he had broken a few weeks before, so he left the party where no fucks were given and he was as smooth as a babies butt for nothing but revenge, yes poor Elliot was left smooth for a few days and then spent a week itching as the re-growth commenced, after that night of drunken Jack and Coke, he banned me from his nethers, thank god I have never had to revisit my brothers ball sack and other unsightly areas, and Ana yes even thinking about it makes me need another stiff drink." Ana is laughing and watching as her body undulates turns me on more. Fuck me I could dive in and die a happy man.

"What the hell sort of brotherly love was that and why did he trust you to you know wax his nethers?"

"Yeah well that was the thing we were drunk, I told him that the smooth thing was not an unusual thing, I even stupidly told him I was smooth and he wanted to know why. I told him it was a hygiene issue and given all my other issues he believed me, I did not want to tell him Elena was into hot wax and fire and having hair was a danger."

"Ouch, another reason for no fire play, it's a whole different level of horror. Do you like it?"

"No, in fact in my contracts it is one of many things I do not do, or have done to me." I sigh. Our conversations always head back to Elena or the subs. Will it always be like this?

"So how did Elliot take to waxing? I gather he did if he was as smooth as you said he was?" I laugh.

"He didn't Ana when I ripped off the first strip, he passed out afterwards, so whilst he was out of it I did the rest, like I said it was a one-time thing and I never want to see any of that man's privates or any other mans again, not so up close and personal at least." She was in hysterics now and I was left wondering how had a crazed night of whipping and slapping gotten to being a laugh a minute, this is why I love her, she is so fucking different. Naked and different and god I want her. I kiss her belly and she sighs.

"Go on then heat up the wax, and don't be thinking of dropping it on my nipples, I do not like that sort of wax play, or fire play either."

"Nice to know you trust me Baby."

"Okay, I'd hate to give your pretty face another face rash." I kiss her to stop her talking, this is the most unusual time I have ever had in this room. She is still blindfolded. I hit the sound system for music and the first song on the damned playlist has us both in stitches, because it's the King's of Leon, sex is on fire...

"Oh god." We both say together. I heat the wax and use the wooden stick on her labia majora; as she is very prickerly there, I place the cotton strip on top of the hot wax and against her opening and rub it gently. I swear as she moans I get the hard throbbing pain back in my dick, I rub gently and rip off the strip of cotton, she groans as I do.

"Fuck me that was better than my usual girl, do it again Angel, do it again please." I like the name Angel, but it seems funny my having a term of endearment name from her, because I like how she says my name. Christian, it's so sexy when she says it.

"I told you I was good; now shush you need the extra fine very pricey specialist treatment, now sit still."

"Yes Sir, god my usual girl is sacked off, from now on you are my personal wax artist Christian, my boyfriend of many hidden talents."

"I am expensive, can you afford me Wench?"

"Hu, oh yeah, money is not a problem now wax on, hairs off Mr Grey."

She groans as the hot wax is smoothed over the other side and as with the other side I rub the cotton but this time I smile as my finger delves between her folds. Who says I cannot multi task? I play and I rub and as I pull off the second cotton strip she comes. Oh god does she come, she shrieks like a harpy and howls like a banshee, how hot does she look, very. Fuck me, I stupidly started this and now I had best finish before I too come, she is loving this and secretly suspect she has a taste for the pain. When she is done and smooth I rub soothing creams into her freshly waxed garden with cold aloe being rubbed in tenderly, her groans are doing wondrous things to my head, my groin, my dick and my fucking head. I cannot wait any longer, I have not marked her and though a little pink she looks okay.

"Ana, can we..." She looks mad as all hell and I think she may be ready for a hard night of fucking, I know I am.

"If you don't fuck me now I will kill you Grey. I have been here for hours and need you."

"Your wish is my command." I take down my jeans and crawl up her body. I take out my dick and thrust it into the inviting warmth and I do not believe it, I managed just a few hard thrusts into her and as I withdraw to slam back into her the final time, she comes and I come with her. Never have I done that ever. "Ana, I am so sorry, that was too quick, too fucking quick..."

"What for it was just what the freshly waxed lady needed, now, how about you do a great clean up on aisle three, then use some more of the toys you got out of that magical unit of yours, oh and I think I would like to be flogged too, it seems my skin needs to be a little pinker."

"Would you now." I climb off her and do my woman's bidding, I get a warm wash cloth and head back to clear away my come from her, she groans as I finish the task and as I do I release the blindfold. She blinks a couple of times and then she sees the jeans.

"They look good on you Grey. I particularly like the hairy and inviting runway to your cock you have going on, come here please let me see you naked."

"They would look better on the floor and please do not return the waxing favour, I like the wild and rugged look around my shaft Baby." I counter.

"Umm, they would so ditch them quickly. Christian do you need an invitation to fuck me and flog me again?"

"Nope, but instead of a flogging, I think I want to train that ass of yours a little more."

"Oh goody."

"Are you ready for this Ana? I started with a 2.75 and this is a 3.2, will you be okay with it?" She needs a serious amount of training there. That virginity I am eager to claim. "Ana..."

"Yes, more than ready, can we not just do it? Not that I don't like your shiny silver toys, but I love your dick better."

"No, for it to be a pleasant experience for you, it needs more training, you know this Ana?"

"I know, I really do but I want you to own all of me and really badly too." I smile as she gives me that look.

"No... Now suck on this." I pass her the butt plug and she takes it in her mouth and I swear she makes me hard as she starts to moan and groan as she fellates the butt plug with her sweet mouth, and I watch her and as I do I palm my dick and stroke myself, she smiles and watches. I reach over and my fingers find her wet pussy. I don't know why she does this to me, but she does, I lose it around her, like I guess I am now like the teenager I actually never was. I slap her side and tell her to turn over. She does so and as she does I place a sex wedge under her and she smiles, her ass is high and ready. She still has the plug in her mouth warming nicely and being treated to some rather nice sucking, the lucky butt plug. I place a small amount of lube on my thumb and place it at her entrance, and as I pay with her rose she continues to moan seductively as she sucks. I gently enter her cautiously, and the groan she then lets out, it makes me lose all control, only she can do this to me. I play with her ass and I stroke myself, she grunts and she bucks against my thumb.

I reach around before I come and take the wet and warm plug from her mouth. I slip it in her butt with ease and twist it until it is immersed inside her, then unable to wait I thrust my dick inside her and she clamps down on me like a blessed meat grinder, fuck that's the best feeling in the world, her vaginal walls are massaging and torturing my dick at the same time. She catches and releases and she is mercilessly teasing me and playing with me, the phrase dog and bone come to mind, carrot stick and donkey too. Fuck, I break through her walls and the sheer pleasure is just too much. I grab at her hair and pull her head back and buck and fuck like I am a sex starved fiend. With every thrust she cries harder, more or the simple cries of yes and fuck are screamed. God damn it I fucking love being free from order, she is my organised chaos and I am falling with her into the rabbit hole...

"Christian it's too much, it's too much its, fuck me, fuck me I am falling apart Christian now, now, now do it now..."

I know what she wants and so I ram my dick hard inside her and withdraw quickly, as I do I pull out the butt plug at the same time and I swear it is like I have pulled the pin on a hand grenade. She detonates and I am a casualty, as my dick is clamped tight, it is like its caught in a wild animal trap, only without the cutting of the teeth, she shakes and I pant, I grab and I try to get her to release me, but she is in the midst of some sort of wild and heady ride and I have to let her ride it out, and as I do I lean down over her body and hold her, I feel her orgasm and it seems to be never ending.

"Christian, you killed me..." She lets me loose and as she does I am able to come, and god do I spill my load in her. That was fucking amazing. A.M.A.Z.I.N.G, and very doable again. She is lays languid over the wedge and I am on top of her, she is exhausted and I am in some sort of hypnotic post-coital cuddle slumped over her. I think I have lost all the feelings in my dick. She begins to laugh and as she does every laughter break, it feels strange on my trapped cock, like she is massaging him. Like he needs more excuse to be in there again.

"That was very good Christian, I think I saw the moon and the stars there. I love you so much."

"Hu, wait for my head and dick to calm down you nearly killed me too."

"Death would be such a waste. I need more of you not less. Can you actually die from having sex Angel?"

"Hu...?"

"Yeah you can because you are brain dead right now." She releases me fully and I slump to the bed and grin. Wow that was a hell of a white knuckle ride.

"I feel drained Baby, drained and wonderful."

"We do work well together, now we need to take a bath, that butt plug was very intense, how does my butthole look?" Is she serious? I get up and look and it's perfect.

"It is good, and you have the amazing ability to stretch and bend to the will of the plugs, did it hurt you?"

"No, no it felt amazing. A couple of the girls at several of my old clubs, they like to double up. Have you ever, you know done that?" I cringe and go and run us a bath, my legs just make it to the bathroom in the playroom.

"Elena, liked the thrill of being taken twice, yes, yes I have done it but only with her and only with Sebastian."

"So you and he were close then?"

"I thought so. Ana can we..."

"...Not talk about it? Sure I just wondered what it felt like."

"I wouldn't know really because I tried not to think about it, I know I didn't like it but a command is a command." She smiles and looks at me like she is saying why did you not walk away. She has I told you so eyes. My mothers specialty look.

"I command you come and carry me to the tub, I can't get off this damned wedge." I go back and she hasn't moved.

"Sorry, are you wiped out Baby?"

"I can't feel anything south of my navel. Speaking of which, I liked the ice cubes, they were very nice..."

"Ice play."

"How about we do a little bath play?"

"If you insist. Now let me help you into the tub." I carry her in and as she wraps her arms around my neck she pulls my face to hers and we kiss. Kissing was so underrated before her and now I relish every chance I can to have that piece of her. I place her in the foamy water and she scoots forward. I step in behind her and we cuddle, there is nothing more to it than her resting against me. The music is calming now and I sponge water over her breasts. She is humming a song as I do.

"Baby you have the voice of an angel."

"Thanks, and it needs to be getting its ass to Cali. I have to get to the studio to rehearse and we have to do a couple of promos, not that we need it the venue has been packed full since the tickets went on sale, apparently they are asking for us the band to do two or three nights."

"And..."

"I am only his daughter, I am not him, if the guys want to, they can tour but this is a one off for me, a once in a life time opportunity for me to say thank you to his fans. Though now being there is gonna be ruined by my grandmother."

"Ana, it will be fine, have you invited your mother to the concert?" I sponger water over her.

"No, I should I guess, shouldn't I?"

"Yeah, she loved your father, that much is obvious."

"Umm, in the same frightening way I loved you, so it seems being a stalker is generic trait I inherited from her then?"

"I noticed that too. You and she are very alike in looks and everything else."

"Okay, I will invite her and Bob. Bobby or whatever she calls him. I have never met any of her husband's so this will be a novelty."

"So we will go then as soon as we see what thrills today has to offer up, let's get some sleep."

"I have to tidy the room and then I will join you."

"Okay, you are pretty damned amazing Ana."

"Right back at ya. Now let me out of this tub..."

I pull her back and Kiss her neck and then we play in the bath for a little while, we make love in the tub for quite a while longer, we get a second and third breathe and we end up in the shower, where I am sorely tempted to take her ass and claim her there too, but the things we did with the shower heads and in the steam room were pretty damned pleasurable, we even manage to wet most of the bathroom floor, as we had a childish sponge fight, yes Christian Grey and Ana Lambert had a fabulous water fight with giant sponges and shower heads. She gets up and wraps herself in her robe smiles and sees to the mess we have made, in here in the playroom because just about every surface in the bathroom and the playroom is wet as we have fucked on everything, who needs sleep when adolescent sex is so refreshing, fun and amazing? Christian Grey is clawing back his teenage years and loving it. I am wrapping myself in the other robe when she pops her head in the bathroom, which I am putting to rights, or trying to, she sniggers. Okay I know Gail will do a better job, but at least the river and spongers are tided away and I am pleased with myself.

"This wax, where does it go?"

"Mia's room, I borrowed it, it needs to go under her bathroom vanity unit."

"Which is her room?"

"The first one as you come up the stairs, she stops here when she has enough of our parents, Elliot tends to crash in the security suites, or on the sofa, he is not as fussy as Mimi."

"Did she or he never see the subs?"

"No neither of them saw the girls, because if they were here the girls were not, though Mimi, she once came unannounced, and that was tricky the girl had to leave whilst I took Mimi out for something to eat." I see the look in her eyes, I had a past, a past she is finding difficult to come to grips with.

"Hahahaha, you and your secret life, I can understand why they thought you were gay, now..."

"They really did, thanks to my being able to wax and do hair and the books of your mothers and the lack of girls at the Sunday dinners and lunches. Speaking of which, do you think she would autograph them for me?"

"Christian Grey..."

"Okay Wench, I guess I am a dork, now clear away the evidence of some mighty fine playtime in the playroom and I will be waiting in the lounge, do you want some wine?"

"Yes please, I will join you in a second." I leave her to it, cleaning is not my thing and it shows too.

It hurts...

When he speaks of the others it hurts, it shouldn't do but it does and I should stop questioning him, but I cannot help myself and of course I am hurting myself in the process. I got madly jealous of Sasha and hated the Lincoln woman, but the others, the others are an unknown quantity in his life and I have to remember he had a life before me and after me at least fifteen of them and they have been in here with him, and that is something I have to get to grips with, in keeping dredging it up I am hurting myself and Christian, I saw the look I got when I asked the damned questions.

I clean the tools we used and smile. I dry the surfaces from our childish water fight and place the missing bathroom sponges back in the bathroom. It was a really good childish water fight, that ended up in my being ravaged, it was fun and something neither of us had done before, acted like teenagers. I then spray the lemon cleanser and replace the things he used and coil the ropes and hang them with the others and wonder to myself do I trust him enough to suspend me in rope and knots, he asked and I said no, but it could be fun? I will have to seriously think about it, because judging from all his equipment, it's something he enjoys. I clean the butt plug and replace that in those drawers, with the blindfold. The flogger he did not use is hung back on the rack and I remake the bed, smile and then turn off the light and head to the laundry, I stop off with Mia's wax kit and place it in the bathroom.

As I do I notice the pregnancy tester kit? Oh so she has had sex then? I wonder how mad he was finding that? I smile tidy away the mess he left in here and close the door to her pink palace in the sky. Mia is a lady who likes pink.

"I need to put these things in the washer and then we can relax a while before bedtime." I look out across the city below us and realise we missed bedtime. "How about I make some popcorn and we watch a movie, as we have to be up soon, it seems we forgot to sleep?"

"That sounds like a good idea."

"I love the view you have here, Christian look at Seattle as it starts to wake up. We are up here looking down on them as they start their day and they don't know we are watching them. I'd love to be like them and be a nine to five normal girl." I sigh.

"I like this, this semblance of normality we have here Ana, I do like to stare out of the windows and just watch the world go by."

"I like it too."

"Ana, do you want to stay here, when we do live together, or do you want to look for a place that's just ours?"

"This place is fine, its more than fine it's beautiful and the views are a hell of a selling point. I love your castle in the sky and its silence. It's so very calming."

"I feel there is a but coming."

"No, no buts, I love it I just love it. It's very chic and classy and very you and I guess I will get used to it. Now wine and popcorn I will even let you choose the movie, how's that work for you?"

"Good. Very good and I know just the movie I want to watch, how about Deadpool?"

"Yeah, a little bit of funny Ryan Reynolds, I love him, especially in leather..."

"Oh, how about Batman..."

"Again leather and men in it. Which one though there are a few?"

"How about dirty dancing?"

"Patrick, you cannot beat a bit of Patrick..."

"Okay then Sponge Bob the movie it is then Ana..."

"Really? You are worried about me ogling men in leather on the tv screen?"

"Yes and one Swayze and his hips. Though I would like him, never allow anyone to put my baby in the corner either."

"Can we watch it, Dirty Dancing? I love Sponge Bob, but and this is the big but, I am nearly twenty five not five..."

"Hey, you can't beat a bit of Sponge Bob and Patrick. Elliot loves the damned movie. Besides I didn't buy it Taylor got me in the Christmas Secret Santa, and that was his attempt at humour..."

"Who did you get?" I make the pop corn in the microwave and as the pops cease, I take it out and pour it in the bowl. "Christian, who did you get?"

"What? Oh I got Ros... I got her a plethora of electronic quit smoking devices, along with three appointments with various hypnotists, and an appointment with a Chinese acupuncturist and the promissory note for a new car if she stops smoking, when she sings she sounds like a female Rod Stewart and that's down to the years of her chugging on cigarettes, she was a sixty a day girl."

"Wow, she must be like a bear with a sore head and add in your stress I am betting it was more like an eighty a day habit? How much did that lot cost you?"

"I know I was the stressor, the cost? Oh crap it was way over the top and I was told so too. I didn't know the limit was twenty dollars, but I need that woman to quit coughing and stop smelling of tobacco, and yes she like you said it was me who drove her to it, the cheek of the woman, but I seriously need her to stop and be here for me for a lot longer and so does Gwen, her wife."

"And there he is, the man who had a heart as far back as Christmas..."

"Ana, I have a great deal to thank her for she helped me make GEH what it is today and without her I would be, well I would be... I would be..."

"...Lost Christian, that is the word you are struggling with. I am sure she is a glad to be by your side as you are to have her there."

"I am, and oh she thinks you are hot too, so I have my eyes peeled when she is about."

"I like the womanly form, but that is as far as that goes. Now, what are we watching, Pineapple Patrick or Melon Patrick?"

"Pineapple, we need cheering up." He says, I guess I am not ogling fit men in leather but ogling a talking yellow sponge, I had fun with sponges earlier. I slide into the side of him and we share the popcorn, we are midway through the film and the sun is rising quickly, (so much for getting sleep) when suddenly Taylor comes into the lounge. He looks like he hasn't slept either.

"Sir, Ma'am... Agent McCall is here and he looks pissed off, he wouldn't tell me what it was he needed but he says it's important, I would guess he knows you said something Sir, Ma'am, so don't walk into his trap again."

"Okay show him in." Ana and I are still in our bathrobes, I turn off the television and we stand and await his arrival. Ana puts the popcorn down and stands close to me. He comes in and yes he looks like he has sucked on a wasp.

"Mr Grey, did you tip anyone off to your going to the prison tomorrow?" Taylor stands at the elevator and I nod for him to stay.

"No, no I did not. Who would I tip off?" Good god, I can tell lies when I have too.

"Miss Lambert, did you?"

"Yeah I called in my uncles, the Mafia and called in my favours with the Illuminate..." Shut up Ana please, do not piss off the fed...

"You did?" Is he stupid?

"No, I can assure you I have no concern in anything Lincoln related and we have been here all night as security and a hundred cameras will verify. Why what's she done?"

"Well acting on a tip off, an anonymous tip off we were told to keep an eye on Mrs Lincoln and to head off the collection of the real book in a San Francisco train station."

"And..." Christian says.

"Well when we got our guys to the prison, she was already dead, she had a massive heart attack and died in her cell, for some reason the usual and expected fifteen minute suicide checks were not logged on the system." Christian looks none too shocked and I want to laugh but I don't.

"She is dead? Really as in dead, dead and not breathing type of dead?" I say stupidly instead...

"It would seem she was poisoned, as yet we are not how she got it, we looked at the visitor logs and she only saw her attorney, Elisabeth Hughes. I believe you know her Mr Grey? She was in your employment a few years ago?" Christian's face goes as grey as his name.

"She was my girlfriend of sorts, if you will, but how did you find that out, we were very discrete?" He says and I wonder if she was one of 'The Fifteen' but I will not ask.

"We did a check on Elena Lincoln's attorney of course, and you came up as a former employer. When we found Mrs Lincoln dead, and we could not contact Miss Hughes by phone we went to her apartment, where we found her dead too. It looks a lot like someone was clearing away their tracks and tying up loose ends. When was the last time you saw Miss Hughes, Mr Grey?"

"How, I mean I last saw her when she called it off, five years ago. How and when did she die, poison you say, like Mrs Lincoln?"

"Yes and as she was still wet from the rain and in her coat, we believe they both ingested it at the prison, but the only thing they both had was a bottle of water and Mrs Lincoln had a migraine, so took a couple of pills."

"Forgive me but I am no police officer or agent for the FBI, but I would look at the supplier of the water and pills before you come here and accuse us."

"That's it we did, and he is singing like a canary, and he is saying that he was put up to it by you Mr Grey."

"I can assure you..." Christian looks like he is about to punch Agent McCall

"...Relax, he told me you called him, only the time you supposedly called him you and Miss Lambert here were with me in the car at the Marina, so I am your alibi. We asked him for your phone number and he didn't have it, neither do your phone records have any calls being made to him. When pressed further he said he was told to give her the pills by the guy on the front desk, and he says they were just over the counter pain killers and he has no clue as to where they were poisoned, we are looking into the pair of them."

"So she is really dead?" Christian asks again.

"The coroner has them both on his slab; they are dead and undergoing an autopsy as we speak, so I came to tell you its fine for you to leave. Besides you will tell us where you will be should we need you? Which will be where?"

"Calabasas, I have to go and rehearse for my father's memorial concert at the Hollywood Bowl and you have our numbers right?" I say, I am way more tired than I need to be to deal with Agent McCall; Christian seems to have got a second, third or even a fourth wind and is sharp as a tack.

"Good and when will you be going?" I stare at Christian.

"Later today. So the book she had was fake and she did know it was important, so who was on the way to get it?"

"Two of the Governors contacts. He and his son are in the wind as we speak, and I have a feeling they are on the run and we will not be seeing them again."

"I know he was a bad man and what is it you Yanks say 'on the take or make' but who did he piss off to make this someone's life long project, and why the sudden renewed vigour in what seems like an old unsolved case, a case that has been inactive for many years and obviously has been going nowhere, until recently?" I ask. He smiles.

"I guess you should have asked that in the garage, who was my boss and why he wanted Thelma so bad."

"You said your boss and that was good enough for us, but the why, that is interesting, it sniffs of a more personal vendetta, now those I am familiar with Agent." Christian says. I guess Taylor knows who is boss is anyway.

"My boss, Associate Deputy Director Cory Anderson, he made it his personal mission to sink the governor and his family, as they were directly responsible for the poisoning of the water in his home town. It seems one of the governors major campaign funders, he was allowed to open a brand new skinning plant, they cut a few corners and it resulted in the plants waters being accidentally drained into the local water supply, which caused an unusual rise in cancer cases in and around the plant, his young daughter was a victim to the dreaded disease, he wanted proof that the governors backers had opened a cut price money maker and several safety features were left out of the building to cut costs."

"Oh and let me guess the governor and the family denied their involvement?"

"There was no paper trail leading to them and someone helped them fake their permits and crap, that was until very recently there was a death bed confession given to me by the man who was, until he got ill himself, one of the old man's right hand men, he told us about the book and the case was then up and running again, only now the son and grandson have their fingers in many more pies and they have shares in a couple more plants like the one that leaked bad water into my bosses home town water, so we have a hope that some of the things in the book will still land them both in jail."

"I wish you luck with that, let me know if you need our help with anything else. " I say as Christian at last looks relieved. Agent McCoy tips his imaginary hat at me and Taylor sees him out. "So who is this Elisabeth Hughes?" I stupidly ask, did I not learn before?

"She was the one after Sasha, she and I were not that compatible; she lasted just a month, before she and I agreed to end the arrangement. I had a feeling Elisabeth was coerced into the life by Elena, as apparently she and Elisabeth's mother went way back."

"Okay then, so how do you think they killed them both?"

"Ana, I don't care, and as heartless as that makes me sound, I really am glad Elena is dead, yes I am sorry for Elizabeth, but if you lay down with dogs chances are you get their darned fleas too. Now, pack for your grandparents. We can sleep on the plane. I will have Taylor arrange it all. So Ana we have one down and one to go."

"One of what?"

"Hurdle, one less hurdle to jump over. I think you should do as your Uncle Ray suggested, and talk to your grandfather first. I think had she done something like that with his brother he would have had to have know about it and he had to have forgiven her if she did, right?"

"I suppose so. I don't want to think about my mother not being Nonno's little girl, because then he wouldn't be my Nonno, Christian what if he isn't?"

"Hey he loves her, that much even I could see and I can tell you for certain that blood does not make a family Ana, its love that does that, well I guess it does, because my mother and father love we three orphans and loved us enough to take us in, feed us clothe us and most importantly..."

"...Love you?"

"Nah, put up with us. Now go pack Wench."

"Wench me again and Sunny Jim, you will be bound tight as you sleep, then hung from your fancy fret worked ceiling with those pretty karabiners and your lush butt will be a dark blush colour, if the word Wench comes from your mouth again."

"Ouch I like the sound of that."

"Well you lucked out, because my knots are not that good, I wasn't very good at that in dominatrix class and I suck at wrapping presents, though I can pipe a pretty bow and make a pretty realistic sugar-bow."

"Ha, a Dominatrix with knot issues. Whatever next?"

"Hu, oh I don't know, perhaps a reformed Dom hitting a dry spell if he continues to sass said Knotless Dominatrix with his wonderful mouth... Now go and order your lady a plane ride to hell, please?" He laughs as he heads to the security office and I go to pack the few clothes I did have here.

I really have to get this rehearsal time in, a chat with Nonna, and I need to get back to work, that's of course after The Bowl, then after that we have the Coping Together Ball weekend affair and then the little holiday Christian wants to take me on, to god knows where and for god knows how long. So I need to get cover in and pretty damned sharpish; it must be a shock to my employees as I doubt I have had more than two weeks off in a very long time, if in fact at any time? I went straight back to work after the baby, my Island holidays are always long weekends and I guess the only long holiday I have had since qualifying was when I quit Belgium and even that was cut short when John died. I have packed my bag carelessly as it happens, because my head is not in the game right now, and I am wondering what to pack for Christian, when Gail knocks at the open door, she has a pile of my clothes neatly washed and ironed.

"I have to pack Mr Grey's bags; do you need any help Miss L, gosh I am so sorry I mean Ana?"

"No thank you Gail, I am travelling light because I have clothes at my home in California. Thank you though. I've put some laundry in the washing machine, I hope that is alright?"

"Of course it is, Ana this is your home too. If you need anything doing in your absence please don't hesitate to call me and I will get it done for you."

"I now realise why my man is useless at doing stuff, you have spoiled him Gail."

"He needs to be comfortable when he is at home, he works far too hard and far too long. I think Mr Grey is not the only one either, I have a sneaky suspicion that if you two were in a race, you two would be two hares racing past the finish line, and not the pair of tortoise bringing up the rear and admiring the world at the more gentler of paces." I giggle, not at Gail liking us to an Aesop's Fable, but the fact she said bringing up the rear, because mine is now tingling. She packs his bags with the greatest of ease. I watch and marvel. Me? I actually chuck stuff in a case, get to whichever hotel I am in and have the maid service clean and steam my things. I hate washing and laundry chores and I always have done.

"Right shall I take you things?" I am still staring out of the window, daybreak is now well and truly here and I am managing to stay awake, just. I am about to reply when Christian heads in and Gail takes the bags to the lift for the guys to pack away.

"Gail is a godsend, I want my own Gail." I say as I stare.

"Okay, I will share her with you, because they broke the mould when they made Gail."

"I know, so is it all arranged?"

"It is, so Ana have you decided what we are we going to do?"

"I will speak to Nonno first and see what the hell went on back then. Then and only then do we tell them our news."

"Our news seems trivial with what has been going on lately Ana. Though it is news that they need to hear about and I will be right there with you." I am enveloped in his arms and I hold my head against his beating heart. Wow it is racing. We head down in the lift and as we do Christian continues to hold me close.

We are Calabasas bound:

Ana and I are seated and Luke, Taylor, Ryan and Reynolds are seated in their area. Ana has that very sad look on her face and I am sure it's more than her uncle's thoughts on her mother's parentage issues. I study her face as she looks out of the window. The day is bright but her mood is dull.

"Ana, what besides your mother, Nonna and the baby is worrying you."

"Lots of things actually, work mainly. I have never been so unorganised; I guess the same goes for you? I mean I can't take time off and though I need a holiday I have nobody who I trust to step into the breach, I could ask James Frasier to help, but he is needed to run the Switzerland branch for me and over see Europe, the trouble is I trusted my family and look where that has got me and don't get me wrong Kate is great, but she is not a COO, she is great at finance, but running my company or helping with the logistics and multitasking is not something she would be good at."

"I see why you would be worried, I have my week long golfing holiday; I have Christmas in Aspen, New Year in New York and business meetings abroad. I have a very large team of managers and division commanders and I have Ros. So I guess I will get her on the case as I promised Baby, stop worrying, I hate to see you stressed. When we are up go and grab a couple of hours sleep and I will have her headhunt, how does that sound? I mean if that's okay for me to get involved Ana?'"

"Yes, you have holidays and yet still you micro manage like me, how in the hell did we get to be such a pair of boring, head strong and workaholic megalomaniacs?"

"I do it because it is my company and my baby as it were and yes I am like you Ana, we have a lot in common."

"It's the same for me you're right. God we need to chill and pass the baton of control to others, for a month at least?"

"Honeymoons, I am told, should be a month long affair." He says so matter of factley and I am stunned.

"The what the who... Christian..." He really went there... God if you pinch me now and I wake up to this being a dream, someone will lose their head. Honeymoon? Oh god yes please...

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So he went there and Mia had a pregnancy kit, the witch and her attorney both died and the governors on the run, and they are on their way to the grandparents and to do the concert... Read and review please xxx


	24. Chapter 24

This story is nowt like fifty; I just purloined EL James's characters buildings and some other stuff... You have been so very good with your comments and reviews, keep them coming please, I know lots of you read this, but not a lot of you review... I like to see the notifications ping into my in box, it makes me want to write more...

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(For the story fan fic remember!) I will be using the actual name of Calabasas Country Club and the Hilton's hotel as Christian's golf course and hotel in L.A! (It is only fictitious, because the real owners still own them lol!)

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Dreaming of Chocolate and Grey:

Chapter 24:

The journey into the unknown:

I heard that right, didn't I? I look up and see him smiling. He is either really damned serious or he is the most cruel man in the world, and I know the latter one not to be true.

"Christian, what did you just say? Did you mean holiday?"

"No, I meant honeymoon, anything less than a month is a holiday. Now go and get that pretty head down for a couple of hours, we can talk later Baby."

"You expect me to sleep after you drop that bombshell?"

"Yes, you need your sleep. I gather you did not warn anyone we are flying into Los Angeles today Ana?" He is purposely changing the subject, is he back tracking and killing me on purpose?

"No, I figured we or rather I would need to have a clear head and be rested, Nonna is going to sap all my strength from me, she is going to be like a bear with a sore head." I am not going to push the honeymoon slip of the tongue. Umm, slip of his tongue yes please, I do like the things his tongue does. I get myself hankered down to what his tongue does and not what is lets slip by. He is grinning; the bastard is making me sweat this out.

"I would gather you mean the grizzly type not the teddy type?" Really grizzly... With teeth.

"With mean teeth... So, honeymoon?" I slip it back in to the conversation.

"So sleep, and no I am not talking honeymoons just yet, I was thinking aloud, but I am glad you didn't say no, but I should have kept that to myself for a little while longer."

"Christian..."

"Ana go and get some sleep, I have to work. We have to talk about my slip, and yes I do want that for us eventually, but for now sleep and think about it and all that it entails. Please?"

"Okay, but it wouldn't be a no, just to let you know, and I have to work too, I have a couple of new lines to get into production, because my work has taken a back seat to my romancing you Mr Grey, besides you need sleep too?"

"Yes, but I can relax at the hotel, but you are going to be busy whilst you are here singing and creating, so grab every chance you get to sleep, because Baby if we ain't working we will be working up a sweat in the bedroom." He winked.

"You are so thoughtful." I unbuckle my seatbelt and lean over and kiss him. "So are you going to join me for a rest?"

"No because it's just a two hour flight, and I have some arrangements to make and this plane is not soundproof, the other yes, but this is just the short haul jet." He smiles as I am ordered yet again to and get my ass in his much smaller bedroom. I wonder what the arrangements are and though he has said honeymoon a couple of times, he only yet to hint at asking me to marry him. Horse before the cart Grey, you do not put the horse before the cart. I slip off my shoes and snuggle in his bed. Sleep did not come easy at all, mainly because I was too excited, like the skittish kid I was on the eve of my birthday and Christmas. Who can sleep when it's so exciting? So I rest my eyes...

"Ana, we are coming into land, come on sleepy head. Wake up Baby, Ana..." Oh god when did this headache arrive, I stretch, crap and damn when did I go to sleep? "There she is. Ana are you okay?"

"No, my head has a pneumatic drill going off inside it. I need my painkillers."

"I will have Taylor grab you some."

"I have all sorts of crap in my bag. There is a pack of Nurofen in there."

"Nurofen?"

"Sorry they are like Tyanol, but British. I should be wearing my glasses more, but vanity is a killer."

"It can be. Are you going to be okay?"

"Yes, I will be fine thanks for asking. Now, what did you get done?"

"Work and I made a few calls. So are we ready?"

"Hu, ready, erm yeah, yeah I will be in a moment, I need to pee?"

"I will see you out there, you will be pleased to know I now understand the no see pee rule finally, and all it took were those three sponges for me to realise you were serious."

"You are a very slow learner. Now skedaddle or I will hunt out a sponge to soak you with."

"Well I will make sure the hotel room is stocked then, it promises to be a good night, and so the gauntlet has been seized and Miss Lambert I challenge you to an epic sponge fight later." He smiles and I fall back on the bed and giggle, it was fun.

"How old are you again Christian?"

"Old enough to know better and I have the age behind me to have a great throwing arm; I was very good at pitching at school." He left the cabin laughing loudly; he seems to be in a very buoyant mood, what with the talk of honeymoons, sponge fights and actually leaving me to pee in peace, it was very tense this morning or was it last night? It was his spying on me in the bathroom, which started the sponge fight and the screaming and chasing began and it was fun too. A fun night was had and we played well in the water... I do the necessary and head to my seat.

"All done?" He asks.

"Yes thank you, now as you said I am going to be really busy, will you be okay whilst I rehearse and catch up with work?"

"Will you be in the bakery here in town?"

"Yes, I really need to work on the new lines; they need to go into production soon. I also need to make the call."

"It can wait until tomorrow, you need some real sleep, some good food and we need more alone time."

"We do, I like our alone time. You look troubled though, is it last night's happening bothering you?"

"Yes and no, Taylor has eyes and ears out there and it seems they were both poisoned with a very same lethal dose of Digoxin, there was enough in one pill to stun and kill a horse, and they were the exact same tablets in both Elena and Elisabeth murder, Elisabeth died a short while after she made the call to Agent McCall."

"So they were killed by the same person?"

"It would seems so and they died as soon as the tablets sustained release coating dissolved slowly in their stomach, but their death came quickly, I mean they say that Elena took the pills in the meeting they had they know roughly from the call and how long it took Elisabeth to get home that she took hers on her way home, and notes in her bag said she, Elena, thought she was getting broken out by faking her death and setting her free and yes, it seems she was stupid enough to fall for the lies Elisabeth told her. I feel sorry for Elisabeth because she seems to have been duped into doing their bidding, and I would have preferred Elena suffer a little longer, apparently it was a harsh death, and she died on the toilet." He smirks.

"Oh lord, what a way to die on the flusher. So that part of your life is over then?"

"It would seem so, and the new me is very happy it is over and this part of our future is blossoming."

"Umm, very hearts and flowers Grey."

"I am learning. Now buckle up we are coming into land."

"I am bossy boots." I laugh as he starts singing 'who lives in a pineapple under the sea,' he is a much changed fun guy. I feel the plane land and smile.

"Ana, we are here. Now are you sure you want to stay in the hotel?"

"Yes, yes I am. I will call Uncle Wolfe and tell him I am here and to keep quiet. He will do, but he will also want to know what is going on, both with you and me and everything concerning my mother."

"So, do I have anything to worry about? You know with your Uncle Wolfe?"

"No, god no. He is the best. He really is a good man, hard working tee total and really understanding and nothing like my father. Chalk and cheese, was one of the songs dad wrote, it was about the pair of them and it was Uncle Wolfe's favourite too. Dad and he were like true brothers, he said they were brothers just from different mothers. Mimi loved the very bones of him and he was always at the island with Holly."

"What happened to Holly's mother, only you never talk about her?"

"Sylvia, she died of a drugs overdose when Holly was a couple of months old, she is a little younger than me and she likes to remind me of this and often that she is the baby of the family and she is to get her own way, and she does. They came to stop at the island for a while, you know after her mum died? Mimi then had two little girls to dress in pretty dresses, we have loads of film with the two of us, and a hell of a lot of you and Elliot too, and yes I am serious, my stalking you is captured on film for posterity."

"I must get a look at them, if that's okay? Did Wolfe marry again?"

"Yes he met a very nice lady called Brenda when I was about six I think and they moved to Gloucestershire, that was when he finally got his country cottage, chocolate box home complete with roses around the door. His new wife raised Holly as her own and Holly adored her; I did too, because she was so sweet. Aunty Brenda was a home bird, and loved Uncle Wolfe so much, but she hated the world he came from and she shunned the media and the rock and roll lifestyle. She died ten years ago; she just didn't wake up one night."

"How does an adult not wake up?"

"She had a un-diagnosed brain thingy and it ruptured and she died. It was a tough time for him and Holly. So if she says mum, she means Brenda, because she was the only mother she knew."

"Okay, good to know in case I put my foot in it."

"He will like you, he likes people who work hard and people who love me, yet he still didn't tell me about my mother so I am wondering why he allowed me to call her names."

"She probably swore him to secrecy."

"Yeah you are probably right, but I want no more lies because there have been too many secrets in my life, I want a clean slate and a fresh start."

"With me?" He asks like a dork.

"Of course with you, you idiot. You are the only man for me."

"Good, I am very territorial and possessive. Now get your beautiful bottom out of the seat and into the waiting cars. Gentlemen, get us to the hotel please? Luke are you okay?"

"Sir?"

"Are you okay, you have been very quiet this trip?" Christian asks which shocks the four suits travelling with us.

"I have a few things on my mind Sir, but nothing too drastic that it will distract me from watching Miss Lambert."

"Luke, you would tell me if there was something Christian or I could do to help wouldn't you?"

"Ma'am, thank you, but it's a personal matter, and nothing that cannot wait. My girlfriend is missing me, that's all." I smile and then Christian sighs and strange words flow from his mouth, words of advice that stuns us all.

"Girlfriend? I happen to have one of those, so if you need advice, I it seems, am your man." Taylor almost chokes as do the other two Buzz Cuts. I just laugh and head to the waiting cars. Bless him he was being human and we all laughed. Poor Christian. Poor Marco, he thought Luke was gay, when in reality he is just as metro sexual as my man.

I climb in the back of the two cars I presume the hotel has sent, as their logo is embellished in the plush leather seats, three C's on the top of a golf ball and under it two G's and a H. I would think it stands for Grey Golfing Hotels, I could be wrong, but that is who I sold Otter Island to, GEH and my golf mad boyfriend come honeymoon buddy. Which he has yet to mention again and I have to wonder if he was just testing the waters? We drive from Van Nuys Airport, and I suddenly see the road to my home here come into view. What the fudgsickle, we are taking Ventura Freeway and heading towards Hidden Hills, what the hell?

"Christian Grey, where is this darned hotel of yours?"

"It used to be called the Hilton Gardens, but when I bought Calabasas Country Club, the hotel was the nearest large one around there, so we purchased that and some land to extend the courses, why?"

"I live or rather my home is in Hidden Hills."

"Okay, that I didn't know, I wonder how did I not know that."

"How long have you owned it?"

"The Golf course, about four years and the hotel about a year."

"Okay, now I feel odd, odd knowing that when I come here I drink in the club house at Calabasas Country Club, whilst Nonno plays golf."

"I don't come here often Ana, it was part of a chain of high end leisure facilities I bought, as you know if there is a golf course involved it sweetens the deal for me and this deal had three so I snapped it up. I was looking at a home here but I was outbid by a rapper and his model girlfriend. So I didn't come to stop or play here, not until the hotel went up for sale and we got it, Elliot and I had a weekend here over a month ago." _That was when Suzie pulled the first sick weekend!_ "I really only like to play golf in Europe and Scotland, it's the best." I smile and thank god he likes golf.

"Okay then neighbour, do we get a family discount at the country club, and I mean for the golf mad D'Acciaio's too?"

"I guess we can do something. Will your grandfather be here?"

"He could be... What am I saying, of course he will be, and I mean it's his daily escape from Nonna? I could get him to come to the golf club and talk to him there?"

"Good thinking Ana, or better still we could play a round of golf with him?"

"Is that wise? Think about it Christian, we are going to tell him we had a son together, one you knew nothing about gifting me with, and one I had alone and one I did not tell anyone about and who died? Are you mad even thinking about that, when Nonno will have either a nine iron, a putter or a sand wedge in his hand?"

"You make a sound argument for having a meeting in the hotel."

"Okay then, the hotel it is and then a round of golf, oh and let him beat you to ease the hardship, I do it all the time."

"Crafty and smart. I knew I loved you for a damned reason."

"You do, do you?"

"I do..." He winks. We get to the hotel and we are shown to the Presidential Suite. We are low key here and he seems a little more relaxed. I think that has more to do with the golf clubs Ryan is taking to our room. He is a Golfing Gopher it seems and I will be a golfing widow.

"Thank you, and please relax the dress code for the hotel Taylor and enjoy yourselves whilst we are here, please." Christian says as we land in the suite. Taylor is again flummoxed by his boss's good mood.

"Where are they stopping Angel?"

"In the next two suites. So this Angel thing, is it my pet name?"

"Yes, I am trying it on for size and it suits you, you are my very own dark angel."

"Dark?"

"Yes sexily so, not in a mean way but in a very wetting my knickers way."

"Talking about knickers, get yours off..."

"You are so demanding, but okay seeing as you asked so nicely."

"Good, we will have to have vanilla, I didn't bring the toys, did you, you know?" He grins.

"Sorry, but if that stroke thing you are doing with your face means you want a rerun with the ring of doom then again you looked out because it's in the wardrobe at home. I was going to grab my new lines bag when Gail walked in, so it's a good job that I like vanilla."

"So do I funnily enough. Now less talking and more clothes off." I obliged and as stand before him naked, I drop to my knees and reach for the buttons on his jeans and unfasten them. He stares down and I return the stare seductively, licking my lips in anticipation for what's to come.

"Would Sir, like a little light mouth work and a little throat deep massage for your friend with the stiff neck Sir?"

"Ana, yes please, like you have to ask." I pull down his jeans just enough to free his tackle and two and as I do he groans. Bugger, there is nothing more sexy than hearing him groan and moan, it wets parts of me in seconds flat. I kiss the head of his friend and lick the ridge that surrounds the end of it, my teeth pull back slightly as they clamp around it.

"Fuck Ana, yes just like that." I repeat and release, several times and as I suck the end, the glistening drops of pre-come leak from the end and as I suck he does that moan and groan thing and I definitely need new underwear, hopefully these escape the ripping off he is enamoured with. I take him in slowly and he rocks into my mouth, I make that god awful noise it's something akin to a seal wanting fish and me choking, how the hell that sounds sexy I cannot figure out, but it does something to my man and he gets thicker and stiffer. As I take him deeper he grabs a handful of my hair and holds on for dear life as the choking begins. He sways and his breathing is laboured. His hips piston into my throat and I remember to breathe through my nose this time. He is lost in the world of Oh Fuck and God Damn It. I feel the hot fruit from his loin hit the back of my throat and he sighs as I suck harder and breath just as hard as I struggle to swallow the contents of his balls, he bends down and picks me up and kisses me, his salty taste is still on my lips. The kiss is manic almost, like he has been starved of food and I am his dinner.

I strip him from his clothes and he again picks me up and places me on the bar in the room and I see stars as he rocks me to my core. Our tongues grapple and our hands grab slap and hold each other, grunts and moans are one of the many sounds we make, and its arousing as hell when the sweaty skin from his swaying balls whack my ass and as they do I get a little demanding for more. He looks into my eyes and I say one word...

"Please?" He carries me to the bathroom, and I have him pinned deep within me and as we get there he starts the shower and we make out like rampant rabbits starved of sex. I swear we were at it all night and four hours later we are going in for another all-nighter; at least I hope we are?

"Ana, bend over and touch your toes and relax, it may hurt but I will be gentle okay?" I tell her as she offers up her butt to me; I want to have every part of her I can. She is my more and the more I get the more I want and need.

"Just be gentle with me." I hold my dick in my hand as I do I squirt the bath oils in my hand to lubricate her in an attempt to make this as painless as possible, I aim my dick at her pert derrière, and I slip in the bulbous end, its hot and almost purple as it slowly slides in. "Oh hell god damn it, yes, oh god yes." Her deep moans of more do things to my dick and I need her.

"God has little to do with this Ana, are you okay to take more?"

"Please." I slip in further and if I thought her vaginal walls were tight, then this is like trying to get a dollar in a dime slot. I cannot get any further and she is only half impaled on my shaft. I slowly move and grab her hips, slow jerky movements in and out lubricates and relaxes her and more of me slips in each time, she pants and she screams, but the word stop does not make an appearance, just good god and fuck me harder.

"Ana are you comfortable there and do you think you can handle more?"

"Yes, yes, yes all of it, but can you do it quickly please?" I ignore that last request, because I do not want to tear her anus, not only will it hurt, but it will need time to heal if she does tear and I don't want to think about not making love to my woman. I am in all the way and fuck I need to come. I am holding her up and thrusting into her butt, she is screaming for harder and more, and as I take it out and thrust inside her, I feel her explode around my dick, as I come hard, when she comes with a flurry of oh fucks and shits. Not literally I hasten to add, but from her mouth. I remove my very flaccid dick from her derrière and sigh as I do, he is limp like a floppy toy with the stuffing missing, that has never happened to me before, but then again that was like nothing I have done before.

"Are you okay back there?" She asks as I wash her gently, she winces and I gently touch her to ease the pain.

"I am doing my duty and cleaning my woman."

"The shower will get that. I can't feel my toes." I help her up and turn her to face me. Why do I feel like I won the Nevada state lottery, which has been running over for a decade?

"Ana, thank you. I mean it Baby that was amazing. I won't ask was it better than the taking of your other virginity?"

"But you have done, and it was as good, but the other was out of this world amazing, that was just off the planet amazing. Do you like to fuck butts?"

"I like all manner of sex and fucking, you know this."

"I wonder if I should do a kinky line of chocolates?"

"Hahahaha, as in tiny bite sized phalluses' and breasts and what else?"

"I don't know I am in planning mode. I could call it my Dark Nights range."

"Oh god you are serious? They wouldn't look good on the shelves of your classy stores Baby."

"I could sell them to 'ladies toy stores' they could be a big seller for them and for me..."

"Ana, you do get inspiration from the weirdest things."

"I know right, it's so whacky that all my best ideas come from some sort of lunacy." She stands on her tippy toes and kisses me. I ravish her lips again and the sagging dick between my legs is doing nothing, she killed my fucker.

"Let's get out and eat. Order room service Ana."

"I see he is not for playing again, did I break my new toy?"

"No, he is just exhausted from fulfilling all my girlfriends wonton desires."

"He did a good job; your girlfriend is very full and very filled. Steak?"

"Yes I need to keep my strength about me. I am losing out to my younger bed buddy."

"Hahahaha, you can out run, or should I say fuck me any time of the day or the night. I will order this and call Nonno whilst I am in a good mood. After that shower I am in a very good mood."

"Okay, but how sore are you?"

"On a scale from one to ten?" I nod. "About a three. It really was very nice as first times go, how was it for you?"

"Ana, it was amazing and I am glad you liked it, because I do like it, especially with you."

"Good seeing as I will be the only one you do it with ever again."

"That sounds like you are proposing to me Miss Lambert, are you?" I blush red.

"No, not yet anyway, Get away with you. Are you going to play golf?"

"I may have a quick nine holes, after we eat and you make your calls." She has ordered food and she smiles as she makes the call. What she didn't expect was for him to answer straight away and for him to be in the bar downstairs. Oh fuck, did I run to change and quickly. So too did his granddaughter. I call Taylor as I am slipping on my shoes.

"Ana's Grandfather is on his way to the room, I doubt we will have any problems, but be vigilant, please?"

"Sir..."

 _Oh Lord he is meeting the Italians, god help him, but Gail is going to be thrilled and I did hear him calling his jeweller yesterday, he was sketching away like a small child, his tongue was out ever so slightly and Gail had a few tears when he showed her the ring he had designed, great now I will have to step up, I mean he has been seeing her for just short of a month and I have been dating Gail for years. I wonder how much the old guy will smack down on him and do I stop it totally or allow him the few smacks he deserves to give my boss for deflowering a good little Italian girl? I don't have long to wait, he's a nimble thing for an old dude. When I open the door though he is anything like little and old, he's built like a brick wall and huge fuck me he fucking works out, or its all the bread making he does? God help the boss I say..._

"Sir, Mr Santino D'Acciaio."

"Please come in Sir, it's a pleasure to meet you at last. Ana talks about you all the time."

"Where is my Bambino and why are you here Ana and not at home, we have the rooms ready." Ana comes out of the bedroom in a very floaty girly dress. She runs to her grandfather and I step back to allow the reunion.

"Nonno, I missed you."

"We missed you too, why are you here Ana, please answer me."

"Sit please sit Nonno. I had a visit and it has shocked me to my core. Please speak English too as Christian has yet to master Italian."

"Your Mamma, she called me an hour ago, this is why I am here to work out what to tell Nonna. She will not be happy Bambino."

"Neither am I, why did you lie and do not tell me you haven't been in touch with her and all along you where and why has Nonna lied about everything. Why?"

"What did she tell you, Carla?"

"Everything." He makes the sign if the cross and plays with a rosary in his hand.

"So, you want to know why?"

"Yes and do not lie to me, I want the truth and all the truth please? Do you want a drink and to stay for dinner?"

"No thank you, the next door neighbours are coming around for Pizza War." I stare at him and he stares at me.

"Do you want me here Ana?" I ask. This is personal to her not me.

"No please stay, this will be hard enough I fear without having to rehash it for you later, please stop with me?"

"Okay."

"Ana, this is family business." Her grandfather says and I agree, but she is adamant I stop.

"Christian is family. I asked him to marry me earlier today." She did? Yes she did, crap she is serious, it was meant to be me whom did the asking. I smile.

"You didn't think to ask for her hand as all good boys should?" Her disappointed grandfather asks.

"I didn't ask her, she it seems asked me." I stare at Ana and want to grin, but I think her Nonno would be mad as hell, Ana passes him a scotch and he sits down.

"So, she told you of their war and their lack of love for each other and why she gave you away, yes?"

"Yes and everything about Great Uncle Salvador." She did not tell her everything, because they didn't know everything, Ana plays this bluffing game well.

"She is a bright girl I knew she would already know I am not her father."

"Oh crap. I was only surmising Nonno, as was she, really my mother is not your real daughter, is she Nonna's real daughter?"

"No, she is the daughter of Salvador and his lifelong mistress your grandmothers sister Rose."

"...Nonna never cheated on you or you on her?" She asks him and I do note he looks a little lost, from that I would gather that it is a yes...

"Things back in Italy were different then, if your parents arranged your marriage, it was usually as a business deal and you did as your parents wanted. Today women can even do the asking it seems."

"Nonno what do you mean an arranged marriage, isn't that a little stupid?" He laughs and I agree I knew it went on in Asia, but Italy?

"Yes Bambino, Vita only married me because she had to, but sadly for me she was deeply in love with my older brother Salvador, I was not stupid, I knew this when our fathers made the match, and Ana, whatever she did I have long since forgiven her for, and I will love only her to the end of my days because it was she who schooled me in the ways of love and sex, when we met I stupidly thought they were one in the same, pure, alas I was the only one who had not done it," Whoa, do I want to hear this from a man I have only just met? "I was a very shy and naive boy when we were promised to each other; in fact I was a virgin and was already hooked on Nonna, so I liked the idea of the match, very much, but others though were not so lucky, three marriages were arranged and at least six people were saddened, and many hearts were broken when Salvador was married, he was a ladies man and handsome, very handsome and rich.

When our fathers made the announcement, first that Rose was to marry a man she had never met, a man who actually fled later rather than marry her, it upset Salvador very much, he had been in love with her since we were little. Then poor Aunt Silva, she liked me and was sad she had not been paired with me, I do sometimes think life would have been different if I had not asked my father to swap sisters. Our fathers did not do the choosing well, Nonna she liked me, but she too loved Sal and I liked Silva, she was my fathers first choice, but I loved Vita, love is a very hard to understand emotion, it still is Ana. My brother and I loved different women and different women other than our intended loved us. But as good son's we did as we were told, for the family, besides there was only me who got what he wanted from it."

"How do these arranged marriages work, without love they would be empty and things would be missing, love for one?" I stupidly ask the ageing hulky man, why did I imagine him to be an old Italian grandfather and not a Soprano's type of a massive and muscled hunk of a guy that he is? Ana smiles as I ask the questions she is too afraid to ask.

"Easily, I was to marry Vita and Salvador was forced into marrying Nancy, but he loved Rose very much." Lord I didn't need to hear that let alone Ana. "They never stopped loving each other, ever, so much so that when she died having their child, he died that day too, he wasn't that upset when Nancy died, but when Rose died, he did too."

"Are you saying Carla is his child and Rose's child?"

"Yes his true love, who he took to London with him as a companion for the weak Nancy as I said Rose was the woman he loved, not his wife. Unfortunately your Nonna, she still loved him too as did all the sisters in fact baring Rose, I was not foolish I had eyes, she still hoped he would leave Nancy the heiress he married, and thought that when she died, he would turn to her for comfort, but he refused her offer because she was my wife, besides he still had Rose as his stand in wife, but in his grief, because he had grown fond of Nancy, he would sleep with any woman who promised to gift him a child and there were a lot of con women out there who took his money and ran, so many in fact it nearly bankrupted the Italian and the Australian arm of the business, which Nonna ran, she was fuming with his drunken stupidity, so went to London many times and stopped there sometimes just for a couple of weeks or months and then even years..."

"Why would you do that Nonno let her run back time and time again to help Uncle Salvador and go back to him for sex?" She wept and I hugged her tightly. "So you are not her father and not my Nonno?" Ana sobs.

"Yes I will always be your Nonno and your mothers father. However, Nonna will never except her as her daughter because of losing her first love to her sister Rose and the family finances to your mother. Salvador was a little strange after his wife Nancy died, may god rest her soul," the sign of the cross is done again, "he had needs and was highly sexed and he was useless at bakery business, and so he always needed a lot of help running the bakery side of the business there in London, so to keep in with Salvador, Nonna, she thought to keep him sweet, she even named Ray after the boy he and Nancy lost.

He was a weak man and he should have returned home to Italy or even joined us on the family farm in Australia, or even gone into the darned church as he said he was doing, but he changed when he and Rose got pregnant, it was as much as surprise to him as it was to her, they thought it would never happen apparently they tried for many years, but she was to be an older mother and it was risky, but Salvador wanted his own family to inherit his business and not mine.

I understood that and was happy with what we had here, but Nonna, when she was there she lived like a queen running the businesses and keeping his grand house there running, she had even offered to have his child for a share in the business, yes he dangled the carrot and she went back time after time. Yes Ana do I believe they had sex, but she says they didn't. I have to believe her as Salvador also said they hadn't had sex; he seemed honest to me and he knew how much I loved and still love your Nonna."

"So Nonna had, you think, sex with Salvador and Rose and anyone else he could use?" He nods his head and I look towards the man and wonder why he allowed it? I think this is running through Ana's overworked brain too.

"That was until the day she flew over and she walked in on Rose and Salvador having sex and they then confessed to her they had never stopped being a couple, and they were both happy that Rose she had managed to gift him a child, he had a couple of minor heart wobbles and Rose was heavily pregnant and so your Nonna stopped, even though Rose was having their love child she still had a hope he would start up their affair, but whilst sober he kept the pledge not to mess with my wife.."

"He had a weak heart yes and he drank and he liked sex it seems?" Ana says and I wonder if this is normal, he sounds like my brother Elliot, the man whore. He even sounds tame compared to the Italian stud Salvador...

"Yes he was highly sexed and never faithful to either Nancy or his true love Rose, and your mother knew this, so to keep an eye on Rose and to stop their marrying, she went to help organise the new bakery there. It was to be the flagship store for D'Acciaio's and it cost a lot of the families money to do it."

"So, he opened a bakery and yet couldn't bake? How mad was he?" Ana shouts.

"Very, we were and are famous bakers in Italy, he loved wine he should have stopped on the farm not me, I hated those grapes and loved the smell of yeast..." He smiles. Why am I confused by all this? Ana seems to be ticking boxes and understands everything, I think?

"Did Nonna not know that Rose and he were friends and had sex?" He laughed.

"That's the thing, nobody but me knew he was having sex with Rose, Aunt Silva suspected, but only I knew they were in this mad love triangle."

"I find that hard to believe Nonna who has a nose for things, she had to know about their love."

"She was blinkered, she knew he had other lovers, we had their bills to take care of, but Rose was there when he screwed half of London, so Nonna never thought anything of it."

"Why did she not suspect it, he took Nancy and Rose to London?"

"Nancy and Rose were best friends; they went to school together and did everything together, when she was jilted Rose took it badly and she went with Nancy to London." Now I had images of a ménage à trois thing going on! "She was a quiet thing and very loyal to Salvador, she must have been to see him have sex with the many women he did. He was a rich playboy and too old for that shit, she stopped to make sure he was not too stupid. He was mad after Nancy died having their child, mad with rage and grief, he did some stupid, stupid things."

"Like wine women and sex and shenanigans?" Ana says. He nods.

"He told me that he had another lover and she was having his child. I was shocked and stupidly told Nonna, so she went to make sure the new lady in his life was not robbing him. However when she got there she was shocked and stunned to see that it was not a gold digging woman, but her whore of a sister who was pregnant, her words not mine, I liked Rose and she and he were happy together and they lasted a long time too. Vita never knew they had a thing and was deeply upset and to say she was shocked to see that it was her own beloved sister Rose who was heavily pregnant, was an understatement, she ranted to me about it for hours.

I was not stupid I knew this news had broken your grandmother's heart, and given he was now having a child with her, she was also upset that the promises my brother made to leave the business to our sons would not then not come to fruition, which angered her more. He was very cruel to her, he knew she had wanted to marry him, the older of we brothers, but she got lumbered with me. After they fought she told him to get his old sister the whore to sort out the bakery and his wine importing business. She wasn't having anything more to do with him, her sister or the business in London and she promised she would ruin him. When she came back she was a much changed woman."

"Why?" I asked, this was a very intriguing story in matters of the heart, which I am eager to learn about, albeit a very strange love story at least, and it could give me pointers when we tell him about our baby. "Sorry, but Ray told Ana what he and Marco thought had happened, and I guess Ana is wondering how she changed?"

"I guess you all need to know, I have accepted it and have dealt with it. She told me she was heartbroken because she had apparently lost her soul mate and found herself lumbered with me and a crappy farm and a tin pot bakery."

"Wow and you stuck around?"Ana asks before I do.

"You do some silly things when you are in love Ana, do not judge less you be judged. She was the mother of my two sons and they were my world." A caring father, good at least they all had one good yet weak parental figure in their lives.

"So can I ask how you managed to go back to Australia with my mother and pass her off as yours and why would you raise another man's child as yours Nonno?"

"Rose, she too died in child birth, having Carla and he was mad that both his children had killed their mothers, Nancy died then Rose died, he was a mess and blaming everyone for his mistakes. He then didn't want her there to remind him of her mother, you and your mother look alike and like Rose, spookily so, yes, yes you are so very alike. When he told Nonna to get rid of your mother I stepped in and it shocked Nonna but then she saw this as reason to still be in his life more, but Carla was an innocent and I knew my brother would regret not seeing her again as did your Nonna. So we had no choice but to raise her as ours, he was an addled old man and she, your Nonna would still do anything to please him. So after the adoption was finalised we went back to Australia and I spoiled my little girl rotten. Carla and the boys were wonderful and made every crappy day spent with your Nonna worthwhile."

"You loved my mother?"

"As if she were my own, because she was mine. Anyway Nonna, she hated Carla and Carla sensed this all she did for her was cry. So when we got the call that he hadn't got long to live off she went leaving the three children with me. She didn't come back home until after he died, and then it was only to take us back to live in splendour. But whilst we were on our way from Australia the big place burnt to the ground and as Salvador had lapsed in paying the insurance premiums, and there was not the big payout Nonna expected and as the big house we were to live in was connected to the bakery and the school, we were already on our way to London and were already homeless."

"Why not go back to Australia?"

"There was more money in London than there were in Australia."

"Money all this is down to money?"

"Money and love. Love and money the bain of my life."

"So, life at the shop small bakery began, yes and that was where Uncle Sunny was born right?"

"Yes, and yes he is mine before you ask, we had a test done, and then I found it in my heart to forgive her. He was our little miracle."

"He is a pain in my butt, you do know that right?"

"Yes, but he is a good boy."

"A spoilt boy."

"You spoil him far more than we do Ana." Ana is taking this Italian love mess well. Then she takes a deep breath in and asks Nonno more questions.

"Why did Nonna throw Carla down the stairs when she found out about me?"

"She found it hard to accept another bastard child into her home, then when you were born her heart melted again and back in our lives was the woman I fell in love with, but when she let the parents of her dead husband raise you, she was mad as hell and Ana Nonna did everything to get you back."

"Because I came with money?"

"I thought so at first, then I saw her with you, she loves Ray's boys, but they are boys, she always wanted a girl, and the nearest she got to that was Marco." He laughs. I wonder why Carla was not the girl for her but her daughter, my Ana was?

"I guess I don't have to ask why she turned me against my mother that was obvious, but why does she want the boys to inherit my businesses? Why does she desperately want one of her children or me to belong to the church, none of us have ever worked that one out."

"She did something wrong and she thinks she has to give a piece of her heart to god to gain herself access to his right hand when she dies."

"What, she really believes that?" I ask and Ana nods her head.

"Who did she hurt, what did she do?" Ana asks dreading the answer.

"She caused Nancy's fall and subsequent loss of their baby boy, Nonna said they were shopping and Nancy took a tumble, Nonna said she tired to catch Nancy, who'd mistook the edge of an escalator for a wall and she fell backwards." He looks shaken.

"Wow and when did you find this out?" Ana asks.

"Before Aunt Silva passed away, she confessed her hand in helping cover up Nonna's helping Nancy to fall to me, then whilst Nonna was drunk, I quizzed her on what Silva had said, and a drunk Nonna is very maudlin and truthful and as she spoke I knew she regretted doing it, but there was no love lost though, between the wanna be bride of my brother and his actual wife. Nonna also hated her own sister Silva, I guess because of me? I liked her though, she was so very refreshing and honest, sometimes too honest but she was still nice to talk to. Well she was with me, others were usually at the end of her gossiping tongue, but she sure loved the boys and Carla of course I think she still held a little hope I'd ditch your Nonna, and if I am honest I should have done, but love is love I guess?" He sighs, and crap I thought my lack of a 'normal' love life was a problem, I guess I am glad Ana picked me to fall in love with.

"So not only did she see to the competition she still tried it on with your brother after she was at fault in Nancy's demise? So when she found out about my mother, did you not think she could try something bad with Rose, did she do something to Rose too?"

"No, I did not, Rose she was an older woman, with health issues. She only wanted to gift Salvador a child, she so desperately wanted to please him. Alas, her death made his condition worse and if anything I would say he died of a broken heart. Nonna never mentioned Rose again and she only took Carla into her life to please my brother."

"So, it sort of makes sense, sort of, doesn't it Christian?" I sit up and ponder the right words to use. Carefully...

"It does, Carla reminded her of what she could never give him, an heir. He also mourned Rose as a lover would and that too upset her, but using a defenceless child as a pawn in her attempts to get Salvador's submission, that, that was bad, both for her and Carla and in turn all of you have suffered over the years."

"You think?" Ana asks.

"I should have been stronger back then, I should have put my foot down and I should have done the Italian hard man head of the house thing and screamed and shouted at her and slapped her around and made her come to heel sooner, instead I made do with being under my wife's thumb for fear of losing her." Nonno says as he sips the whiskey. "I love her Ana, very much." He must do because I will not put up with that from Ana, I then wonder would I ever have too she is nothing like her grandmother, thank god.

"When did you and Carla make up?" Ana asks, as she obviously is not a lover of hearing about her grandparents fiery love life.

"We never stopped talking Ana; we had a secret world that we lived in. She married your father you know, did she tell you that?"

"She what?"

"He came to ask my permission and he very nervously said, and I will always remember it, and that Carla had said to him not to bother and that it was better to ask forgiveness than ask permission, but he wanted to do it the right way, something he said he did not do all the time and it got him in trouble, but he wanted you to be his legitimate child and for him and Carla to be married."

"Wow, his last album was called Better Ask Forgiveness Than Ask Permission. I cannot believe my mother did not say anything, I mean it's a pretty damned big thing to keep from me that they did get married!"

"There are only a handful of people who do know, me, Wolfe, Mimi and Frank, We left Nonna out of the drive through marriage, but yes when he died, your mother had been his wife less than a week. Then he died and those who knew kept their secret."

"You lot can keep your damned secrets and lies I am through with it all." Ana says and she is visibly hurt her mother even emitted the wedding in her conversation with Ana...

"Their publicist said that it would ruin their album sales and concert number would plummet, if The Lamb was a married Lamb."

"So, the fortune I have coming is hers, as his wife?"

"No, she didn't want anything from him, just him and his child."

"Okay... Now, I have some news I have to share with the family and after all that I am now not as worried as I was about telling you it."

"You are getting married? You have already told me this Ana."

"Yes, we are, but not just yet." Ana smiles at me and I hug her tightly.

"You are having a child?" Oh hell, I see the look and this is not good. "Ana, are you pregnant?"

"No, no I am not, but I was once pregnant and I had a baby Boy, Christian and I, we had a child together." He takes his time to understand the magnitude of the information his beloved granddaughter has shared and then he wipes away a tear.

"Where is he, can I see him? Why keep him a secret, these are modern times Ana, and people have sex out of wedlock and children too, I am a modern man of seventy, they always have had and I am learning many things as I grow older here in America. I am evolving into a new man." I step in because Ana is stiff and unresponsive to my calling her name. "So there is no need to hide him away, have you been raising him for Ana?"

"He is not here with us any longer alas he was born sleeping!" I say and he blocks me totally, he looks at Ana and the tears flow, from both of them.

"Ana, explain what this means, is the baby you had dead?"

"Yes Nonno." Ana weeps more and I try to comfort her.

"Where is he?"

"He is with Ana's best friend Olivia and is resting peacefully. Ana has been racked with guilt over telling you this, especially her Nonna. She didn't want you to be as hurt as she was and still is. It's a hard thing she has had to bear alone for far too long."

"Leave her Nonna to me, but how are you both, it seems this is all new to you Christian? You seem to be a little lost?"

"It is very raw as I have just learned about him myself, and we are very emotional about him, we are doing this together and Ana is helping me to cope and I in return I hope am being the shoulder she needs to lean on."

"I see, well I don't see not really, I mean how did you not know about him?"

"I didn't tell him, not until recently. He and I were a silly one night thing and the baby was a consequence of it. Christian and I had different roads to travel Nonno, and until recently we never crossed paths again."

"So, my Bambino, she had a Bambino?"

"I did, I really did. Are you angry?"

"Yes and no. I am upset not angry. I understand affairs of the heart more with age. So Christian, your intentions towards my granddaughter are what exactly?" I shuffle uneasily.

"I would hope that one day she and I would if she wants to that is, I mean we have talked about living together, but I have been rethinking my future and I would like her very much to consider marrying me, at some point in our all too busy future." Ana smiles, her grandfather nods his head, wow do I ask for his approval? I guess I do... "So, do I have your permission to ask her?"

"Yes as long as my little girl is happy, then who am I to stand in her way?"

"Nonno, you mean that?"

"Of course, I am not the ogre of the family, she is back at the house and she will be angry and upset. Leave her to me. Now, what was my angel child called?"

"I called him Christian, Nonno. He was a beautiful little boy." He holds her hand, just as I receive a call. "Go take it Christian; I will explain it all to Nonno. Go, go take your call."

"Get yourselves a drink, I won't be long." Luke is hovering about on his phone and I walk past him to take the call, Taylor is on his phone, my aren't we busy today? I don't see a caller number and I stupidly answer it. "Hello, Christian Grey..."

Leila, and she has me on my knees...

"Sir, I am sorry to call you." I recognise the voice, fuck no, I am suddenly hit by a bout of nausea. "Sir, are you there? Master..." Now I wish I had not answered it.

"Leila, what do you want?"

"Sir, has news for me?"

"Stop with the master and sir thing and no I have no news for you. Leila what do you want from me?"

"I want to know why I was not good enough but she is; but perhaps you could start by telling me why my aunt has died alone and in prison?"

"Yes she is dead, and she was in prison for having sex with under aged boys, one of whom happened to be the chief of Police's grandson, so she brought her stop in prison on herself. Now what do you want Leila?"

"I don't know what I want, I am confused but I want to come home to you Master, and I want to be as we were again Sir, I want to serve you and you alone, get rid of the new girl. I will do anything you want of me; you can beat me till I bleed for being a bad girl." Oh hell no... I signal Taylor and he comes to my side. He listens and I am in shock.

"Leila, what we had ended a long time ago..." Taylor nods and he makes another call. I would think Welch and Barney will be busy? "You are married, go and talk to your husband."

"He left me Sir, he sleeps." He sleeps? He left her? What has happened to her, she seems to be under the influence of some sort of drug, or she is drunk?

"Leila, listen to me, do not do anything stupid. Go and see John and he will help you; he will give you the support you need. Go and see him Leila. Where are you?"

"I am outside our home. I want to come in to see you but they will not let me in. You have changed the numbers and have locked me out Master."

"Leila, it is my home not ours. You and I are no longer anything Leila to each other, you are not my submissive, you will never be my girlfriend and you are not to try to get into my apartment again."

"I have nowhere else to go. Your child and I have nowhere else to turn to." I gulp. Taylor shakes his head.

"No... Leila you and I have never had a child, we were over years ago. We are still over we cannot have made a child together. How did you get this number?" I don't have to ask its the number Elena had. How does she have it?

"I had to go and see Aunt Elena, we need a roof over our head our son and I, but they would not let me into her home, they say you own it Sir..."

"Leila, stop where you are and I will have John pick you up and get you some help."

"No, no I don't think I want help. Tell your servant to let me in and make my room ready for our son. I will be waiting for you at home. Don't be late." Is she mad or delusional?

"Leila, I am not going to be in Seattle for a while, so the apartment is empty and Gail, she is not a servant and she is not there, she is with her sister in Chicago. We do not have a son Leila, it is an impossibility Leila." I cannot have her hurt Gail, I won't allow her in, not after she tried to take her own life there, history will not repeat itself tonight.

"He is here with me, if you do not believe me then please, ask the security on the door, they will tell you we are real." I am now panicking. I mute the call.

"Where is she Taylor?"

"Outside Escala, with a child yes, but he is not yours sir, the child is the one she had with her husband, David Thomas, the boy is called Adam and David he has sole custody of him, as Leila was in and out of their lives and rehab all the time and the last thing we knew, she was with her long-term boyfriend Scott Thomas, his brother, well she was when we last checked in on her. I am having David Thomas contacted and John is on his way to admit her to the psychiatric unit, she is in a manic state according to the security at Escala, the boy is crying and they are both disheveled and dirty, and I would guess hungry? I am having Scott Thomas traced by Welch now."

"Is she capable of doing their son harm?"

"Sir, that is why her husband has him, she is unstable most of the time. He hasn't seen her for three years, I am on the phone to him now, and he is now worried too, because she took their son from school and fled. There is an amber alert out for Adam; unfortunately she is capable of anything if she is off her medication Sir."

"How has she got like this?"

"We don't know, and neither does her husband, as she left her husband and son soon after their son's birth five years ago, she had a bad time after she'd had him and the prior medication was then not working, it seems she just rode off into the sunset with her brother-in-law, and obviously he hasn't seen her or his brother since that day. Hold on Sir we have more news." I pace the damned room. Fuck me it never just bloody rains for me, it bloody pours on my bloody parade.

"I hardly doubt the boyfriend is taking care of her, is he there?"

"No, we have just found out he was killed in a home invasion six months ago, and we believe because of this catastrophic life event she it seems is having some sort of psychotic break down now. Leila started calling you at Grey House and at Escala earlier today, I would think after they informed her of her aunts passing and it tipped her over the edge, she just keeps asking for the master over and over, we cannot trace the calls as she isn't on long enough, and she could be using burner cells, but this last call has her outside Escala. Keep her talking until John gets there Sir."

"Why am I just hearing this now?"

"Because in the last stock check she was doing well and selling her paintings and photographs. We had no cause to be concerned and yes we had Adam Thomas checked, and he is in fact David Thomas's boy and not yours."

I knew he couldn't be as she had a full health check after she slit her wrists, and seeing her in her room in the tub dying because I didn't want her, yes it shocked me and that is when the change started in me, after Leila tried to kill herself. I guess I owe her something, I do owe her something, and I will get her the best care possible. She was far more damaged than fucking Elena said she was.

"John is on the scene, Sir talk to her tell her to go with him and you will go to see her."

"I will help her but I am not going to her Taylor, ever. Save the boy first and foremost Taylor, save the boy." I put the call back through to my phone and put it on speaker.

"Leila, Leila are you there. Leila..."

"Sir, the man is shouting at me, tell him to stop shouting at me." I nod to Taylor and he calls Escala security who are the ones shouting at her. "Good they have stopped. John is here, Dr Flynn, what are you doing here?"

"Mr Grey has asked me to take care of you until he gets back into Seattle. Will you come with me Leila?"

"Who will look after little Christian..." I throw up when I hear her say my son's name. "He needs to see his father. He is missing his father."

"How about we have these security men here take him to Mr Grey's apartment and he can wait there for his father, Dr Grey is coming to check up on him and will stop with the boy until then?"

"He will get to see his grandmother?"

"He will see Dr Grey and I will try to get you all better again, would that be okay Leila?"

"I guess so, I am so tired John, so very tired. Christian go with these men and be a good boy for your grandmother..." I hear the child sob and I hear they have him and instantly relax.

"Good, security have your son and will see to his needs now, how about we get you some hot food, a bath and a change of clothes, you look like you need to sleep too."

"I do, I need to see Christian too."

"All in good time Leila, all in good time." The phone call ends and Taylor is informed we have the boy and Gail is going to get him and keep him safe until his father can get to him. Leila is sedated and on her way to John's private clinic. I slump in a chair.

"What was all that about Jason?" He looks shocked that I called him by his first name, but it just slipped out and using his given name was not the worst thing that had happened today, no that was Leila using my son's name.

"She was always unbalanced Sir. You knew this." I did, he's right but at the time she was what I needed she took everything I dished out and like Oliver asked for more. It is then I realise I was one sick fuck up, only I wasn't the one on medication. Perhaps I should have been?

"When John calls have him get her any treatment anywhere she needs it, and bill me for it personally and have David taken to Escala."

"He is being picked up as we speak; the police in New York are taking him to the airport, where we have a plane awaiting him."

"Have my mother see to Adam, should he need treatment, and make sure he has everything he needs too. Please?"

"Gail is already on it and is mothering the little chap. He will be fine Sir." I nod.

"I have to get back, but anything that concerns Leila could I ask that you deal with it?"

"Sir, consider it dealt with." I head back to see Ana and her grandfather hugging. He is not looking at me like he wants my nuts in a bag and my head served on a silver platter, with the all important apple in my mouth. He looks upset but then again so did I when I found out about him.

"Did you manage to sort it all out Christian?" Ana asks.

"Yes, it was just a little trouble at Escala, now how are you both?"

"We are fine Mr Grey."

"Please call me Christian."

"Christian, what are your true intentions toward my granddaughter?"

"As I said, I hope to see a marriage in our future. If her grandmother does not want to kill me?"

"Leave her to me. Now, I was going to play golf for a while, Nonno is trying to outdo our neighbours with a lavish firework display for Ana's birthday, she has the grandest of parties planned and there is lots of wine to be had. I am here to escape the madness. She will be expecting you in two days Ana and in those two days I shall tell her about my great grandson. It is best she hears it from me, because she did not take too kindly to the news about your imminent arrival from my daughter.

However, she changed when she held you, but changed again when she heard you were to be given to the Lambert's to raise. I understood why and I agreed with her decision. Carla has not had a good role model for a mother and lacks the know how to be one, but she is a good friend to have, and perhaps as you are older now a friend is what you need her to be and she is an amazing woman and asks about you all the time Ana, all the time?"

"I liked her, once I listened to her. Carla was remarkably up front about not having the mothering gene within her. For that I am thankful, she said she really loved my father but she never said they were married. I wonder why they kept it secret?"

"He wanted an open marriage, he loved his groupie girlfriends and she was willing to put up with it because she loved him, please do not put up with it Ana and you Christian, do not ask that of her, if you are half the man she says you are, I gather I can entrust her health and happiness to you?"

"You can Sir..."

"I think Nonno is fine, Sir is a little too formal for me, now lets you and me whilst we play golf. Ana tells me we get a family discount here now?"

"She did, did she? Well I guess the D'Acciaio's get the same family discount as Elliot an my father then. Free is a discount they both love."

"I like it too, but don't worry Marco and I are the only ones who play golf, whilst the other two sit in the bar. When we see Ray that is? I expect to see him at the wedding though."

"Nonno, if we get married, it's not a big family thing." He smiles.

"So, let's get to the first tee, I have many questions Christian, many, many questions. Ana, if you need to go to the bakery, do it now as Nonna is at home, she usually goes every morning to check up on things."

"Good to know I have to get into the kitchens anyway. I will message Uncle Wolf to meet me there, he will sit and we can talk and sort out the concert and the rehearsals."

"Ana..."

"Yes Christian?"

"Will you be okay?" I ask.

"Yes, the hardest part is over now, and who is my grandmother to lecture me when she has lived her life as she has. I at least had the baby of a man I loved and I am now back with that same man."

"Right, keep your eyes peeled for her Nonna, Sawyer and make sure you..."

"Sir, go and play golf and let me do what I do best." I see Taylor smirk as he picks up my clubs, just for that you can caddy for me Jason Taylor... I head out after receiving a chased kiss from her soft lips.

"Remember to lose gracefully..." I head down with Nonno...

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So Nonna is not a placid little Italian Grandmother...

Nonno is a good and kind man and likes Christian...

Gawd help Christian with Nonna...

Then I have added in the Leila thing. There will be more with her too...

SO... Please read and review... I am more inclined to write more if I get more lol...


	25. Chapter 25

This story is nowt like fifty; I just purloined E.L. James's characters buildings and some other stuff... You have been so very good with your comments and reviews, keep them coming please, I know lots of you read this, but not a lot of you review... I like to see the notifications ping into my in box, it makes me want to write more...

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Dreaming of Chocolate and Grey:

Chapter 25:

Good grief Nonna, I said no:

I watch as my Nonno takes Christian to play golf, and for his sake I hope he lets him win. I sort out my laptop, my journal and grab my phone. Sawyer is outside the suites main door and looks a tad fraught.

"Penny for them, or as we are here in America, a dime for them?" He looks lost. "For your thoughts, what's worrying you really Luke?"

"Nothing is worrying me Ana. I just can't seem to get things right no matter what I do."

"Is this the girlfriend thing?"

"Sort of, and sort of not. She's called time on our relationship, because I will be working more and travelling more, you know with you?"

"I am sorry Luke; I swear I was fine with just Holly, helping me out, if it is my fault, then I really am sorry."

"Don't be, she met me when I worked for Mr Grey so she knows the game I am in. Her loss is someone else's gain. I guess?"

"Have you been with her long?"

"Four years, sort off, I mean it's been an on again and off again thing because of work, she is, sorry she was, just too needy, and I always told her I was not one for being full time boyfriend. I love my job and she knew that from the get go."

"I'm sorry. I guess when Holly gets here you could go back to Seattle and try to sort it out with her?"

"No... I have had it trying to justify my life with her. I don't think being a single man for a while will do me any harm, I am free to do as I please now and I am not as upset as I thought I would be, so please do not worry, I think I am ready and actually overdue some single man time."

"Okay, but if you change your mind I am not a bossy bully boss."

"I thank you for clarifying that. Where are we going to first Ana?"

"The bakery... I need to create whilst the chaos in my head is still fresh." He smiled and we too headed to the garage. I gather Christian has a car waiting for us. We travel to the bakery and when I get there I notice Nonna is coming out of it, blast it, just when I thought the coast was clear too. "Luke, drive around I am not ready to see my grandmother just yet." As we drive around Calabasas I notice the many changes here and they are not all good.

"Ana, do you think it is safe to go back?" Luke says as we pass the same things three times.

"Yes and if she is there I will talk to her and have done with it." We pull up and thankfully she is no longer here. Why I am afraid of her I do not know, especially hearing that all my mother had told me about her was true. I idolised her and now she is nothing more than the others, others who want the things I have worked for and things that are mine. Luke pulls up and I head in. He will park up and follow. I smile at the workers beavering away and head to the back store. Past the bakery and the kitchens and head into the small factory, built and furnished to make and distribute my chocolate and candy lines around the region.

"Hello everyone, please carry on I just need a table and a set of whites, is Molly in the back?"

"Yes Ma'am, she is seeing to an order for a special birthday cake."

"From Nonna?"

"I wasn't supposed to say, but yes." Luke is behind me and I swear there isn't a woman or a girl, customer or staff here with their tongue still in their mouth. I doubt he will be short of admirers.

"Thank you, carry on oh and this is Luke. Can you please see to it he has coffee and sandwiches. Luke I am just going to change, shout out if the ninja assassins come for me." He smiles.

"Yes Ma'am." I go to see Molly Simms the chief of operations here at the House of D'Acciaio, Calabasas...

"Hi Molly, it is only me..."

"Ana, thank god I was just about to call you, your grandmother is..."

"...A nightmare and a pain in the arse?"

"Sorry but yes, she wants to add in more tiers into the cake she ordered last week, because apparently the Greeks are having a seven tier engagement cake, so she has been in again and added another four onto yours, it is to be ten tier silver creation, I talked her out of twenty five individual monstrosities she had planned."

"Molly, hold off on the cake all together please. I am not stopping here for my birthday. Now anything other than my grandmother bothering you?"

"No, the figures are up, the orders are mad crazy, everyone out here wants a better cake than their neighbours, so the cake teams are always busy."

"Good, the cafe and confectionary?"

"There is amazing interest in your new lines, there have been several enquiries about your new book too and a reporter from a newspaper keeps coming in to speak to you."

"Okay well I just need the test kitchen for a couple of hours and Luke out there to be fed and kept in coffee."

"Luke?"

"My security, since I bought the House of Hyde from Jack, it's been a little challenging and we are afraid he will try to get back at me." Luke walks in and nods his head.

"Ma'am, Miss Lambert Mr Wolfenden is pulling up."

"Okay Luke, send him in Luke Sawyer, meet Molly Simms my manager here. Molly meet Luke my CPO, oh and look whose turned up. Uncle Wolfe, you're here."

"It would seem I am, now young lady we need to be rehearsing, we have a week before the big day and you have yet to do any. Is this the boy?"

"No Uncle Wolfe, this is Luke Sawyer my protection officer, and general shadow. Luke this is my uncle Andrew. Andrew Wolfe Wolfenden, Luke here is a fan." I watch Luke goes as moo eyed over my uncle as the shop girls are doing.

"It's an honour to meet you Sir..."

"Less of the Sir, call me Wolfe, so they are having you guard my niece, is she in much danger?"

"We are fairly certain, if she sticks to Taylors protocols then she will be fine Sir, I mean Wolf."

"Good to know, good to know. Now, why are you here and not at home? Could it be something to do with Miss Carla returning?" Luke goes to finish his sandwich and coffee, it seems I have too many waitresses on shift. "Ana, Uncle Wolfe is speaking to you." I snap out of watching Luke. "Do you like the boy?"

"Uncle Wolfe, you know there is only one man for me."

"Only one I am most hurt. I am sure Nonno will be hurt and the uncles and your cousins too."

"You know what I mean. No Luke is a great person to have watching me and he is security not my next dalliance. Right I am here because of what my mother told me, and most of it Nonno confirmed to be true, how could you do that, have me bad mouth her all my life?"

"It's how she wanted it, and if I remember rightly I have always told you to quit it she was still your mother, and I might add when you took it too far you were threatened with an ass slapping."

"Oh yeah, I forgot about those times. So what was their wedding like?" He turned a rosy pink colour. "Nonno told me, it seems you all hid things from me."

"It was a spur of the moment thing, we were at the clinic and your dad had just seen your first scan, and he was a tad emotional. I mean he'd seen the photos things before, but when he walked out of the room with your mother, he sort of changed he looked like a sappy moron. We met up with your grandparents; for lunch and no Nonno was never invited they didn't like her attitude much. We went straight to the courthouse got the licence and zapped through the first drive through wedding chapel, Your mother was ecstatic, Nonno he was happy and Mimi and Frank were thankful Fran had grown up a little. It was to be an open marriage, but she was happy he had committed to her. So she signed paperwork and all was good with them."

"I never understood the use of the pre nup, its like you are setting yourself and your marriage to fail." I say as I stare into his eyes for some sort of lie to be told.

"What for she was rich to begin with and she knew he would still be into his groupies, but he was sure looking forward to meeting you."

"What about the blood tests, why have them if he was so sure I was his and he married her?"

"Legalities. They needed to, though I never doubted it for one moment, she loved your father."

"She didn't like me much though."

"No Ana, she did, but she was devastated when your father died, she was so screwed up, when she came round after she had you the first person she asked about was him. You were we thought going to bring her around, but she was so lost. She started taking her pain meds too often and she was depressed at the loss of Fran."

"She said as much herself, and the rest is history. So rehearsing when do we start?"

"We sweet cheeks started two weeks ago. I will pick you up at eight in the morning. Now any more questions?"

"Nope..."

"I gather Nonna is not aware you are here for a reason?"

"Yup..."

"You are very monosyllabic today Missy..."

"Hu?"

"I rest my case, so what's eating you Ana, you are not normally so distracted in your kitchen?"

"I have to tell you something and I don't know how to, okay?" I say to him and wonder how the hell he will take the news about my son? I hope he takes the news as well as Nonno did.

"I don't and won't know until you tell me Missy, so free your head and your heart of this worrisome thing."

"When I said I went to Italy, you know after I finished college, well I didn't go, well not straight after, after I'd finished college I told everyone I was on a course in Italy, but I stopped in the London house, I stopped inside, hidden away because I had a secret I was keeping from everyone. I went to see my grandparents in the beginning as you know, but in the final months when it was too hard to hide I had to stop inside, to hide away and just be on my own, I was a little messed up and lonely and so depressed and worried about what everyone would say, besides my grandparents, can you imagine the press, Larry Lamb is to be a grandfather?"

"So you hid out and didn't share this news with anyone? So what was the news, I would hazard a guess as to a pregnancy?"

"How?"

"Listen I saw you pilling on the pounds, but I figured you'd ask for help and when you didn't I thought I was wrong, and you we just that, depressed. So did you have the baby adopted?" I then explained everything to Uncle Wolfe. It seems he is upset at Christian and he is mad at me for not telling him, I guess I had that coming. "So, when did he find out about the little one?"

"At the New York opening, Jack Hyde spilled my secret and he was a little shocked and sad. I don't blame him, it was all my fault. Everything I did that night I seduced him was my doing. It seems my mother and I have the same genes."

"So, is he okay with all this? I mean has he done anything to upset you Missy?"

"No, in fact we are serious about each other and I am moving my head office to Seattle. I am moving in with him too. We have this amazing connection and I guess Christian. Our baby has brought us closer together and I feel alive for the first time since my son died. Now with my mother and Nonno telling me the truth I feel it's time for a shake up at D'Acciaio's House of Chocolate. I am finally going to break it into subsidiaries and get people to help me and reward those who have stopped by me and helped me. My Uncle Ray will be given Asia to run, my cousins Europe and I will continue with America. It's time I lived a little and not just in chocolate and dreams."

"Amen to that, I have always said you work too hard and need more help. So, what will Nonna say to all this?"

"She will have to watch what she says, they may be afraid of her, but I am not. She has lied to me all my life, you all did and now I want truth and honesty and nothing more."

"Nothing Missy?"

"Christian and a happy and more relaxed life is all I want. I will still be working and running my business but with more help."

"I guess you have a few more answers Ana. Look I have some PR to do, please do not forget you are needed in the rehearsal rooms tomorrow. Okay?"

"Yes, I will be there, I have one song to learn and I have sang it every day and for many years."

"You could sing all of them with us?"

"I am not Larry Lamb, I am just his daughter and so I think one song is enough."

"If you say so. Tickets? How many do you need?"

"A dozen. I have Christian and his family, security Nonno and if Nonna comes her, I hope Holly can get here too."

"She arrives tomorrow, but it's a secret. Now I have to be going. I have plenty to think about and a man to talk to."

"Christian does not need talking to. Uncle Wolfe he is fine and he makes me happy, very happy." He smiled kissed my head and went to his meeting and I also knew he would go to see Christian, because I knew he would ignore me.

I got my ingredients together and decided on an afternoon of being a chocolatiere, I had perfected Christian's Mojito and the general consensus in the kitchen was they were all amazing. I could now add back into my chocolate lines my original chocolate, the Elegant Russian, it was now mine again. I still made them for friends and to keep my hand in, but now I felt amazing that they were mine and I felt like the sixteen year old who made them in the back of bakery in Soho, with Olivia. I sat and read through my journal and wondered what else I could invent today? Today I was Ana, Master Chocolatiere and enjoying it. I tempered a small amount of chocolate the old fashioned way and moulded four trial trays of ready to go into production Cocktail Chocolates, the Mint and Coconut Mojito, a light Strawberry Mousse Daiquiri, a tasty Bellini, and the Aviator. Coconut, strawberry, peach and violet. Now for some experimenting, the fun part. I go to the store cupboard and take put some supplies and create, Luke brings me in cups of tea and sits and watches me. I do a very nice Margarita and White Russian.

"How do you do this and stay so slim?"

"I am not a lover of chocolate, I eat it to taste that's it."

"What are these frames for?"

"They are ganache frames, usually used in cake making, but I use them for small test batches. I live in an exciting world Luke Sawyer, stick by me and watch as these handmade chocolates go into mass production." He watches as create. I start to layer the White Russian; first the cream fondant, made with the Kaluha Ganache and the rich dark thin slices of chocolate cake, and then finish it off with a cheeky and tasty vodka fondant. I chill the mix and then slice with the guitar cutter into bite sized pieces, then I stab each of them with a fork and dip it in the shiny white chocolate. I pipe a small chocolate frill on top and set the tray aside.

I do the same with the Pina Colada, I layer a slice of coconut and white rum infused cake, on top of that slices of a coconut caramel and a pineapple fondant. These are cut into diamonds and I set these aside. I seem to have been here just a short time when I pull off the final chocolate candy of the day a Mango Daiquiri; it is a simple two part fondant of mango and one of white rum. All placed in a dark chocolate shell.

I clear my work station and wash up and tidy away and the staff still here come in to taste the samples. As they taste I jot down everything in my journal. I watch as the three trays of each of the chocolate slowly empty.

"So what do you think?" Luke smiles.

"You need a whiskey one and a Sea Breeze and you have a hit."

"I have a great Whiskey Sour already in production and a Sea Breeze has been mastered already as have the Martini ones, both the apple and the dirty. So, I can send my list to Jose and get samples into a limited production."

"Do you ever stop?"

"I didn't, but I think I may be slowing down. Wow is that the time? Give me a minute to change and I will be out and ready for home. I mean the hotel and food."

"Mr Grey has called and he has just arrived at the hotel, your grandfather won and is heading home happy."

"Good." I do a quick change and head to the hotel. As we head in I see my man drinking at the bar. He looks to be struggling with something.

"Ana, how did it go today?"

"It was productive, I told Uncle Wolfe about Christian too. Why do you look worried, did Nonno worry you?"

"I have something to share with you and it's not good."

"Ouch as in you are having second thoughts?" He grabs my hand and drags me to the room. "Christian, what the hell?" We are in the elevator and as we ride up, he presses me against the wall.

"No, never..." His mouth finds mine and his kiss is needy and very nice.

"Wow. What happened?"

"I got a call earlier from Leila and yes she's an ex..."

"Mrs Lincolns niece?"

"The same, she took her child to GEH and tried to pass him off as mine, she was deranged." We are in our suite and he goes to the bar and pours me an orange and vodka, he has another whiskey.

"As in she can be helped?" We sit and he stares into the glass.

"Yes, as in she is being helped as we speak. She really lost the plot and I didn't want to keep it from you, he isn't my child and is now back with his father. I have arranged for him and his father to be moved to a more secure location whilst she is in rehab."

"Is that fair on her?" I ask, because keeping a child from his mother is awful.

"Ana, she hasn't seen him since she left her husband when he was born and she terminated her parental rights. Then a couple of days ago she took him from school and hitched a ride to Seattle, she was high and had starved the poor boy, he was afraid of the crazy lady keeping him from his father."

"Oh god, the poor boy. Is she going to be a problem for you?"

"No, she and I were good for a few months but..."

"...She was the one who slit her wrist, yes?"

"Yes. I couldn't remember if I told you about her or not. She is getting help; apparently hearing about Elena pushed her over the edge. He boyfriend, who she left her husband and child for, he died in a home invasion and this was the final straw for her."

"Oh... I mean I feel sorry for her, but to take her son away from his home, and to try to pass him off as yours. He isn't is he?"

"No, but this is what fucked me up she called him Christian, he is really called Adam by the way, but hearing her say my son's name aloud turned my stomach Ana."

"Are you okay now?" I ask as I slide onto his knee. "Is there anything I can do?"

"Just be here for me. I missed you today."

"Did you have a good game?"

"I lost and I wasn't trying to. He plays a mean game your Nonno. He is nice too, very nice and I can see why you love him; he loves you and your mother. You were all he talked about, you and our son."

"Is he angry?"

"No, he like us is sad he isn't here with us. He and I had a few drinks at the club house and then I came here. He said he will tell your Nonna tomorrow."

"I don't like his chances of getting it all out before she flies here."

"We won't be here. I am taking you to your rehearsal and then we are going to lunch with the band."

"We are? Did Uncle Wolfe come to see you?"

"He did, he like your Nonna was very forgiving of my failures."

"Oh Angel you didn't fail me. You never have."

"Ana I will spend my life making it up to you, I promise."

"Okay, that I like, Now what are we doing tonight for food, because I am starving."

"How about you choose?"

"Okay, how about we eat in here and laze around and talk about the holiday that is not a honeymoon?"

"I was asked by Wolfe what my intentions were. Ana can we seriously talk about this some other day?"

"Okay."

"You are doing a lot of agreeing with me Baby. You don't have to you know, agree with me?" He says as he gives me that sexy grin of his.

"I do agree with you this time, you have a lot on your mind and I am just happy being here with you. Now I need a bath, because I smell of chocolates."

"You smell amazing, and you smell like you have been in a bar all day." I smile and sashay my way to the bathroom.

"I made my cocktails and they are amazing I have sent them to testing and pre production. Hopefully I have done it in time for next Spring break and for the taste of summer."

"Good. Do you need company in there?" I popped my head around the corner and smiled. "I see the look, so I guess that was one of my more stupid of questions?"

"Yeah, so why are you still clothed?" He walked towards me stripping as he did. "My oh my you have missed me..."

"I told you I had already. Now, where were we? Argh yes we were going to get rid of that chocolate and booze smell my woman has. Where to begin?" I giggled and ran for the cover of the shower, which was a fruitless task as my man grabbed me by the backside and held me hostage until I too had stripped. Mr Grey is a man on a mission, to lick the smell of chocolate from me.

"You have to make me chocolates that taste just of you Ana..."

"Urgh..." He roared with laughter and began kissing my neck as he held me close.

"I missed you Ana..." He kissed along my shoulders and I felt the proof of his missing me too, as his hardness was attacking me in a very sensual way, yup the snake and him are sure one hell of a charmer...

"Did you now; well good because I missed you too, now continue with the kissing and the hugging, I particularly missed this." My arms get free and I make my way to the snake. "I call this a very good welcome home." I drop to my knees.

"Ana, no... Lets shower and see to each other's needs under water." He leans down, picks me up and carries me to the over sized shower. With one free hand he sets the jets and we step under the flow of hot water. "You don't always have to be the first to do the pleasing Baby."

"Hey, I will have you know, Mr Stud Muffin, I get plenty of enjoyment from that particular thing."

"As do I, now kiss me and shut up."

"Yes Sir..." I smile and pull his lips to mine and as I kiss him, he moves me and then he holds me over his shaft. "Oh, yes Sir..." I purr as his snaky hard shaft is begging entrance.

I open up to him and as we kiss our bodies get as close to one another as they possibly can. My legs are wrapped tightly around him and as we get lost in our kisses our joined bodies barely move, and there doesn't seem the great need to either, how the hell can just his hard length inside me be enough? I don't know how long we were joined or how long we kissed, but when his lips left mine, it felt like I was naked, well to be fair I was and I am in fact... He smiled and then moved not much but enough to set my sex a tingling. I could feel the pulse in his dick we were that close, and that immersed in each other. Nothing was rushed nothing was laboured, slowly slow and stop were the actions and I swear I have never felt so joined as we are now and given what we have done I am shocked that it feels so good. He sighs and peppers my breasts with kisses and suckles at my nipple. Oh god he's killing me Sloth Style... Yes please...

"Why Miss Ana, was that a groan?"

"Hu, that was not Christian, that was an oh god... Oh, god, oh god, oh fucking god." He continued to suckle and stab at my sex like he was inflicting a kinky new pain on me and boy was it working, how the hell does he have the will power to resist sexing me into a wild oblivion? I groan again as I feel myself coming, and in yet another new and existing way, I am in a shower being slowly sexed to death. I grip his shoulder hard with my teeth and as I feel myself slowly begin to come to the boil, I grip at anything to ease this maddening throb at my sex, it hurts, but it's nice, its hot but it's cold and as I feel my cup runneth over, I groan loudly for someone to kill me.

"All in good time Baby, all in good time..."

I come hard and pull his hair, bite his shoulder and buck like my sex has caught fire and he is the only one than can douse the flames. I scream, cry and groan as he continues with his Sloth like killing of me. Then as I start to come again, I think I may have gripped the snake in a death grip because he screams for freedom and I lose it as the second orgasm he gives me in as many minutes, is off the planet amazing. I thrust like I am punishing him and his dick and as I do he begins to cuss and cry, how can something so gentle suddenly turn into an all out war? When I feel him getting bigger and close I kiss him, after releasing my grip and my teeth let go of his shoulder He comes hard and fast and I am exhausted as my last orgasm seemed to make my sex pulse forever, and with each pulse there was an oh god from the man in the shower with me.

"What was that? Besides amazing and different?"

"That was a very relaxing shower Anastasia, very relaxing."

"You killed me. Mr Sloth..."

"I told you not everything has to be rushed Baby. Now get yourself washed, we have to either eat out or have room service."

"We do?"

"How much have you eaten?"

"Okay we do, can we stop in and snuggle and watch a movie?"

"Yes, we have to talk anyway, because your grandfather says your grandmother is planning something to match the fourth of July celebrations for your birthday."

"I cancelled the cake and I also cancelled the fireworks team too, I had them send it to the local hospital for their patients there. I am not going to be here for it, after the concert we are going straight to the airport and back to Seattle. Uncle Wolfe has ordered your family tickets, should they want to come and I have told him I am not happy at secrets. Nonna will be told what I want an what I need when I am ready to face her. But whilst I was creating I have decided to split the company into continents and manage just America myself. Asia is too far for me so Ray will oversee that as COO, of D'Acciaio's Asia and Australasia and Europe will be over seen by James until he retires and then by then the boys, who will have had some time at helping and learning from him by then."

"Surely this means the boys then get your company?"

"Nope, the company will always be mine, but this way they also get to help me run it with their own rewards. They all just take a salary, a good salary but this way they will have a stake in the firm they helped me build. Nonna may have had her own agenda, but this way I am doing it my way, and on my terms."

"How did they get the small bakery?"

"Uncle Salvador, he left it to my mother. It was had a grace and favour tenancy attached to it, so they got to live there rent free for the rest of their lives, but somehow she pissed of Carla, and as they were then living in Daddies house by then, she used a legal caveat in his will to get them out and to sell the bakery, I had enough in my trust fund to buy it from her, me not them. Another tale she span me by Nonna, she just wanted the bakery it was all lies, my mother was happy for her father to run it, Nonna just wanted my big house there. Which she got."

"So you have always owned the bakery, you and your mother that is?"

"Yes, I was eighteen when it became mine; though I bought it when I was fifteen with the help of Papa Frank. I guess Nonna asked and he said yes? Though she wanted it in her name, but it was left in trust for me until I was eighteen. I had a lot of properties left in trust for me. Until I did the business side of my training I wasn't sure what I had. Papa helped me and then when he had his stroke, Eamon Kavanagh he helped me, he was very aware of my daily needs and the needs of the businesses left to me by Papa. I mean he even invested my book money and the cash I received from the sale of Lust and its premiums. I just knew I had enough of my own money without all this."

"You were a millionaire before me Baby." He smiles and the sponge comes out and he cleans me, it seems we are still very dirty...

"It wasn't a race you could have ever won Christian; I was born a millionaire, Angel." I sob.

"I'm sorry Ana, I was just thinking aloud and Baby, when I came to Otter Island, you know to celebrate my starting my company on a sound and solid footing, debt free and at last happy to have proved people wrong, we made our baby too. I am sorry I wasn't sober Ana. If I could change it I would, even if it meant I had to give up GEH, please know that I would..." I swear I nearly killed him with kisses. No matter how much he says he's sorry, each time it hurts me more, because I know how much I fucked up. The old tune on an old record plays its bumpy recording, again...

"Don't be, I'd give it all up tomorrow for one day with him living and breathing, you know? I'd give it all up for just one day with my father and my son. I always wanted to meet my dad, and now he and Ollie are looking out for our boy until we can."

"Why did you not bury him with your father?"

"I couldn't, not because I didn't want to, I did, but because Ollie couldn't go, remember I had them buried together because she couldn't come here.. Besides, if I am to believe what I am told, they are reunited in death no matter where their bodies are, and this is now a very morbid conversation."

"It is, but I was just asking. So where is your father buried?"

"Oh god really? He is in Woodland Lawn and it is where they are too, Papa and Mimi? It's nothing too big and gruesome, in fact unless you knew where they were, you wouldn't easily find it. It's just three slabs in the grass."

"I want a burial at sea."

"Okay, then... We went from amazing out of this world sex to burial places. Yes, I will be going to see them so if you want to come and have a few words then you may come with me and at sea? That sounds too far from Christian."

"Where do the fans think he is buried Ana, then I promise there will be no more questions I just find this all too curious."

"Okay, they think he was taken back to Scotland, but alas he was buried here. I don't know why I guess this is where he lived? He loved the sun. Where is your mother Christian?"

"I don't know I have never asked about her. I guess in Detroit, where I was born? I'd have to ask my mother and father."

"Oh..." How sad that he hasn't a notion as to where the lady who birthed him is. I say no more as the sponge has been dropped and he is making his way out of the shower stall. I would guess we are too morbid in our thoughts for anything more? I too climb out and wrap myself in a towel. I am about to rub dry my hair when he comes in and does it for me.

"Sorry Baby, I just had really never thought about it before, ever..." He rubs my head in a such a soothing way I could fall asleep, he obviously has thought about her at some point in his life, and I guess our talk has him thinking about death and what it means to him.

"Hey, its fine. Did I tell you if you want to quit GEH and become my personal body servicer, you can? Because Mr Grey, this head rub is amazing."

"Ha, thanks, but no thanks, I may have been wrongly pegged as gay because of these pampering sessions I offer the select few, but no, even I am not mad enough to give it all up to be at your beck and call Madam. Now, put on your Pj's and get your man his dinner ordered, he is starving." And just like that he is back in the room, and is as large as life.

"Who got these head rubs and shoulder rubs?"

"Mom and Gran occasionally Mia, and now you. How was that?"

"Umm, you missed a bit."

"I did? Where?" I pointed and Christian and I had a whole body massage and more fun was had in the bedroom...

Shit a brick, this is Nonna?

Ana and I had a very nice night, loved up and with very few kinks and nagging aches in and on differing parts of our bodies. We fell asleep on the couch in the lounge, whilst watching some girl film she had to see, which we didn't see much of before sleep over came us both. I had been deep in thought about some morbid shit since our shower talk and it worried me slightly. Death comes to us all eventually, but is it right to think about it less than a month into Ana and I finding each other? John Flynn would have a field day with this. I pick her up and place her in the bed, she moans about not getting up for damned school because it's raining? I look out and Calabasas needs some rain, we are not getting it though. I have a quick wash and a shave and as I am finishing off in walks Miss Sleepy head. She looks beautiful even if her face says leave me alone, it's me and pee time... I hear the water flush and she washes her hands and then comes into the bath room.

"Good morning, how are you feeling this sunshiny morning?"

"Oh god, you got out of the bed on the right side didn't you?"

"I find I do as long as I have slept with you the night before Ana."

"Neither of us had a nightmare then?" She asks.

"Nope, but you didn't want to go to school because it was raining again." She looked out of the windows and smiled.

"I guess I was dreaming about the early morning starts in the bakery and then the trip to school. I am fine once I am up, but hell I loved the snooze button. So much so that Nonna, she opened the window one particularly slow morning and she chucked Snoopy right across the road. I woke up with her for months after that, never to sleep in again. True story of the death of my Snoopy alarm clock. Crushed to beneath the wheels of an early morning big red London bus..."

"Ouch."

"I got another for my birthday from Nonno, but it was still left in its box until I left on my world journey. It is still in my house in London. So, what are we doing this morning?"

"I am accompanying you to your rehearsal and then I am doing a few errands and catching up with work."

"Okay then, are we having breakfast here?"

"Already ordered and there is a selection. How would you like to go for a drive this afternoon, when I pick you up from rehearsals?"

"That would be great, where are we going?"

"How about a drive through the Nevada Desert?"

"Um, feeling the wind and the sun in my hair? Yes, that sounds wonderful."

"We can even have dinner there and stop at my Vegas hotel?"

"That sounds good. How many hotels do you have?"

"About a hundred and twenty that are up and running, there are a few more undergoing refurbishment and having new courses designed."

"How many have golf courses?"

"Many..." He answered, then there was a loud bang on the door. I head to the door.

"How rude. Your staff need to be a little less harsh on the doors." I go to answer it and I swear I have never seen Nonna quite so um, unhappy?

"You, you whore of a whore."

"Hello Nonna, how is the would be bride of my birth grandfather?" She rounded up on me with her hand ready to slap. "Now, now Nonna, don't push me if you don't want me to push back. I take it Nonno has told you of my meeting my mother, and about my son?"

"He did and I am so disappointed in you."

"Okay, well there is the door, because disappointment Nonna is a two way street here."

"I am never going to speak to you again after I have told you some home truths, and after today you are dead to me."

"Okay, well that was not what I expected from you, but fine, if that is what makes you feel better about my whole life being a lie then go ahead and cut me from your life. It will be your loss. I will expect you to leave my home by the end of the week then. I am sure your family can put you up?"

"I am leaving. Nonno is coming with me. He will not see you again either."

"I hardly think so Nonna, he still speaks to my mother and he told me yesterday she and I are his family. Did you ask him, or did you presume he would follow you?" Christian is hovering in the background, waiting for her to strike me. I know she won't, she knows I will stop her. She sees him and he is the next target of her wrath...

"You, you impregnated my granddaughter. How can you stand there and not be shame faced Mr Grey? You left her alone to endure her bastards fate alone?"

"I assure you I did no such thing, and our son is not a bastard."

"Like mother like daughter like grandson, three generations of bastards."

"Nonna, please leave. You and I are through and for the record, my mother and father were married when he died and my grandfather and grandmother, they married after the death of his first wife. So, now you are fully informed I expect I shall never see you again. It seems blood does make a family where you are concerned and as we are not blood, we are not family." She is fuming when the second tap at the door occurs. I open it to find Nonno there, out of breath and red faced.

"Ana, is she here? I couldn't stop her she took your car..." I am hugged by Nonno and he kisses my cheeks and the stare he shares with Nonna cannot be missed. "I told her and she hit the roof."

"I can speak for myself."

"And you have probably said too much. Bambino are you okay?"

"Yes Nonno, but your wife is leaving all my homes and going to stay with relatives."

"She is? Good they can have her back..."

"Yes and you are going with her."

"I am?"

"Yes you are, because without me you are nothing Santino D'Acciaio and don't you forget it. And let us not forget I gave you your start little girl and do not forget it I want paying for that before I leave too."

"My real grandmother gave my mother the start, my mother then gave me the wonderful start to my life, you, you just hijacked a ride along for my inheritance. I assume that was what you wanted, my grandfather Salvador's money, property and other things he left her and I?"

She looked at me and she looked nothing like the sweet old lady who raised me, she was gone and in her sted stood a ugly and mean woman, whom I had never seen before and to say I am shocked is an understatement, it's like my legs have been injected with a paralytic and I cannot move. I know there is more to discover about how truly dark Vita D'Acciaio is, but I can honestly say I don't want to spend more time with her than I have to. I will hate losing Nonno, but Nonna Vita will not be a sad loss. For long. The lies have seen to it that I will never respect her again and the part she played in Salvador's sad losses will not be forgotten either.

"He was conned by the best. He was a fool and I worked for that money he left your mother, it was my hard work for my sons not for her or her bastard of an off spring."

"Wow, Mrs D'Acciaio, I want you to leave my hotel and do not step foot near my wife again." I stared.

"Your wife?" She said looking shocked and a tad green.

"Yes my wife... Anastasia Grey. Now Taylor here will show you the way to your cab."I am pleasantly pleased to hear him call me Mrs Grey...

"I came by car."

"My car Nonna, my car."

"Santino, come..."

"No, I think I like it here. I will be here until you have packed your things, then if it is okay with my granddaughter I would like to stay on here?"

"Of course Nonno, you are not going with her?"

"No, no I gave her the option to stay and talk and then to come and see you, I told her this was to be done my way and no other way. Vita here seems to think me still a little weak and under her thumb. I am not a violent man, as you know Vita, perhaps if I were you would have respected me more?" In desperation to save face she is now screaming at Nonno.

"I hated the day I married you. I hated the weak man I married, the man I could not change, I hated my father's choice for me and I hated everything I had to do to make my family secure, my boys love me they will cut you off too, because you were too weak to be their father, they need a strong man to lead them to all they can be and my grandsons will take their place at the head of this families table." Wow...

"Do not mistake my kindness for a weakness Vita. It is a strength, a strength you will never posses. The boys do not want you to turn up at their homes either, it seems all the years I spent raising them whilst you tried to bed my brother were remembered by them as good times. They have been told of my plans and they are standing behind me and their sister Carla and their niece Anastasia." Christian has me in his arms and I am stunned at the woman I once loved stood screaming in Italian at my grandfather. I will be glad when this is all over, for now I know the truth about how she feels about me, it will be easier for me to deal with... My darling Nonna is now no longer a part of my life. My Nonno is standing with me, despite his love for his wife, and for that I am truly thankful, truly thankful and blessed.

"So, this is the end of a long road for me, a road that leads to nowhere a dead end and I can see it is the road I prefer to travel. I will be glad to get home. I will not be a part of your lives any longer. Santino, you have made your choice, I hope you prosper. Goodbye, and you and your whore of a mother will amount to nothing, because you are nothing Anastasia Grey..."

"Nonna, you are so very wrong, the D'Acciaio's, we are family, so we have everything and that is the last time I ever call you by that term of love and endearment, you are now and forever Vita Benedetti. You will be hearing from my lawyers, to make you aware of what is mine, and just so you know which of my property is off limits to you. I will however allow you the one Benedetti Family house in Italy, the one you mistakenly think is yours? That is all you get from Nonno and from me. Goodbye." She walked out and I slumped to the floor. _(BENEDETTI WAS HER MAIDEN NAME!)_

"Bambino..."

"I am fine I am fine Nonno; please tell me Nonno that you are not leaving me?"

"No Little One, never..."

"That was your grandmother was it?"Christian bends down and picks me up. My men fuss over me. The door is knocked on and breakfast has arrived. "Please will you join us Nonno, I ordered plenty?" Christian asked and I smiled at them both.

"Please Nonno; I need to talk to you about money?" I say as I pull him to the dining table they are setting up. Christian called me Anastasia Grey and it felt wonderful...

"I have plenty, more than enough and I always have had. My wineries in Australia and Italy are lucrative. Now what did you order for breakfast, I was up all night arguing with your grand... With Vita." We sat and ate a hearty breakfast and talked. It seems Vita was so wrapped up in my business that she was unaware that the winery thrived and she didn't even know about it.

"So, what are we doing today, she will need a day to pack?" Nonno asked.

"I am rehearsing and Christian is working. We are driving to Vegas to dine tonight."

"You are, good, I am going to enjoy my golf game and perhaps stop here for the night."

"I will get Taylor to get you a room Nonno." Christian tells him.

"No need Son, no need; I have a small room reserved as I was moving out today if she did not. Now this Vegas trip? Does it include a visit to the courthouse?"

"No..." I said...

"Yes..." Christian said.

"Good, big weddings are overrated, but I would like to be there."

"It's a given..." It is? I mean I am still in a state of shock that he had this planned, talk about a roller coaster adventure ride.

"Hold up there Mr Grey, where is my knee drop and my ring and my..." He cut me off.

"...Look out of the window... Please Baby...?" I head to the window and I am stunned... Okay...

"How..."

"They sky write anything these days..." He and Nonno are laughing as I stand gobsmacked and happy.

I look to the sky and there, as big and bright as the daylight there is a plane tailing a massive tail with the words, 'Please will you do me the honour of marrying me Anastasia?' Simple and to the point. I then look down onto the lawn under our room and written in hundreds of tubs containing red roses are the same words. As I stare down with tears in my eyes, what looks to be like a thousand white doves are freed into the sky and a marching band is marching in the car park. They are playing the song I am going to be singing later Hallelujah, and I swear when I turn to shout yes at him he is knelt there holding open a red ring box. Oh hell I am mushy wet and crying...

"From the minute I held your two year old finger in my hand I knew you were special, when you touched me I never realised how deeply you touched me, in my head, in my heart and in my soul. Anastasia Rose Lambert-D'Acciaio the mother of my angel and the woman who I love, will you please do me the honour of marrying me, today, and in the simplest of ceremonies?"

"Yes... Oh lord yes, yes..." He stands and places a beautiful ring on my finger and I swear I have never been happier in my life. "Yes... I dreamt of this happening so many times and now it is happening. Today."

"It seems I am going to my granddaughters wedding, I wonder if my tux still fits, it's been a while?" Nonno says as he pats Christian on the back and hugs me. I swear I am agog and yet deliriously happy... there is a knock on the door and Taylor enters.

"Miss Holly Wolfenden is here." She barges past him and runs at me.

"So Taylor thanks for the intro, but I have come to take my sis to rehearse, I had to get out because the house is like a war zone. Dad and I got out of there as the packing vans came. She is stripping her stuff out of there and has booked passage on a luxury cruise to Italy, what has she done now?"

"She has left me little one and I for one am happy. Now I am going to play golf. Taylor are you up for a round or two?" Nonno says as he looks at Holly and Taylor.

"No Sir..." He looks to Christian from help and gets none. "I hate golf..." Shock horror...

"Christian why don't you have a game with Nonno instead, its tedious in the studio all that sitting around and shouting is not that great, besides I have to go and get a dress to wear for Holly and me tonight, something devilishly red I think?" I say and still I am smiling...

"Red? Why red Ana?" My grandfather looks horrified and I was only joking too.

"I can hardly wear white Nonno..."

"You will wear a white dress for Nonno, and not be a scarlet lady in red. Here take my card Little One."

"No, but thank you, I am flushed Nonno. So what about your suit?"

"I am sure this man here can rustle me one up." He points at Taylor and smiles. "I like a snug fit on my butt, I am told it's my best feature Taylor, I may need new underwear, and it's been a long time since I had good trapping ones." He laughs as he says it.

"Nonno..."

"What I am in my prime, Uncle Ernesto is having a baby with his new wife and I am ten months younger than him."

"Urgh, he's like sixty and you already have your hands full Nonno..." I cringe and don't wish to dwell on it much. "Isn't she like twenty nine and I am sorry but that is way too young for him." He heads up the families Californian winery.

"Sixty five, and so he now smiles for a reason." Christian is laughing. "She is a very good girl and makes him happy. Your Non... Vita hated my brother and he hated her. She and he are happy and as you say Little One, age is just a number, now go sing and shop." Taylor looks at Christian and I swear my husband to be is grinning. Yup, Nonno is a golf monster and poor Taylor will be caddying again...

"Sir, are your plans for the studio and work on hold?" He asks Christian.

"Of course they are, I need a little peace and quiet, Taylor I know you have things to do, so I will take Ryan with me to caddy and Reynolds for Nonno, go and do the things you were doing before we were rudely interrupted, not by you Holly it was nice seeing you again, but please keep a close eye on the woman I am marrying? Now Nonno how about a full round today?"

"Si, and how about you don't let me win this time let's have a true and honest game?" They look happy enough to watch grass grow?

"You knew?" He says to Nonno.

"Son, a blind man could have finished that shot off in one, with his hands bound behind his back and using his mouth to pot it, you should have done the hole in an Eagle, not one over par... I am old not foolish Son."

"Okay then a fair game. Ana, will you please stick close to Luke and Holly?"

"Yes of course I will... They have a hell of a lot of ring to guard. Thank you, thank you, thank you, Christian Grey you are making all my wonderful dreams come true. I am so happy right now." I am so amazingly happy, because I think I have waited for this moment, for what seems like a lifetime.

"Umm my sister here seems like she is having a sugar rush, come on Miss Happy, they may need to get to the studio, when I spoke to my dad he was on about changing the song you are to sing and or adding in another."

"I've left it too late to learn another." I say as I put my man down. We head out to the hallway and I feel like I am walking on clouds.

"Yeah right and I can't swim too good either..." She snorts."You were born to sing your fathers songs, now let's get the car Nonna drove here in. I do believe it's the expensive one, don't worry Luke you are going to be fine I am not that bad a driver, please ignore what T here says." I kiss my man and we leave them to it. I do not believe we are getting married. Vegas style and that suits me just fine. Holly is hyper and smiles as she shakes the keys in Luke's face. "I took them off Nonna. She was mad as hell Ana and calling you some seriously shady names. Is it true she isn't your real Nanny? Is it true you are seeing your mother, the Wicked Witch Of the World?"

"Umm, it is thank god, oh and my mother gets access to me whenever she needs to see me, we have a lot to talk about, I owe her a lot for gifting me to Papa and Mimi, a life time of apologies, so what was it like at the house?"

"I got in last night really late and they were already screaming in Italian and slamming doors and shouting. Dad and I hunkered down in our suite and they finally stopped screaming at about two this morning. Is it true you had a baby Ana? Dad said I had to ask you as it was your business, but half the Hidden Hills community heard the plates smashing, including the K's on the hill..."

"Like they haven't had a family argument before. Only they televise theirs. Yes..." Luke knows the story and as we travel down Holly cries and she thumps me hard.

"You could have told me Ana. I am your sister."

"You had loads going on in your own life and were in school. I didn't want to hurt you like I did Ollie."

"Here Luke, drive we have things to talk about your boss and I. There will be screaming involved too, in Gaelic, so do you speak it?"

"No Miss, I do not."

"If you call me Miss, Missy or Ma'am, my size six will find a home in that cute butt of yours. Holly is the name use it..."

"Okay Holly..." He takes the keys off Holly and we climb aboard the Hummer. "Who has the Bugatti?"

"Dad, he is playing the rock star. I swear he loves your cars way more than mine."

"My cars are your cars Holly."

"I meant the hill cars for home."

"You can hardly drive a Bugatti over the moors and wetlands Holly."

"I could if you'd let me borrow one."

"And that Luke is why you never give Holly here my car keys at home."

"Noted Miss Ana." He smiles and drives us to the studio, word is out and we are mobbed before we head in. Luke is grinning as the door opens to the car park. "Do you want me to stop in the car Ana?"

"Oh, do you not want to meet the band?"

"Erm... Does the Pope wear a funny hat?"

"He wears the correct attire Luke Sawyer; do not dis Ana's main holy man." Holly says. She is much calmer now we have had the talk and I feel even more relaxed and my shoulders are not bogged down. I have my uncles to tell and then the secret can no longer hurt me or Christian again. I hope, Vita she did not sign any paperwork either. I will have her sign it before she gets her severance cheque from me. I should be more upset than I am, but I feel free, betrayed but free, I think marrying the man of my childhood dreams has that effect on me, pure happiness.

"I hate that we cannot roll the windows down and tell them to go away."

"Bomb proof is bomb proof Holly. They are not getting past Rollo and Rifle. I do believe he is dangling one of the paparazzi by his ankles." We watch as the doors close and the pap is in the dog poop bin. Erkkk...

"Ana, the car is bomb proofed?"

"Yes, this one and the SUV's, it's kind of pointless on the soft tops. Now, let's get this rehearsal started, Holly introduce Luke to the band and the others I need to use the loo."

"Okay then, come meet The Uncles of Rock and Roll. They don't bite hell Uncle David hasn't got his own teeth. Uncle Graham has a dodgy ticker, Uncle Flynn has hearing problems, you play the drums loud like he does and you are bound to lose some hearing. Greg here is the studio guy and that there is Tina his assistant, this is Frog, he has been standing in for Uncle Lenny, and those ladies are the backing singers, Diana, Loren and Killen. This folks is Ana's security dude. He is access all areas. Oh and that big one over there is Daddy to me and Wolfe to you... Daddy..."

"Pumpkin, and you how are you Luke?"

"I am f-f-fine Sir..."

"Call me Wolfe, or Andy, so you are watching my girls then?"

"Hell... Hello... I mean pleased to meet you Mr Wolfe. Yes it seems I am." I come back and Luke is star struck, again.

"Annie, we were discussing your song..."

"There is only one I want to sing, but which one did you think I should sing?"

"We would like you to sing his favourite song..."

"Are you serious? I cannot pull off Rock God, Liar and Thief? For one I am not a rock god and two I am not singing about nailing a woman and letting the god damned drugs wash from my blood, any song with drugs and women in it is not a good song for me, Uncle Wolfe, I am his daughter not another muff dive of his..."

"Yes okay, and that leaves Hallelujah... I see the problem with the first choice, how about we master the one and see about another?"

"Thank you, there is the one about coming home I could change it around a little? Has the backing video been done for Hallelujah?"

"Yes, I am sure the King and Lisa Marie won't mind you stealing their video mix-up idea. It looks good so when are you doing your part?" Wolfe says as I fiddle with the headphones. I feel sick again, I swear breakfast made quite the rapid fire return.

"They do it live, his version plays behind me, and I sing to him, its like the weather map, it all comes together in the mixing, it's easy apparently. So let's get this session underway... Please I have places to be besides being here with you lot...?"

"Okay, Luke, Holly go sit and play nice. Mommy has to sing for her supper." Uncle Wolfe smiles as he says it. I head to the sound booth and wonder what the hell I am doing this for. As I hear my father's voice come through the headphones I cry a silent tear.

"Right, let me sing it all through first and then we add in the rest, is that okay?" I get a thumbs up. I hear my father sing and I join in...

"Well I've heard there was a secret chord...That David played and it pleased the Lord... But you don't really care for music, do you?  
Well it goes like this: The fourth, the fifth, the minor fall and the major lift...The baffled king composing Hallelujah:

Hallelujah: Hallelujah: Hallelujah: Hallelujah...

Well your faith was strong but you needed proof, you saw her bathing on the roof, her beauty and the moonlight overthrew ya... She tied you to her kitchen chair, and she broke your throne and she cut your hair and from your lips she drew the Hallelujah...

Hallelujah: Hallelujah: Hallelujah: Hallelujah...

But baby I've been here before, I've seen this room and I've walked this floor, you know I used to live alone before I knew ya... And I've seen your flag on the marble arch and love is not a victory march, it's a cold and it's a broken Hallelujah...

Hallelujah: Hallelujah: Hallelujah: Hallelujah:

Well there was a time when you let me know, what's really going on below, but now you never show that to me do ya...  
But remember when I moved in you and the holy dove was moving too, and every breath we drew was Hallelujah...

Hallelujah: Hallelujah: Hallelujah: Hallelujah:

Maybe there's a God above, but all I've ever learned from love was how to shoot somebody who outdrew ya...

And it's not a cry that you hear at night, it's not somebody who's seen the light, it's a cold and it's a broken Hallelujah...

Hallelujah: Hallelujah: Hallelujah: Hallelujah: Hallelujah: Hallelujah: Hallelujah: Hallelujah:

Hallelujah..." Sang with tears and ended with a sob...

"That was great now let's get down to business, that was amazing. Now let's get this show on the road..." The sound guy says.

Oh lord, this is going to be not as cool as I thought it would be, I have butterflies and feel sick and very nervous, lord help me. Please watch out for me Daddy...

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Sorry for delay, I have had some lady health issues and I am also feeling the pain from the cold again. My laptop is still on hold and I am trying my best to get it out once a week, laptop sharing is not good...

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Read review and tell me what you think... Please...


	26. Chapter 26

This story is nowt like fifty shades; I just purloined E.L. James's characters buildings and some other stuff... You have been so very good with your comments and reviews, keep them coming please, I know lots of you read this, but not a lot of you review... I like to see the notifications ping into my in box; it makes me want to write more. I have had a hell of a time trying to get better... Sorry I have been a tad poorly... Up and at 'em... Here I go again...

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Dreaming of Chocolate and Grey:

Chapter 26:

When you love somebody:

As we play the song over and over and I sing it in all manner of keys and ways, I finally agree that singing it my father's way is the best way to go and my uncles agree, they know that I know what I am singing. It is generally agreed that the back catalogue is played in the first half and that songs for the new album are played at the end. I am still feeling bad, I have a major thing about performing, and I fear that I always will do. I even get the same reactions to being public at cooking and baking competitions, but singing the darned song I will definitely get the worst case of butterflies, those that cause vomiting, stage fright is a killer and um it will more than likely be horrid, I think I will be on my Calms all day leading to the moment I sing. We also found out today that the man who wrote the song, Leonard Cohen died too, so I will be honouring them both, no pressure to get it right, I tell myself.

As the others are discussing their well rehearsed play list, the recording in my ears is the soothing rock lullaby, its vaguely familure and I think I seem to remember hearing when I was little, but I am not sure where I heard it, but hearing it again, it is so oddly calming. I didn't know this existed anywhere but in my dreams; I look into the sound studio at the loud voices being raised in the room behind the glass window, and laugh because it's always the same, they are like siblings who row about everything, in this case on who it was ate the last bear claw I brought, I see the smile on Wolfe's face and know he did the deed.

I smile as I look through the back catalogue of old sheet music Wolfe brought to refresh the guys and as I look through the sheet music I see it's there, the words to match the ones my father seems to be singing to a baby or about a baby, is it me he is singing to? All I know is that the words, they seem to lift off the page and are begging to be sung. So I do, or try too...

" _When you love someone as much as I love you, it hurts. When you need someone as much as I need you, it hurts. Sometimes you're the last one to know that this is what people call love, I knew it was true when I saw you today, it hurt my heart and my eyes wept with joy because you baby girl, are about to be the love of my life..._

 _I can't wait to rock you in my arms, and sing to you my rockabye baby, my rockabye miracle, I wanna rock you, to sooth you, to love you and sing you to sleep with a gentle rockabye melody, rockabye, rockabye baby..._

 _I can't wait to see you, and sing to you. I count the days until I do. I need to hold you in my arms and keep you safe. I held my breath today just to hear your heart beating, it's was a breath that burned and tormented my once wicked soul, my soul is dark but with you here with me there will be light in my life, because you my baby girl are the love my life._

 _I can't wait to rock you in my arms, and sing to you my rockabye baby, my rockabye miracle, I wanna rock you, to sooth you, to love you and sing you to sleep, with a gentle rockabye melody, rockabye, rockabye baby..._

 _I need to hear your laughter. I need to see you play. I need to hold you in my arms and keep you from all the madness in this world. I want to sing you a song of love and laughter and most of all joy. I want to show the world that my baby girl is the love of my life. I am waiting here to keep the wind from your face and the mad world from your door._

 _I can't wait to rock you in my arms, and sing to you my rockabye baby, my rockabye miracle, I wanna rock you, to sooth you, to love you and sing you to sleep, with a gentle rockabye melody, rockabye, rockabye baby..._

 _I count the days until I see what your mother's love made possible and show the world that you my baby are the love of my life. Until then my sweet blessed child, yet to be born, sleep well and stay safe in the place that you grow. One day soon, the world out here will be waiting to see my baby girl, and I will tell the world that my baby girl is the love of my life... The love of my life._

 _I can't wait to rock you in my arms, and sing to you my rockabye baby, my rockabye miracle, I wanna rock you, to sooth you, to love you and sing you to sleep, with a gentle rockabye melody, rockabye, rockabye baby..._

 _I wanna hold you in my arms and never let you go, I wanna shower you with kisses and shut the world away, I want the peace and quiet I have right now to last forever and a day, be still for your mamma and I will sing you a song, and one day soon you will be here in my arms, you are my baby girl and the love of my life._

 _I can't wait to rock you in my arms, and sing to you my rockabye baby, my rockabye miracle, I wanna rock you, to sooth you, to love you and sing you to sleep, with a gentle rockabye melody, rockabye, rockabye baby..._

Hey Cara, how about you and I go and get married? We don't want my Anastasia Rose being called bad names now do we?"

There is a scream of joy and then the sound of things being knocked over and disturbed, urk... Are my parents getting it on? Urk... Wow... Did I just hear my dad propose to my mum? Did he decide then what my name was? I sit on the stool and read the hand written lyrics to 'The love of my life, my rockabye baby' and cry. What I didn't know as I sang the song aloud, the sound guy Greg he'd recorded me singing the song. I am now looking at grown men weeping, what the hell? Wolfe is stood at the window and his voice booms through the intercom...

"Annie, you were not meant to hear that. Greg the recording is a private one for our Annie from Fran to Annie, but sweetheart you sang it beautifully. Like he did when you were being restless for your mother, he stood where you are now and your mother was sat listening on a stool, they had just got back from the doctor's office he had seen you, heard your heart for the first time and then he felt you kick and was amazed, he was so in love with you, because you tore away at those hidden heart strings of his, and after he recorded that he ordered us all to Vegas..."

"He wrote this for me?"

"No, well yes, but it was kind of a doodle in the moment ditty just for you, he just free wheeled with the tune and the words until you calmed down for Carla. You were moving inside your mother like a fish in a barrel and not too easy to settle for the poor girl, but you always settled when you heard your daddies voice." I saw the tears of a room full of grown men and sighed, how I wish I could have seen him. Just the once...

"His voice settled me inside my mother? That's amazing because it worked just like it did at the castle. Some days it was the only thing to help me sleep. Listening to his recordings."

"Sis, do you want to call it a day and do that shopping for later?" Holly looks like she is nearing tears too.

"I guess so, if I have finished for the day guys?"

"Yes Annie, but please don't forget you have the interviews lined up the day after tomorrow, so don't be late."

"I know it's in the diary, I hope they go easy on me, I'm not in my usual comfort zone of chocolate and bread."

"Take Chris, I am sure she will go easy on you with him at your side, take the eye candy and or your chocolates." Uncle Wolfe said as he stared.

"I can take Holly and she can threaten the interviewers white smile, if she throws in an evil question. Greg can I ask you to put that track and mine on a disc for me? Oh and I won't be singing lullaby either, that's just for me and my daddy, and for me to sing to my ba... I mean it's just for me. Holly grab Luke..." I nearly said it was for me to sing to my babies, I guess I can still sing it to him? I sigh as I think of the love my father had for someone he had not met and I smile; I wonder if this is how Christian feels about our son? Luke was sitting on a stool staring, bless him. I hear Holly and that voice she has when she is on a mission, a mission to woo a man into her bed. Poor Luke...

"Hey handsome, come on leave the hero worship aside for a while, the old aged rockers need their Nanny naps, Laters old folks and don't forget to take your meds and get the nurse to check your pulses. All of you, that includes you Daddy, do you hear me, meds and bed." They shove her and Luke from the booth and wave as I leave.

"Yes dear..." They all said in unison. I smiled as the wild men of rock were being told they needed a siesta, and I laughed as they did as she asked. Holly, Luke and I headed to town. I am sure I can find a smart sort of a not quite wedding dress, but still a nice dress? We search the rails of many shops and I am almost at the end of my tether when we spot an antique shop and in the window is an amazing dress, it looks like something out of a twenties ladies magazine, its sadly not white, but more of a rich-cream-top-of-the-milk-off-white, I guess old is hard to keep white? I enter the shop and a bell pings, like an old store in England, the door bell is just as antiquated as this very cool store. How come I have never spotted this shop before?

"Hello, and what can I do for you two young ladies?"

"Oh hello, I was looking at the dress in the window, is it for sale?"

"Yes, everything has a price in here and everything has a story. That dress included."

"It does?" I ask as I finger the delicate old lace, its perfect, if it fits.

"Yes, a very beautiful story." She says as she takes it off the display doll.

"Please tell it to Ana, she loves hearing romantic mush, me I like a good chilling mystery, I am a blood and guts gal, the lady here she likes love and romance." Holly says as she looks at the stuff in here, gheeze more old crap for my London home to hoard for Holly.

"Oh there is romance heartbreak and a mighty big miracle that comes with that dress." Luke pops next door for coffee as the shop owner finally takes the dress from the shop window mannequin, even that is old; it's a dressmaking one, off white cotton covered with equally old white hessian, that I have to buy, to keep the it dress on afterwards. She hands me the dress and I feel a tingle of sweet anticipation, it feels like the dress has picked me not the other way around.

"I love the feel of it and the texture of the fabric and the feel of the cotton, please tell me the tale too." I go to change and the shop keeper begins her tale.

"This dress was made for a young bride way back in 1920; she fell in love with a man much older than herself and her parents disapproved, because she was so young, so to keep them separated, they locked her in her room. She was freed from the room by her fiancé, they escaped down a rickety ladder and they fled to New Orleans and were married before her parents noticed they were missing.

Her father was a prominent judge, well he tried every way have having the marriage stopped and annulled, finally when they realised it was a done deal and there was nothing they could do to stop their daughter, so they invited them to dinner upon their return. However they had plans to lock her away again and had a ruffian come to their home to put the frighteners on him. This did not work either, so after this attempt to separate them and do him harm failed the young girl went to pack her bags and as she did they locked the doors again.

The girl was afraid for her new husband, knowing how evil her father was, her screams went unheard and it is said she heard a gunshot. After what seemed like hours the door opened and her father was stood with a rifle aimed at her, she begged for her life and as he took aim, her husband managed to clop the girl's father on the head with a statue, the husband was shot up pretty bad, but he'd managed to crawl up the stairs to save his wife. They escaped with their lives and never returned... The story goes, that the father had shot the mother when she stepped in front of his gun to save her daughter just as he was concussed his gun went off, and he'd then killed his wife, he then turned the gun on himself."

"Oh god, that's a horrid story..." She grinned. "I can't wear a dress that has death attached to it. Sorry as beautiful as this dress is, I couldn't wear it."

"Don't worry, it's one of my tall tales, I am a thespian dear and love to add drama to my little shop of curios."

"So all that was a tall tale?" I asked as I opened the curtain to reveal the dress to Holly.

"Yes, and I have plenty of them too. Seriously, sweet girl the dress was made for an am-dram production of Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, and is a replica; I have a few in the back, I make them and then I sell them afterwards. I do like a little am-dram in my life, did you really think I spun the tale well? If you did there is hope for me stealing the lead from Stella Morrison, in the Calabasas Players version of Cats? I think we have a cat thing going on this season; we did a very well received Lion King too. So the only bad thing about the dress? It was worn by the uber bitch Stella." She laughs. She seems a tad bit strange, if not a nice and chatty woman...

"Oh good thank god. Holly what do you think?" I opened the curtain.

"Wow, holy shitballs. Have you something similar for the best girl?"

"Oh yes sweetheart. Please remember I am the best wardrobe mistress in the whole of Calabasas, come this way." Holly followed her and I admired the fitted dress and smiled, it's just too pretty to say no to, though I may have done, had the story been true. Holly is kitted out in a very sweet pale blue dress and I choose an actual head dress from the twenties to wear, it's a lace cap with diamantes on it and a lace rose thing at the side and unlike the dress it is an original piece. I need sexy underwear and new shoes, so after Holly and I grab those and a few other things we just had to have, we and our bags head back to the hotel.

Christian's POV:

As Nonno and I enjoy a round of golf, I get a call...

"Christian dear..."

"Mother..." I should tell her about the wedding I guess?

"How are things down there?" Umm, has she got her mom radar working on overtime?

"Well Ana's grandfather and Uncle Wolfe took the news about the baby very well; her grandmother did not however and has been banished to Italy. It's a long story."

"Your father and I are were wondering how it went. Are they nice people?" I guess they are, Ana is nice and her grandfather is amazing.

"It went fine and yes mother they are very nice people, the grandmother was a piece of work though. Mom, how quickly can you and dad get here? Elliot too and of course Mia?"

"Why?" Here goes nothing and then let the moaning about her needing the big social wedding of the millennia. With all of Seattle's finest in attendance.

"Ana and I are getting married, later today or possibly in the morning. In Vegas."

"Okay, did I hear you say you and Ana are getting married? Today or tomorrow in Vegas?"

"You did. I know it's not the big affair you want for me, but it's what Ana and I want."

"Hey, hey, hey, your father and I woke a justice of the peace, you don't get any smaller than two, and two strangers in nightgowns as witnesses. We will be there in a couple of hours, get married in the morning please? I would like to be there to see my Baby Boy get married. Christian, I, I, I am so happy to hear you have found the one to help you." I am near to tears hearing my mother cry.

"What about Elliot and Mia? Are they at home?"

"No, but I will call them both, they are in New York, and so they need five or six hours too."

"Okay then, you'd better bring Grams and Pops too. I guess?"

"They will insist on it. I will get your father to hire a plane, you have yours yes?"

"Yes, but just call Welch and he will have two planes ready, for you all. I am happy you are going to be here Mom."

"I am tearing up here Little man, right I need to make some calls I will call Elliot too. I will see you later..." She hangs up and I smile as Nonno smiles.

"It's turned into a bigger day than you wanted Son?"

"No, well yes, but I would hate to disappoint my mom and dad."

"Carla is arriving later; I guess Ana will allow her mother to see you two kids get married?"

"Yes, yes I think she would like that. Ana feels like she has a lot to make up for with her." He sighs. I see the pain.

"I should have been stronger. I should have stood up to Vita. Poor Ana was robbed of many things when she cut out Carla from her life and we, we as a family did not help in keeping Carla's secrets."

"There are more?"

"No, nothing Ana does not know, Carla is a good girl and does things for others rather than herself. She never wanted to lose her daughter; for god's sake she was all she had left of her husband, the love of her life. She tried to end her life you know, after she found out he had died, having Ana should have brought her comfort, but it didn't she just missed him more?"

"She never said anything."

"Why would she hurt Ana more, I mean she was so depressed and had been asleep when she should have been bonding with their child? It was hard to watch my daughter falling apart at the seams. It is something Ana would not have done, she, she has this hard streak, she can cut herself off from pain and act like things don't hurt her, but deep down they do, she just hides it."

"She said she felt like joining our son Nonno, she said she had to be strong and working and creating helped her. But she is like her mother on so many levels."

"They are very alike... My girls are the best... The very best and more tolerant of this old fool than I deserve."

"They love you and you are not a silly old fool."

"Thanks, but I am weak."

"We all are were the woman you love is concerned."

"Amen to that son."

"Ana and Carla will always have that what if thing, what if Frank had not died, what if Carla had been stronger and Ana, Ana will now be over thinking how she treated her mom and fretting about it."

"Carla missed Frank so much, she loved that guy and when she awoke from her coma, Vita was so nasty telling her that she was taking Ana from her because she was nothing more than a drugged up whore and groupie, who didn't have a mothering bone in her body and Carla believed her. Thank god Papa Frank heard her cruel taunts and spoke to Carla when Vita had left. I should have left Vita then. Frank calmed her and she signed the baby into their safe keeping. Vita was not happy when she returned, not happy at all, and that is where the hatred spilled from. That one act made for a heady few years for me and the boys."

"Do they know all this?"

"Yes, though Sunny is left out of the loop as he is a Mamma's boy, but he loves Ana more, much more. They all love her and respect her, she works hard and is a good person, you my boy I am trusting with my heart, because she is my world, she is my little Bambino. She will love you and honour you Christian, don't abuse that love, that is my only request, love her and care for her, she needs you."

"I need her too Nonno, like you wouldn't believe. She makes me want to be better."

"Yes well, she is that type of girl, Mimi saw to it she was brought up right. Now let's get this game finished, I do believe your head is not in the game."

"It is now I have told my mother..."

"Well let's play a couple more holes and then retire to the bar to plan this small wedding that's just got bigger... The boys will all come, the band uncles, the others will want the big family party, in say two months?"

"I guess we could have a wedding blessing later?" I suggest, so long quick, simple and easy.

"No, just the party, the boys are not big church lovers, mainly because they always thought their mamma would leave them with the damned priest and run off. They may have been right, poor Ray was earmarked first and then the others. My poor boys are not very good godly boys. They like it simple and like the devil in their lives too. Now, let's play..." I smile and wonder what my bride to be is doing?

Ana's Pov:

When we get back I am surprised to see my mother is in the hotel lobby checking in. I nudge Holly and smile at my mother.

"Hello Ana, what are you doing here?"

"This is Christian's hotel; we are stopping here until the concert is over. Mum why did you not tell me you were married to my dad?"

"We haven't talked about a lot of things Ana. We must start some day. Who told you, my dad?"

"No, Uncle Wolfe, he told me everything. I am sorry Mum, really sorry."

"So am I, I spoke to Dad earlier and he has told me Vita has left the country? Is this true, please make my year and say it is?"

"Yes and good riddance to a bad lady. Mum are you here alone?"

"No Bobby is with his fans and I am in the way of their fawning over him, I am here to see Dad and you know talk without her around. How about you, Dad and I talk over dinner?"

"I am not sure what Christian has planned, other than we are getting married Mum."

"Wow..." She says and smiles. Yup I am smiling for a reason too. "As is today? Oh lord how wonderful for you both. I mean that Ana, he is a keeper." I know, right?

"Yes and either today or tomorrow, in Vegas at a drive through. Will you please come? Come to Vegas with us, Nonno is coming and Uncle Wolfe and the guys please come, you and Bob, please Mum?"

"I'd be honoured to, if that's what you want Ana, I know we have a fair few issues to deal with, but..."

"...Hey, we started again when you told me the truth, let's not back track over the bad things in our lives, lets sort of start afresh. I know I would like that, how about you, Mum?"

"Me too, me too Baby, me too." She opens her arms and I gratefully accept the hug she has me in. We are in an embrace for what seems like forever. Holly and Luke are standing back and watching as I act like a little girl, and cry.

"Hey how about we take this party to the suite, we are attracting a crowd Sis?" Holly asks as I weep.

"Sis, you have a sister Anastasia, how?"

"No I have a barmy best friend, you have met Holly before, yes?"

"Andrew's daughter Holly, she is that Holly? Yes I have but she was only little when I last held her and of course I have seen her around when she has been with you. Hello Holly, I knew your mother."

"As in my mother Brenda or as in the useless druggie Sylvia?" Ouch, she hates to be reminded of her birth mother. As did I not too long ago.

"Alas the woman who birthed you, she was... She was..."

"...Stop whilst you're ahead, Sylvia was not my mother. Mrs Adams."

"No, no she wasn't, alas she didn't know what she was doing most of the time, sorry but you had it better with Brenda. Now that woman could even put Mimi to shame in the mothering department. She was a nice lady."

"She was. She really was." I am surprised that my mother knew either Brenda or Sylvia. There is though a lot I do not know. "So let's take this party to your rooms Ana, we are attracting a crowd."

"Yes, let's have drinks in the room. If that's okay, where did you say Bob was?"

"Oh he is at another book signing those men can talk about his books forever and I am not into war, I had enough of them growing up. I had a migraine so thought I'd book us in. We stop here when we are in Hollywood, its near enough for Dad to sneak a couple of hours with me. I guess could call at the house now?"

"Yeah, he's like that, you could stop with him, the house will be big without Vita there. So... You married my father?"She smiled. "Do you want to tell me why you never told me?"

"I did, I was shocked when he asked, very shocked but the first time he saw you he sort of changed towards me. I mean he came to the scan I had done, I was with your Papa Frank and Nannie Mimi here and he rolled up at the doctor's office. He sat in the chair and was silent and shocked, he took me to lunch and then on to the studio to lay down the last track on their album and we talked and he sort of changed, like the realisation he was going to be a father had finally hit home, it finally hit him there was someone other than him to care about, he sort of grew up a little and all it took was you kicking my belly, he sang to you to calm you and after that session he asked me to marry him.

I wasn't a fool; I knew it was out of obligation and not for romance or love, but to give you legitimacy. Mimi was delighted and she said the rest would follow, but it didn't, we didn't have the time for that, we had a couple of weeks at most and then that last week in Anastasia and within an hour of getting back here, my waters broke. I had been rowing with my mother about her raising you, she had rocked up to Papa Franks place here demanding answers and the rest you know, we'd had one week of what was for me a hell of a good memory. He loved you Ana, very much, you would have been good for him. He was changing towards me too, but I will never know now what that change would have been, not for sure, I can dream he was starting to love me like I did him, but that's all it is, a dream." She wiped away a tear and I saw the same look in her face as I wore, that look of longing and love. We are very similar my mother and I, spookily so.

"I know; I heard the proposal. He was singing to me to help me settle and I heard that tagged on the end. It was there Mum, he sounded genuine and happy."

"It was not a romantic proposal I know, but it meant the world to me. I miss him Ana, all the time. I was a crazy kid in love with a rock star, whose poster was on my wall. I thank god I met him and had what we had, that crazy hour after the gig he did in London was memorable and it gave the world you. I wish you could have met him, I wish he was still here..."

"I do too." We head into the suite and I order room service. I need a cup of tea and something to eat.

"So, this wedding?" My mother asks. "Anything fancy?"

"Christian suggested a drive through the desert and Nonno joked about it ending at a drive through. I think it started as a joke, and ended in a promise."

"Has he even proposed?" I laughed and flashed my rock.

"Yes, Christian had a plane fly by with his proposal behind it and flowers were on the lawn and he had thousands of white doves released and a marching band serenaded me into saying yes. Such a hard decision I had to make..." We laugh.

"I see the ring, it's very nice. I have the ones your father gave to me. Would you like them Ana? I mean I would like you to have something he bought me and something that was given to me from my father and mother?"

"They are yours Mum."

"I know, but they are just sat in a box, hiding in another one, they come out occasionally and I have a cry, and now I would like you to have them. I have his wedding band too. Mimi gave it to me; you know when I left Otter Island the last time." I look at her and don't know what to say. "Hey, it was just a suggestion I didn't mean to offend you. Christian may not like you wearing another man's ring, nor his wearing your fathers ring, they are there if you want them?"

"I wouldn't, you are right..." I turned and saw Christian and Nonno at the door. "But, this isn't another man's ring, it's her father's Carla, and if it fits I would be honoured to wear it and for Ana to wear the one he gave you Mrs Adams." Smooth and fucking beautiful... He walks in smiling. Yup it's really happening. I am marrying the love of my life and it's not a dream.

"Actually, they were my Uncle Salvador's and my mother's rings, your Nonno there gave them to us at the drive through, your father had forgotten we needed them, so I am simply re-gifting them. Hello Daddy, have you not had enough of golf yet?"

"Carla, you are here. Good, good... Now, you can call Sal your father little one, he was after all."

"Nah, I like the one I have thank you very much... So, she has gone then? Vita has really left the country?"

"It would seem so, I haven't checked, but Holly here says she is on a slow boat to Italy as we speak, Chris and I were having a game so I have not checked. Now, where are my hugs young lady, Papa has missed them." I see my mother all grown up act like a little girl and get her cuddles in from her father.

"Mum and Bob are coming to Vegas too, is that okay Christian?"

"Yes, more than okay, I have news too, Mom and Dad and the others will be meeting us there, if that is okay, I mean it has gone from a quick drive and a drive through to family and friends joining us."

"The more the merrier, so are we still going later today? Are we doing it today?"

"We are now flying to Vegas, not driving and we will get married in the morning, I believe you have an interview to do too, whilst we are there?"

"Oh hell... It is a pre recorded segment for the concert. I forgot in all the excitement, I swear I left my brains somewhere back in Europe."

"We can multi task then and you have had a lot to deal with since New York Baby, a lot."

"How romantic, a drive through wedding, and an interview with the sassy Sally Morris, who digs up dirt and wants gossip, what if she digs deep and you know, finds out about Baby Christian?"

"We can wait Ana as I am okay for a couple of relaxing days in Vegas we could stop there until the concert it's a big place to hide out in. Elliot and Mia like the damned place. Mom likes the slots and Dad he likes the hotels cigar room. We will be fine. As to her digging, we have nothing to be ashamed of, answer her questions truthfully and we will be fine. You can even announce our marriage and hopefully that will stop her digging?"

"It would and cause a great deal more when it hits the tabloids..."

"Let it run its course Little one, today's news papers are tomorrows chip wrappers." Nonno says as he pulls away from Mum.

"Yes Dad is right, there will be something bigger in the news, and I mean there is always something bigger around the corner."

"I guess so..."I say as I stare at my Nonno and Mum, my how my world has changed and all for the better.

"Are you okay Baby, did you get a dress and have you got everything you need?"

"Oh god, yes and its beautiful and no I have loads to do... We are as the song goes, getting married in the morning, if everyone can make it that is? Nonno, Uncle Ray and Sonny won't be able to get here will they?" Nonno laughs.

"Ray no, but Sonny is with Marco and they were coming in from London as we speak, they are mid air and excited to be reunited with their sister. I forgot to tell you Nonna, sorry Vita called them when we rowed last night and she was met with silence, they called me and I told them the truth, even Sunny has had enough of her plans and her madness. I spoke to Ray about your getting married and he is happy as long as this Chris guy is good, I assured him I liked him and that was good enough for your uncle, he just wants the big Italian party, he would like it in Australia though, at the winery there, he wants to host it for you as your oldest uncle... Perhaps we could fly everyone to the vineyard and have a party to celebrate there, the Grey's and the band, the whole family Bambino, yes, what do you think Chris, Australia?"

"That would be wonderful. I rather like Australia. My mother has never been."

"Oh lummy...

Christian this is happening then?"

"It would seem I said it was, so it is. Now pack. I will order drinks whilst we wait for you and Holly here to get ready." Holly is as excited as I am, because I know she loves Vegas...

"Wow, Grey you are a little bit bossy... We have dresses already packed, and we went shopping whilst you and Nonno played with your balls." Holly said as she eyed up Luke.

"Holly..."

"Sorry Nonno, I meant golf balls. Are the old guys coming, they would be hurt if they didn't?"

"Yes are they Christian?"

"It would seem so. I called Wolfe earlier and they said they were in on it. Did they not tell you this? I heard you singing when I made the call?"

"Oh the sneaky bugger he kept that to himself...!" Holly says and laughs. "He is good at secret keeping though, I mean he knew about you and your mum Ana and said nothing, not even to me, I should be madder at him than I am, he is one hell of an old crafty Brummy Bugger." I agree, he is and I smile at my mother as she and Nonno smile and listen, she looks happy and Nonno finally looks less stressed, more than he has been in a while actually...

"It was meant to be a secret, but it seems it was the worst kept secret about a quiet drive through wedding that now seems to have turned into a circus..." Christian says as he orders food and drinks.

"But we are getting married and in a drive through, I have my heart set on it. It worked for mum and dad, so it will work for us Christian."

"I loved it and it did the job for me and Frank, Daddy do you remember that day?"

"I did, we were visiting and I got a call from Papa Frank to meet him for a game of golf, only we all skipped out on Nonna and flew across to Vegas instead. It was good and quick and we had burgers and chicken wings as a wedding feast."

"I had a craving for chicken wings and slaw, so your father had the hotel lay on a good old Texan BBQ, he and I then flew down to Anastasia and had a week's honeymoon, that was bliss."

"Ana and I have to wait for our honeymoon, what with the concert and we have to do battle at Coping Together. Then I am whisking her off somewhere nice for a few weeks. Your Nonno has said he and the boys can cover you Baby, I have already asked."

"You did, did you? Where are we going?"

"Yes where are you taking my sister, somewhere without phones and the internet, or given what I know about Ana, she and you will both be working..." She says, or rather states.

"That is a surprise, a surprise you will love I am sure... Now go pack wenches... Taylor here has suits for me, him and your Grandfather waiting for us at the hotel in Vegas, Ana. Carla is Bob in need of a suit, we can get him one?" Christian asks.

"God no, he has to attend so many black tie things it's a staple of his travel wardrobe, you are sure you want us there with you?"

"Mum of course we do, Christian and I want our family with us." I just want Christian, the others are a bonus, I smile and Holly and I go to pack as the food arrives.

"If you don't marry Mr Smooth I will, he is amazing Ana..." She says as we throw clothes in the bags they were just taken out of, god why is life such a mess at the moment? I have gone from organised and methodical, to having a brain swamped with this fantastic love and romance. It is a shame I cannot as yet combine the two, but I will have to learn to, as I am about to become Mrs Christian Grey... Lummy...

"He is isn't he? I mean I am glad you like him. What do you think about my mother then, really?"

"I don't know, she seems genuine and she seems happy for you. She isn't what I imagined her to be like, especially after listening to Nonna and you talk about her, I half expected her to ride in on her broomstick and be a bitch, but she seems very nice. You big sis were wrong about her, god how much crow pie are you going to have to eat?"

"She does doesn't she... I have a lot to make up to her for. I hate Vita so much. I hate myself too; I guess I will learn more when I finally get to read my father's journals, that will be good honeymoon reading material..."

"I bet he was, he was a womaniser and a stud in bed apparently, according to my mum and dad when they talked about him that is."

"He was still my father Holly and erk now I have images of my father being like bloody Ronnie Wood, had he still been alive he would have still been at it, though in my head he would have been happily settled with Mom in their sweet home in Anastasia, that I have to visit, if it is where he was happiest I mean? Still he was loved and adored by his fans." We both laugh.

"So what are you packing?" Holly asks.

"Two days worth of things, and we can buy things if we need them."

We pack and as we do we talk and we laugh. I make a few calls for things to be in place at the Vegas hotel and I even have the bakery there make us a cake. It is not a wedding without a cake and as it is for me I know they will want to impress me with it. I cannot believe this is happening and as crazy as it is too. I mean we have gone from two through a drive through to at least fifty guests and a party. I am deliriously happy and not one jot do I give to anything other than becoming his wife, my lifelong plan to marry Christian is happening.

Four hours later and we are landing in Vegas in two planes, because the bands tour bus broke down. so the guys all jumped on a private jet, Christian's small one had no room for the rebel rockers and their stuff, so they got their own, it was all very rock star of them. The cars were arriving to pick us up when I heard the shriek of my uncle Marco calling my name... Oh good the gangs all here...

"Ana... Ana... Ana... I am here... You can now get this party started, oh and I brought Sunny, we are a little drunk..."

"I can see, so where is Uncle Sunny?"

"He was here with me a minute ago... Wait he is chatting up the hostess from the plane. He asked her to marry him. She is already married and he is a fool. Where is Papa and Carla?"

"We are here you old queen... How did you get so drunk Marco?"

"Easy, the booze was nice and plentiful, are you okay mia cara sorella?" (My dear Sister!)

"I am fine and happier than I have been in over twenty five years. Now, let's get you and the other drunk to the hotel... Bobby, Bobby..."

"Yes dear..." He comes from the plane and is carrying all my mother's bags, like a true gentleman. "You remember Marco?"

"Yes we have met once, when we first got married and he asked me to sign that god awful pre nup..."

"Hey my sister is loaded and I didn't at the time know you were too. The other dicks she married were asses, I expected you to be one too. I am glad you proved me wrong, you are top of the best seller list again, good going Bobby..."

"I am and it's hard work keeping there. Now, which is our car darling?"

"Ana?" My mother asks me, like I know?

"Hu? Oh god I don't know... Taylor?" Taylor is smiling as he and Christian take the steps off the plane; I escaped their dull security talk and headed out of the open door with Luke and Holly in tow... Christian was not happy, but seems to have cheered up seeing me safe.

"Had you stopped for the briefing Miss Lambert you would have known all the cars here are ours and are going to the same hotel, so it does not matter which cars you get in. Mr Adams do you need a hand with those bags, the rest will be taken to the hotel by Ryan and Reynolds here."

"Consider me told off then. Sorry Taylor, I will get better at this security thing, I promise."

"Good, that saves me taking over my knee Baby; you put the fear of Christ in me running off like that."

"I saw the plane over there and knew it was the Kavagnah plane. Sorry I thought Kate and Eamon where here too and or Ethan and Jose?"

"Nope Little One, they leant us their long haul jet, they are arriving with the other family members, apparently they were in New York?"

"That was meant as another surprise Marco..." My Nonno said and shook his head.

"Sorry I have loose lips when I drink, now I need to get some beauty sleep, which one of these good looking boys can see me to the hotel. Mr Grey you employ some seriously hot stuff in security, hello Luke, hi Taylor..."

"Leave them be, and get your bum in the first car. Nonno can you round up Sunny before he gets run over by a plane. He is wandering off again."

"He shouldn't be allowed to drink. Marco..."

"He is upset at our mothers secrets and is not happy. So drunk was better than angry now Papa, we need to talk. She has been on the phone and wants a lot of money."

"Well, once she signs the paperwork I have for her, Vita can have what is coming to her. Now, get in the damned cars, I am getting married in the morning and I have things to do before then."

"Oh god my niece has turned into Bridezilla... Lord help us Carla, reel in your daughter. Hey it's okay to call her that right? Ana, do you call her Mamma?"

"I call her mum, because she is..." I smile as the family, including a drunken Sunny, who is it seems is drunk because he is relieved he has not got to give himself to god, get into their cars. It is then just Christian and I, at last. The time in the plane was spent making secret calls and talking to Nonno.

"Ana..."

"Christian, if I don't get some alone time with you pretty damned soon I think I will die, and I may even have to fuck you in the damned car on the way to the hotel."

"That would be good if we had longer than ten minutes Baby. I need you too, and like fucking crazy."

"It seems we still think alike. Good."

We are helped into the car by a silent Taylor and we join the rest of the motorcade to Christian's hotel here. I am seriously happy to learn the Kavagnahs are coming and I am beyond happy to see my uncles Sunny and Marco join their sister and father, my family would be complete it Uncle Ray were here, alas he will not leave Australia for anyone, but what an excuse to go and show Christian our home in Australia. He will love the farm.

We get to the hotel and it seems we are taking over the top three floors of his hotel. I am amazed at the sight of it. I never knew that Christian and GEH had so many hotels; I guess I need to know more about the man I am to marry? The family and rock stars are all settled into their suites thanks to Taylor's amazing organisation skills. I marvel at what can be done in a short time. I know how to organise, but this, this is on a different scale to my organised for months in advance world, but since I met Christian again, that organised world I had has now gone to hell in a hand cart and quiet spectacularly so...

"Ana, we are here Baby." He is carrying me in his arms, because I felt a little tired in the car. Despite my wanting to do rude things to my fiancée, I was suddenly too knackered to do anything but fall asleep in his lap. "Ana are you feeling okay?"

"Yes and no. Sort of I guess?"

"That was a vague reply, are you ill Ana, do you need to see a doctor?"

"No I am just tired. I have had a lot to cope with in two days and what a couple of days they have been, I will be fine when I have, sorry we have a bath and you know work out some of these kinks I have."

"It will be my pleasure to help you, dinner is at eight and everyone should be here then."

"Okay so what do you suggest we do with the remaining time?" I ask knowing full well from the smirk he has on his face, it was a stupid question to ask of him.

"I have plans to sex some of those kinks away and for you to work your skilled hands over a few of my kinks. It's only fair we are stress and kink free for dinner. This way Ana, I have a surprise for you."

"Oh god if it's more relatives I will shoot you. I love them I do, but I need you and me time..."

"Oh you will like my room here, you can count on it." I watch as Taylor goes into the room with the porter and our luggage. Is he in the rooms with us? He comes out with the porter and we head in.

"Sir I will be next door with security, if you need me..."

"Thanks Taylor, did Gail manage to pack the things I asked for?"

"Yes Sir and she is on her way here with your parents and Grandparents, thank you for including her."

"She is family Jason and I would like her and you at the wedding."

"Sir..." He heads off with a look I have not seen on Taylor's face before. Shock in a nice way I think?

"That was a nice thing to do Christian; he was moved to near tears then."

"I am nice..."

"Yeah you are, but what is it she bringing?"

"A few essentials from home and herself. Mainly herself she looks after me well and I kind of under appreciate all she and Jason do for me. I could have bought the things I asked her to bring, and I think they know it."

"This is you being nice with a twist? You could have just asked her to come, she likes you too."

"She does?"

"Why do you find it so hard to believe that you are worthy of being loved Christian Trevelyan Grey, because you are, you are worthy of being loved and adored and I do."

"Stop before I have an emotional outburst and do rude things to you." He jokes, oh hell game on.

"You are kind." He steps forward. "You are considerate." He closes the door on the world and locks it. "You are a charitable man." He stalks me. "You are getting better at being nice." He and I walk towards the other rooms. I only take in a few details of the grand room we pass through as I walk backwards and his eyes guide me as he follows. I am clueless as to where this is going. When he finally grabs hold of me, we are outside a massive bathroom which overlooks some amazing green lush gardens. Okay another golf hotel? (I am borrowing the Hilton Lake Las Vegas Resort & Spa for Christian's Vegas hotel...)

"Wow, the view from the tub is amazing, I do hope that is one way glass?"

"It is, so what do you think of it?" I stare out of the window and see what looks like a small village of buildings an amazing pool and sea views, it is really nice.

"It is very big and very nice, now strip Mr Grey and I will run us a bath. How about you put on some music too?"

"Yes dear, strip and music..."

"You could strip to the music and work for your rewards? I mean you do want to please me, yes?"

"Oh, are you demanding more from me? I am happy to do as my future wife wants, but what exactly is she going to do for me?"

"Oh I don't know, whilst shopping I did manage to find a few things for my handbag, a few samples and a few lotions an potions..."

"Fuck me, as in the rings?"

"Nope..." I pop the p at the end and my finger indicates he should strip, and he grins and does as my finger orders and strips, there is nothing better than watching a man work for his rewards, Marvin Gaye is in fact not getting it on, but Mr Grey is working it for me instead. I watch as the tee shirt he has on is slowly pulled over those washboard abs and as he removes it inch by inch I am glued to the edge of the bathtub. The tub ain't the only thing getting wet. He grins and he strips, his hips rotate in tune to the music and he turns his back to me, yup love the butt action and the sway in those hips.

"Good god, you would have made a great stripper... Now flaunt what your momma gave you sunshine I have plenty of good old dollar bills in my bag and treats..."

"Shush, and watch the show. Keep your eyes on the magic Baby."

"I see the snakes a rising, that's a hell of a stripper trick, move it sunshine and yeah more sway, let's see the big boy, whoop, whoop, fucking whoop..." I may be over excited as the jeans that kissed those muscled legs are abandoned, lord help me the snake is loose. "No underwear, how very naughty of you."

"I had hoped for a little you and me time in the plane. I was overran with things to do for tomorrow, we need to go to the courthouse first thing, then choose the closest wedding venue and do it. Get ourselves married." He dances naked and I squirm in my sodden knickers. God he has some good moves and my hu-hu knows what's coming is going to be good. So good. As the song finishes he is at the front of me, he leans over me and I swear I combust and the heat rises from my sex. He taunts me by turning off the bath tub and covering the goods in a fluffy white towel, fuck me that was a show and a half.

"Now I do believe you said you wanted a bath, do you want to have it in your clothes or would you like me to help you out of them?"

"Hu..."

"I see the show hit the spot then Ana, so I will help you undress. Stand up." I do like a frigging Zombie I am in a world of my own and mesmerised by the movement under that fluffy lucky towel. "Raise your arms Miss Lambert, slowly. There's a good girl." My arms rise and I stare into those grey pools of lust which are shimmering today. His hands slowly take off the blouse I have on and he throws it off to the side, his fingers then taunt my skin as they run gently down my back, they are warm and soft and it ignites a powder keg of soft groans, he is good with those darned hands. They rise again and stop at my bra, they work to undo the strappy number I have on and he groans as my breast are freed from their silky confinement.

"You have the most beautiful breast Ana, they are very beautiful and all mine." He stops talking and he lowers his head to their aroused peeks, and he suckles, oh lord god above help me stay standing. He plays with the lonely one and I groan, my hands levitate to his copper locks and I groan and pull at it, he abandons the one nipple and suckles on the other and as he does I grab his hair hard.

"Christian, I'm coming, god am I coming." I feel the pain and the pleasure as I am gripped hard and his free hand unzips my jeans and his hand delves between the wet silk and the warmth of my sex. His fingers explore the folds and he slides in a finger, followed by another and as he works me and them into a frenzy he gasps for a sudden breath as he suckles upon my breasts, my hand wanders to his rock hard dick, god damn it I want fucking and now...

"Ana, you are so right for me, so fucking right, now get down and finish me off..." I dropped to my knees and helped myself to the goods on offer and what goods they are, I played with the swollen end first, kissing, sucking and lapping, each touch sent him wild, when he was close I stopped, licked the pre come from the end and then began what he liked most, I took all of him in and as his dick hit the back of my throat I waited for the rocking to start and boy did he rock, his hands are on my head and his member disappears deep into my throat, time and again he rocks in and out and I take it, I gag as he starts to come and as he pulls out the void is filled with his hot seed. God damn it he tastes good. As I suck the goodness from him his member is a little soft...

"God damn it Ana, that mouth of yours is a lethal weapon..."

"Lethal? I thought I was just a mouthy bitch, now let's get in that bath and relax. I may have need for more."

"I think we can give you more. Now, where were we?"

"Getting down and dirty..." We spent the rest of the afternoon making love, forgoing using the toys I'd purchased for another day, we didn't need them. As we dressed for dinner the grin on his face was unusually large.

"What?"

"We are getting married in the morning."

"Yeah and you are sleeping in your own room tonight."

"What? No way we are not spending the night apart, I can't sleep without you by me Ana. I don't want to sleep alone."

"Stop whining, I was just saying wedding etiquette says we have to sleep apart, but I can't sleep without you either, so drop the sulk Grey."

"Okay bossy boots. Now, let's get our butts to dinner and hope everyone has arrived."

"I can't wait to see Kate and Ethan, your parents and everyone. Its feels like a proper marriage is happening."

"We can have a ceremony here, they do them Baby?"

"No, I sort of want to do it like my parents did. Drive through, get married, and go for a wedding breakfast."

"I-Hop? I could do pancakes Baby."

"I could just eat maple bacon and cinnamon swirls, with lush icing on them. Do they do wedding breakfasts here?"

"Ana I own the damned hotel, if you want all that you can have that."

"I want you..."

"Again?"

"Umm, for some reason I can't get enough of you..."

"I like the idea, but as I like to give you my all darling, ten minutes we have and that won't even take the top off what I am going to do to you later... We need an hour just to warm up?"

"Okay, let's go down before I change my mind and make them wait until nine."

"My parents are here, they texted me a couple of hours ago. Elliot and Mia and the other New Yorkers are here too and are getting ready now."

"The gangs all here, so who is running my business?"

"It's in good hands. James says he will make the Australian party, but alas he can't make it tomorrow."

"You asked for him to come?"

"I did, now let's get something to eat..."

"I could eat you."

"I think you had a good attempt at it earlier. My dick is still sore..."

"You poor soul, sexed into pain. I live to please my master..."

"My mistress pleases me greatly..." We head down to the dining room which has been set up for us. I am staring at the room with tears in my eyes, it's beautiful. My family are here, my friends and at the front is sat James and Nonno.

"You lied to me... Christian Grey you lied to me, but thank you, thank you..." I rushed over and was given a killer hug. How did you get here?"

"I came with your uncles, they asked me to come when they got the call from your father, Marco was finishing off the plans for the cafe and I of course hopped on board, but I was on strict instructions to forgo the welcome at the airport, to surprise you."

"You did that alright, thank you, are you okay?"

"I am getting a new lease on life, Hyde's has gone and I am throwing my all into the new business. I have been asked have you heard from Jack, only his mother has not heard from him in weeks?"

"No, the last time I saw him he was demanding more money from me in New York. Why what's he done?"

"Nothing, that's the point, he has not touched his bank accounts and his mother has yet to be asked for more money. That alone is worrying her, that he may have annoyed his creditors and they have taken payment in kind?" Christian passes me the look and I try to avoid the matter altogether. They will find his body someday soon. Perhaps?

"Ouch? I will ask security to look into it. Now, less of the moron nephew and come and meet Christian, Christian this is James Frasier, the man who taught me all he knows. Who I learned to hone my chocolate skills."

"It's a pleasure to meet you Sir. Ana speaks highly of you, very highly in fact. How are you settling into things in Switzerland?"

"It was a hard thing to walk back into, my nephew had run the operation into the ground, had it not been for Ana's good name in the business The Hyde's two hundred year legacy in chocolate would have been lost forever and all because of Jack and his brother. She has saved my cousins name, something I will be forever indebted to her for. She has come so far from the girl who landed in New York; nearly seven years ago, she has flourished and grown."

"She is the strongest woman I know."

"My ears are burning here, Nonno look who is here."

"James, how are you? Come and meet the rest of the family. Sorry I am stealing him away, he needs a good malt and I do believe there are a few good vintages to be had in Christian's personal collection." They disappeared into the crowd, and what a crowd.

"Christian, where are your parents?"

"They are over there they have just entered the dining room. Get ready for the hugs and the tears. Oh and coming in behind them, the New York contingency."

"You really did pull all this together in a few hours, I could smother you in kisses. I could cover you in chocolate and lick it from every delectable ripped muscle it pools in. Maybe dip a strawberry in and savour its juiciness?"

"Are you being soppy and sexy in the same breath Miss Lambert, because if you are I like it and the thought of dipping fruit in chocolate from your body, sounds like something that could me fun and messy."

"Derr, what's not to like about melted chocolate and a naked hot body keeping it in its liquid form..."

"That's hot just imagining it poured over your breasts and licking it off slowly. Now wench stop making my dick throb, my mother and grandmother are hurtling towards you at hyper speed..."

"I have a wenches outfit, you know for the Renaissance fairs we have had at Satin and Steel, along with all manner of costumes for role play, I'm just saying I can be your Bat Girl or Robin to your super hero Bat Man." I playfully curtsey.

"How did those nights escape my notice, and can I see you in costume, um how about naked baby, the best costume you have, your birthday suit."

"Umm yours ain't too bad, maybe you missed them because you had a wench of your own to serve your needs?"

"Possibly... Let's not bring them into this happy night."

"Sorry..." I don't know why I led this conversation to that particular no go area. I am a fool.

"Christian, Ana congratulations..." Grace does in fact barrel into me with hugs. I see the smile on my man's face and know this is going to be a hell of a ride...

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I was asked how long this story will be and sadly I have to say not that long lol... perhaps 30-35 chapters? So read and review and accept my apologise for life getting in the way of fan fiction xxx


	27. Chapter 27

This story is nowt like fifty shades; I just purloined E.L. James's characters buildings and some other stuff... You have been so very good with your comments and reviews, keep them coming please, I know lots of you read this, but not a lot of you review...

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I like to see the notifications ping into my in box; it makes me want to write more. I have decided to write shorter chapters too... Its less stress trying to write 11,000 word chapters...

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I am recovering from a horrid ten weeks of aches pains and depression, thank you for all the PM's

I am truly grateful for every message received, I hope you like this chapter, you waited long enough...

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Dreaming of Chocolate and Grey:

Chapter 27:

Shall we get married?

Ana and I are sat at the top of a huge dining table, with our nearest and dearest around us, spirits are high and loud laughter is the sound emanating from the table.

"Bro, you didn't have a bucks night... I say we have one?" Elliot says as he drinks his umpteenth beer.

"No, I say we don't, besides Ana and I have to be up early and get our marriage licence, and I do not want to be drunk doing it. How about we have it in Australia, when we have our party over there, so that Ana's Uncle Ray and the boys can come too?"

"Oh lord, Ozzies sure know how to drink, are you sure Chris?" Marco says as he drinks yet more wine. "And given that we are Ozzie, Italian wine producers and drinkers it will be a booze fuelled Stag do, it could end up in you being under the table?" I laugh, he's nearly out of his chair now, but given the uncles have been drinking all the way from Switzerland, we are lucky they are still with us, and they seem to be no worse for wear than Elliot, who only started drinking when they left New York. Apparently Italian children are raised with wine and drink it from an early age, and it takes a lot to get them drunk as they are used to drinking, this I have heard before, but never believed it, until now. I make a mental note to tell Ana that our children, should we be blessed with them will be tee-total. And yes I do want children with my beautiful wife.

"Yup, we are fair dinkum drinkers, but it will be our pleasure to throw you one hell of a husband party. As you will already be married, it's too late for a bucks, stag or whatever you call your end to your bachelorhood party, you can have a welcome to the mad Italian family, Oz Style." Uncle Sunny smiles as he says it. I watch as they are slapping Elliot's back. "Besides, Ana wouldn't be happy with us losing him in Vegas. Not with hours before they tie the knot. But we can go on a bush trek in the bush, and drink a few tinnies around a Billabong tree." He adds.

"Uncle Sunny?" Ana says.

"Yes Peaches?"

"When did you become an out and out Ozzie? I mean you hate the bush and you are none too good a drinker in the heat either, you do remember going walkabout at the farm and spending the night up a tree when that family of cute Kola's had you stay the night? You remember the night, Uncle Ray's Stag? The one you organised at the winery?"

"Um... Do not call them cute, and do not tell anyone about that night from hell and I did not organise it, it was a family dinner that went on well into the night, I blame it on the excellent vintage Papa opened, it was very rich and deathly. No more mention of the bears."

"Oh, it's too late for that my boy. You have peeked my curiosity, what did these bears do?" My grandfather asks.

"I couldn't possibly tell you, I do have photographic evidence in London though." Ana laughs, as she says it and Marco tells us the tale instead.

"He was drunk, he thought the baby Kola he found was lost, so he climbed the tree looking for Mama and Papa Kola, and as he sat in the tree with the baby bear looking for his rellies... Relatives, in case you were wondering folks, they found him before he spotted them, and believe me, they came at him like Tasmanian Devils, and were out for Sunny's blood, unusually there were a lot of them in the same tree he was sat in, but he was too drunk to see them. He tried to give it back but it made them worse. What he should have done was left it where it was, and the Mama Bear would have come down for it. Anyhow, even though it was a good deed or an attempt at one, Sunny made it worse by backing up along the branch and he managed to knock three or four more out of the tree as he didn't see them, but to hear him tell it, the big one who pushed him out of the tree was a monster koala."

"They pushed him out of the tree?" I ask. "Aren't they like little fluffy teddy bear things?" I am fascinated by Ana's family tales.

"They are not fluffy, cute or nice and they can be very big." Sunny says.

"It wasn't the bears who knocked him out of the tree, but he was too drunk to know what happened... No, the branch snapped and he landed on his head and as he did, he disturbed a sleeping snake. I can honestly say I have never seen Uncle Sunny run as quickly as he did that night, and that includes anytime there is a free bar and buffet." Ana laughs as she joins Marco in telling us the tale.

"Ana, you sat and watched him suffer?" My mother asks.

"We didn't set out to sit and watch him, but it was hilarious. He was too drunk to remember you do not try to befriend a wild animal, and in Australia not everything is as cute as it seems. No Grace, we were out looking for him when we heard the bears crying, and we followed Sunny's screams."

"Yes and I have to say it was a lesson I learned very early on in Australia, that Kola's have teeth, Wombats are cute if they want something and Roo's pack a mean punch." Marco says. "All of them at some point managed to get into our bedrooms at the farm. Sunny was a cowered and ran to Mamma to save him, I swear the animals at the farm only ever came in the house when she was away, which was a lot, she must have had some sort of mean lady sonar, that they could hear or feel and they feared her?"

"Oh god do you remember when that snake slivered into yours and Mama's bed?" Sunny asks his father.

"I do, I stupidly thought your mother was getting amorous, and as I put my hand between the sheet, I got the shock of my life to find a snake had joined me in bed. I ran, but Vita was sleeping soundly and despite my warnings to get up and move, it bit her. That was all my fault too."

"Umm, I don't think I like the sound of Australia Mr D'Acciaio."

"Call me Santino. Please?"

"Then you must call me Grace, so will I be safe Santino?"

"I cannot tell you a lie, we have some of the world's deadliest snakes and spiders, but I have never been bitten and have yet to be injured by a Kola, a roo or anything native to Oz, but I did get bitten by Vita's damned dog. That little monster was as vile as my wife, snappy and bad tempered and spoiled."

"Nonna what happened to Prince?" Ana asks?

"It got dragged away by a pack of Dingo's, she was warned there was a pack on the farm and chose to ignore my warnings."

"Why do you not fence off the farm?" Ana's grandfather asks.

"The cost and the impracticality of the task, my farm and winery is on 2500 acres, and some of it is fenced, but not all of it."

"Wow, that's a whole lot of farm." Elliot says. "Do you have sheep?" Very random Elliot, I think but do not say, "I like sheep, because they are cute and fluffy and I have always wanted to cut a sheep's hair."

"It's called shearing Elliot." My grandmother tells him. "I saw a program on it and the men were very good, they hovered off their hair really quickly and were quite buff." My grandmother has had a few gin's. My grandfather shakes his head.

"It is a specialist trade, though we can do it, but it would take us forever. We have a bunch of guys come and shear the flock; it always ends in a few broken hearts when the buff guys leave. My sons are not that fast at sheering the damned things, but they are good at wine making and baking..."

"And interior design Papa."

"Yes Marco and your interiors."

"And my chocolates Nonna..."

"Oh god, my family is good at most things, except sheering damned sheep." They all laugh. "Now where were we?"

"Sheep and fences." I say.

"We have some fifteen thousand head of sheep, some cattle and general farm livestock, but we are not farmers as such, we hire people to run the livestock, and when possible we add in more land and then we spend a few years readying the land for more vine planting, vines we import from my families vineyards in Italy. Vines that were planted when Caesar was alive, good solid grape vines."

"Hail Cesar, that Cesar? Hey you could get married at Cesar's palace Bro." He went there...

"We are getting married where ever Ana wants to hold the ceremony." She smiles.

"I would like to use the same chapel as my parents did, Mum, would that be okay?"

"Yes Ana, that would be nice, it would be wonderful. When are you doing it and how?"

"I don't know; I am leaving it in Christian's hands. Christian?"

"I was presuming we could get the licence and dash off to the first chapel we came to, then come here and have a party, I had no other plans planned, this was all a little last minute Baby."

"Oh..." Ana seemed a little sad, and I guess I would be too, but this small rushed wedding was all last minute and only a whim until I added in the rest of our family. I have the money to move mountains, so a mountain I will move.

"However we can do whatever you want, wherever you want."

"Oh good. So if we go to the courthouse when it opens, dressed in our finery, we meet everyone at the chapel where Mum and dad got married, yes?"

"Yes Baby, I will get Taylor to organise the cars. It will be not be a drive through though as we will have a trail of cars way out onto the strip." I smile as I say it. Taylor gives me a nod, good the surprise is ready. We finish the meal and then sit in the bar drinking. Ana's family and mine blend seamlessly and perfectly. Especially as they were all getting as drunk as Marco and Sunny? Taylor approached me and had that look on his face. This did not look good.

"Sir, can we talk, a situation has arisen and it needs your urgent attention." Ana smiled.

"Can it not wait Taylor?"He shook his head, crap what now. My phone is off too, so it must be something serious if they have contacted Taylor.

"Go and sort it out Mr Grey, Jason would not have bothered you if it was not important." I kiss her cheek and Taylor and I head to the patio.

"What is it Taylor?"

"I don't know how to tell you this, but Welch has tried to call you as has Dr Flynn. Leila has left the facility she was in and cannot be traced."

"Fuck..."

"My thoughts exactly. She also has a licence to carry a hand gun."

"Was it not revoked when they sectioned her?"

"They did, but they had yet to go to her property and take back the gun she purchased."

"So my nutter of an ex is out there, possibly with a gun and possibly coming to try to kill me? Is that what you are saying?"

"Yes Sir, but there is more."

"More, more what? Has she be joined by the other disgruntled submissives, out to get me?"

"Yes Sir, she had help getting out."

"How and who?"

"Lydia Johnson. She was visiting Leila and when the visit was over somehow they did a swap, Lydia was left in Leila's room and Leila walked right out." Lydia was the first sub Elena got for me and one I put through medical school, and this is how she repays me? I hope she likes being homeless car less and has the funds to fight my legal action.

"Why, why would Lydia do that? Of all the ex-submissives she was, I thought the safest of them. Where is she Taylor?"

"John has her and he has questioned her as to why she did it. She said she was made to do it by Leila. Leila and her are related."

"Related, how? And why did I not know she and Leila were related? What is the point in doing fucking checks if things like this do not show up?"

"Lydia is Leila's boyfriends sister. The man who Leila was seeing is or was, was Lydia's brother. Apparently they kept in touch, all of your ex's are in some sort of club, they got friendly and that's how the Leila and her boyfriend came about."

"Why would Lydia help her, besides the brother thing?"

"That's the kicker in the story, Leila told Lydia, that you sent the men who were responsible for the home invasion, to get papers and photo's she was holding for her Aunt Elena."

"She had papers, fuck really? Elena gave Leila copies of the files and photo's?"

"We are checking the apartment they shared; I wouldn't put it passed Mrs Lincoln to have had a back up back up."

"Bitch. I would like to speak to Lydia, but the clinic is too far, too far to go and speak to her and get married tomorrow."

"Welch has gone to see her Sir. He will find out the truth, might I suggest we do further checks on the fifteen? Especially in the light of the news on the Sub-Club?"

"Funny you are not Taylor, but yes check them all again, fuck it they were checked mere weeks ago, and none of them mentioned being in any sort of fucking fan club."

"They it seems have an interest in the woman who has caught your eye. Leila and Susannah were and are the most vocal in the matter. I have a man watch in her, if any of the submissives were to help Leila, it would be her."

"Fuck..." My head hurts, secrets and lies will be the death of me. Ana is in danger again... "Have Luke filled in on the latest news and..."

"I have assigned both Ryan and Reynolds to her, and all your family have extra people watching them and the resort has extra security staff too."

"Fuck, it is never going to end, but then what can you expect when I had liaisons with the women I did? Taylor that was a rhetorical question, do not trouble yourself with answering it." He nods his head.

"Sir, might I suggest you tell Miss Lambert? She is not a fool and will know something is afoot."

"Very Sherlock-Holmes-esq Taylor, but yes, she will be told to keep an eye open for strangers and Leila."

"What was that about Leila?" Damn, when did she sneak in? "Christian, tell me what has she done now?"

"Escaped..." I told her what I knew, what we knew and she sat and drank her soda, contemplating what I had told her. "So, I have to watch out for her and the rest of them? Okay, but I swear I am so bloody pissed off with this. So I guess that's more security and the wedding if off?"

"No, no its still taking place. Ana nothing is stopping us getting married."

"Do they know we are here Christian?"

"Sir, Miss Lambert, they do there has been a story in the damned Nooz... It seems you were seen boarding the jet, and photos show the two of you together."

"Damn I hope they got my good side?" Ana jokes.

"You don't have a bad side Baby."

"Smooth Grey, very smooth and thank you, you are kind of perfectly formed too. Now when did the nutter escape?"

"An hour ago Miss Lambert. Why?"

"Well, she isn't here now is she?"

"And your point it Ana?" I ask.

"Let's at least enjoy the night, Christian and I am sure Taylor here, being he is a security expert, has dealt with the more pressing arrangements for the next day or two?"

"Yes I have, but we have the more pressing security issues. The concert?" Taylor says, fuck that is a monster to police and secure.

"I am still doing it, that's not up for discussion. I am doing the concert, I have to. Taylor I have to do it, there is no ifs or buts about it. I will have the venue up security. I will have the entries fitted with scanners and Oh god, is she that mad?"

"Yes Ana. Yes is the simple answer."

"Fuck wit and shit... What has she in the way of funds and weapons?"Ana asks, like she is a weapons expert too.

"As far as we are aware she has a handgun and the credit card her sister in law gave her and three hundred dollars, but Ms Williams is the most resourceful of women."

"So she has a hand gun, what is the range of her gun?"

"Ana, what does that matter?"

"Well she would have to be near either of us to fire it, so we can rule out long range activity and concentrate on close range protection, yes Taylor?"

"Ana how do you know this?"

"Christian I can shoot, I grew up with Papa Frank, who loved to shoot Grouse and the uncles, and they like to shoot Roo's."

"Gun's. Ana, guns?"

"Yes Christian, bang-bang guns. I guess it's something we didn't do when you were around? Taylor, is she deranged enough to come after me or Christian, and be honest with me?"

"Yes, she kidnapped her own child, she lost the love of her life, she is off her meds and she of all Mr Grey's submissives was the one who desperately wanted more than to be a weekend friend, sorry Sir, but I don't know how better to say she wanted more than a beating?"

"I knew she would be trouble after the Gail incident. Ana she wants to have or hurt me and doing you harm would hurt me Ana, I am sorry."

"Okay then, thanks for that honesty, both of you. I guess I need Kevlar knickers and body armour? Do you two need more time to get a hold of this?" How the fuck is she so calm? I am a wreck... "I am going to see to our family and friends and talk about your naked little boy tushie with Grandma T, she is hilarious. I am fine with you stopping here and worrying, but she is hours away and cannot fly here so the chances are she will take days to reach us, unless she gets her hands on a private plane?"

"Taylor, check with all Elena's clients who have planes, that she hasn't been in touch?" He is tapping way on his phone.

"Barney is on it, tracking them and their planes, good thinking Miss Lambert."

"Hu, oh yeah... I am off to mingle. Are you coming Christian?"

"Taylor?"

"Sir, we have the resort covered and as she couldn't fly here in an hour, I would think you are safe to mingle." I nodded my thick head and went with Ana, though I am feeling like a child whose balloon has popped, angry sad and confused. Why me and why now?

"Stop worrying Christian, I have been warned and I am aware of what she looks like, what she is capable of and what she wants. Relax, please? I am not going to put myself in harms-way either. I promise."

"Ana, I..."

"Shush I know... Come on lets mingle for an hour and then we really need to get some sleep. We are getting married in the morning." I smile as she winks. How am I going to handle this mess without freaking the fuck out? What the fuck am I thinking, I am already freaking out.

"You have to do those interviews too Ana."

"I know, but she doesn't know that, and Luke is carrying, they have top class security too."

"I am coming with you Ana."

"I would hope so; I want to show off my new husband."

"Is that wise?"

"I don't know, but if she sees that you are married, she may back off?"

"From your lips to God's ears Baby! It could make her worse and more determined though."

"Hey ho... So are you getting prettied up for our big day?"

"I have a nice pair of shorts, will they do?" I laugh as she grips my face and kisses me. Her hands stay there and we stare into each other's eyes.

"I love you Christian Grey. Board shorts?"

"Nah, I am going with a nice Armani I have. I think the occasion warrants it. What did you get?"

"A bikini..."

"Fuck..."

"Hopefully..."

"Ana, let's say our goodnights now?"

"Okay, besides they are all drunk anyway... Or sleeping..." We say our goodnights and head to our room. Apparently we are having a very fond farewell to our being single.

Ana gets a gift...

Christian and I make our way to our suite, hurriedly actually, any faster and we would be running for the doors. I think we actually were running at some point.

"Why the fuck is my room so damned far away?"

"Perhaps you should make sure you have a room on each floor? Thankfully this one is only three floors..." We get to the doors breathless. Christian picks me up and carries me over the threshold of the room. A little premature, but fun nonetheless. He grappled with his tie and carrying me at the same time. My giggling in his ear seemed to spur him on and into some frenzy; he was so not the usual calm and collected Christian Grey.

"Ana, stop breathing like that in my ear, it's doing unusual things to me and my dick..."

"Um, from my breathe to your ear, to your dick, it seems my breathing is magical... I guess the others were not allowed to get this close?" I breathed softly into his ear again, giggling as he suddenly sounded like a Neanderthal, he growled as he kicked open the bedroom door, boy he is eager to please and tease. So eager my beautiful dress is almost ripped from my body. My underwear is history too. Okay this is definitely going to be good. I am naked on the bed, watching as he strips, no finesses, no show, just the flurry of expensive clothing dumped with the remnants of mine. I sat and watched as he got naked. Then suddenly he was on top of me, was romance dead? Fuck romance... This is frigging awesome, gone is the controlled and in control master of the universe and in his place is someone I am eager to see, a normal sexy Christian Grey. Normal? Well as normal as a ex-dominant can be I guess? Says the ex-dominatrix... He seemed to have more angst and energy, and as we rolled over on the bed holding each other tightly it became a wild passionate thing of beauty.

I'm now on top and riding him hard, until he then stops the frenzy and begins treating me with kid gloves. Suddenly sitting up, he kissed and suckled at my nipples; they responded and were now hard and so sensitive that I groaned. Laying me on my back gently, he suddenly thrust hard into me and began groaning, he's moving within me in a series of long hard thrusts.

He kept his pace going for what seemed like an age, smiling and leaning down for more kisses in between thrusts. He was exhausting me as we made mad love. Then the pace changed, he came at me almost, with a fierce and wonton passion, when finally the kid gloves were truly off again god he makes my head spin, he was getting harder and quicker, the feelings built to a fantastic end and as I came and hard, I'd clenched my muscles around his dick, he groaned as he continued to move within me, he then cried out for me to release him, I smiled because I didn't realise I was gripping him quite so hard.

"Fuck Baby, that's fantastic, yes do it again, argh yeah now Ana, do it again now, yes again." I obeyed the stud, who was killing me with sex.

"Christian, I love you, this is so nice."

"Nice? I would say that's an understatement, this is frigging awesome. I love you too, now shush and do that again please that was fantastic, you really feel good on my dick, and boy he's missed you..."

"What, we played around earlier too, but yeah I missed you too, now less talking, more action please... Argh yesss, just like that yes, yes, yes I'm coming Christian, fuck me harder." The ride was far from over thank god, because he stopped mid thrust and looked down into my eyes, wow those grey's certainly change colour a lot, and I like every shade of grey they come in, fifty perhaps? "Erm are you waiting for an invite to finish? Because if you are, then please feel free to finish, but not so quickly. I would say Mr Grey, that you have taken my breath away several times already; try a few more ways of taking it, please?" He grinned.

"My pleasure; like this or like this?" I shook as he sent me to heaven again and yes, I saw God and a few stars as I had another epic crash. He kissed me again and let out a muffled grunt, all whilst saying my name over and over. I wrapped my arms around him tightly as I felt him coming and finally as he'd emptied himself within me, he collapsed in a sweaty heap on top of me. Okay that was a wild ride, it was so different from anything we had done, sober... I say that because whilst he was drunk the first time, he was exactly the same, loose and uncontrolled. It seems something happened tonight to release him from his usual controlled self? He was glistening with sweat, his hair is wet and he is breathless as he slides to my side. I just lay there looking like a girl, who had just had the best sex ever, and what amazing sex it was. My heart is beating hard as I lay breathless and sore beneath him. Christian relaxed, he was smiling too and is just as exhausted as me, he rested on his arm and moved to my side, he opened the bedside drawer and pulled out a box.

"I love you Miss Lambert..."

"I would hope so Mr Grey, what's this for?" I ask as I take the box and sit up, he is watching me as he lays there looking at me, with that sexy glint in his eyes.

"Open it and find out..." I open the box and see a necklace; it has a grey/blue slate looking stone in what looks like a silver setting.

"What is it?" He gets out another box, and opens it... In it are a pair of cufflinks with the same stones in them. "Christian, is this what I think it is?"

"It depends, what do you think it is?"

"The slate from Christian's..."

"...Yes, I took a couple of pieces, I didn't know why I did it Ana, I just did it. I had them made for us to keep him close to us, silly I know."

"Christian, this is a sweet thing to do, we will have to wear them tomorrow, umm I mean later. What did I do to deserve you?"

"I think it is me who is the lucky one." I finger the necklace and the tears fall.

"Baby, I didn't mean to make you cry."

"I know, but I wonder what he would be like now?"

"We can imagine he would look like you, or that he would look like me? We can torment ourselves with that question all the time Baby, so stop and just remember him as he was."

"You didn't see him and it was my fault."

"No... There was fault on both sides, mine mainly." He held me tightly as I kissed the slate offering. "When you said you didn't want any more children, after Christian, is that set in stone?" He suddenly asked.

"Hu? I mean why?"

"I think one day I'd like to have more children with you Ana..."

"Wow, where did that come from? I thought you didn't want children?"

"I didn't see myself as a father, not until I became one." I gulped. I was afraid to go through that again; he didn't have to do what I had gone through, crap. He is broody for a brood... Way to kill the damned mood.

"Christian..."

"I know why the 360 turn around? Well I guess being with you has changed my mind."

"Christian, I went through hell giving birth to our son and I'm not ready to do it again."

"Is that a no?"

"It's a not just yet. I'm sorry but it's a tough decision for me to make right now, is it a deal breaker?"

"No, it was just a thought, perhaps you need to talk to someone about your fears?"

"I do talk to someone Christian, I talk to our son, but by help I guess you mean a doctor, not a grave?"

"Ana I didn't mean to upset you, it's just thought..."

"...Okay, I will talk to someone and get help, I guess these are some of the things we should have discussed before we rushed head long into marriage."

"Do you want to put marrying me on hold?" Did I? I know I love him but, I am deathly afraid of having another baby. "If you don't want to have another child, after you have spoken to a doctor, then perhaps we could look at adopting?" I know I gulped because my ears popped... Adoption? "I was adopted, and my parents love me." I also know you came with many problems too, problems that have lead to the more serious problems we are still having to deal with.

"Christian, this is not baby related, but the sex we have just had, it was different!"

"Was it bad, was I too rough, why ask Ana?"

"It was like you were a different person. That's all." I tell him feebly, because his face was hard to read, hurt? Anger? He is hard to read.

"I guess the thought of losing you and everything it took over, I am not a sentimental man Ana, I do not do these emotions, they are as foreign to me as making damned chocolates. Ana I was a sorrowful soul, and meeting you each year was a joy I kept hidden, then obviously you stopped going to the island, after that night..."

"Obviously... So tonight's passion and need, greed almost was because you were afraid of losing me?"

"Yes, I had theses crazy thoughts rushing through my deluded brain."

"I promise I will see someone to help me get over the fear I have, if you promise to be patient with me?"

"Yes, I promise..."

I was now not thinking of anything other than seeing the sadness in his eyes, how could I deny him something that was it seems important to him? A child, something that all couples think about, something that people, our families especially will be expecting. I nestled into Christian and as I did I felt stupid, I felt selfish and I suddenly, without speaking to any specialist, realised that people who lose a child, they do it again, some like poor Gail do it over and over again, but was I one of those women. I sighed and as Christian's chest rose and fell, I knew he was sleeping. I was not sleepy, my mind was in turmoil, subs, wedding and babies, the business and my future, and they were all running mock in my head. I slowly released myself from Christian, slipped on a my jogging clothes and go for a run... Closely followed by Luke and Ryan and Reynolds, talk about overkill. I run and run, and as the warm air hits my face I try to run through my options. I suddenly stop and throw up, shit I had pushed myself to hard, I looked at the three guys behind me and they were red and out of breath. Oops.

"Sorry, why did you not stop me?"

"Our job is to follow and protect Ana; and you seemed to need to run." Luke said as we caught our breathe. "So we let you run, ever thought of running professionally?"

"I did, for a while and I do marathons for charity."

"Good to know I need to get in shape. Are we heading back?" I looked at my watch and shrugged my shoulders.

"Yeah, I guess so, after all I am getting married in four hours." Or am I...?

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As I said shorter chapters... Sorry, I left you with a cliffy, and I hate cliff hangers too... Lol I promise to post the next chapter a lot quicker... Like tomorrow... I got my grove back... READ REVIEW AND CUSS... XXX


	28. Chapter 28

This story is nowt like fifty shades; I just purloined E.L. James's characters buildings and some other stuff...

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You have been so very good with your comments and reviews, keep them coming please, I know lots of you read this, but not a lot of you review...

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I like to see the notifications ping into my in box; it makes me want to write more. I have decided to write shorter chapters too...

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 _ **Oh and in future it will be Aussie's not Ozzies...**_

 _ **Hands slapped, this 'Pom' hangs her head in shame lol!**_

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Dreaming of Chocolate and Grey:

Chapter 28:

Well, are we doing this?

I wake myself up and I am screaming for Christian, I turn and grasp at the sheets, but they are cold, I reach for the bed side lights and as I turn them on my mother comes running into the room.

"Ana, Ana wake up Honey, you were having a nightmare. Here let me help you, can I help you?"

"Christian, where is he?"

"In his parents suite, when you fell asleep he went to see his mother and I happened to be there talking to Grace and came to sit with you."

"Is he okay?"

"He was when he came in; he won't be if Luke has told him you woke screaming. Do you do this often, have nightmares?"

"No, I haven't had one for a while, not since I met Christian again. Did I go running?"

"What honey? Running, no you and Chris left the party and we all went to our rooms, Grace and I were chatting in their suite. Christian as I said came in when you fell asleep, he it seems wanted to honour your request to spend at least part of the night apart, but he is only at the end of the floor."

"Mum...?"

"Yes Honey?"

"I had an awful dream I think?"

"I suspect it's just those good old wedding nerves? What was it about Ana?" She is sat on the bed and holding me against her, this feels really quite surreal, my mother comforting me as if its second nature? It's very weird actually, from hating her ass, to her cuddling mine in a matter of a couple of days is very... As I said weird... Am I dreaming this too? I mean I have done the complete turnaround and Christian has done the same thing too, from not wanting children to wanting them, from being a dominant to being in love me, yeah I'm dreaming all this, right?

"Ana, earth to Ana... Honey what's troubling you? The dream? Tell me about it. Please, it may help?"

"What? Oh the dream? Right. Christian asked me to reconsider my thoughts on not having any more children, it confused me, you know, with how he seemed to change from being an in control strong and opinionated CEO guy, to being this kind man, and the would-be father to our future children? He heard me say I didn't want to go through that heartbreak again, he knew the reasons why and yet he asked me to have another child."

"Is that so wrong Ana, he has met the right one, you Honey, he met you and faced the fears he had and now Ana you need to face yours. Ana perhaps you need proper help in facing the past, your past? The baby, and his death, he and it has changed you, he has changed Christian."

"I know that Mum, I really do see the change in him. That's the problem, has he changed because he wants too or because he feels obligated to it?"

"Ana, why would I feel obligated to change?" I hear the soft voice of the love of my life. "Ana are you okay, what brought all this on?"

"Our talk, the talk you know the talk?" I say as I sob into the sheets.

"What talk Ana, we didn't talk much, you know?" Was he blushing? My mother smiled.

"I will leave you to it... Christian, Ana talk and perhaps get a couple of hours sleep. I need a little more?" She kissed my head and left. Christian took her place.

"Okay Baby, tell me why you think I am changing out of obligation, what obligation?"

"The baby, you feel obligated to me."

"Okay, well that is not true, I have always loved you Ana I just didn't know it. Ana we have had a rocky and unusual start to this, this..."

"... Exactly Christian, we don't know what this is we have, yet we are rushing head long into marriage, I mean I thought I knew where I stood on the baby issues, I have always loved you and wanted you, now I am doubting everything and why? Because you asked me to have your baby, our baby."

"When? When did I ask you to do that Ana?" I looked him in the face.

"After we made love of course, well actually after you went all Neanderthal on me and we went wild in this very bed, you have to remember the chat?"

"Ana Baby, we fucked hard, we made love and fucked hard again very Neanderthal of me yes, very because I was in need of you, your body and wanted nothing to be controlled, I wanted and got unbridled passion and boy was it fucking wonderful too. You then said and I quote, 'Marrying you has to be the best thing after the baby I have ever experienced' then you passed over into dream ville. I sat here holding you a while as you slept on me, and then as I was and still am a little annoyed and couldn't sleep, you know, at Leila's escape and over thinking the wedding, so I went to see and talk to Mom."

"We didn't talk about my seeing someone to discuss my baby issues?"

"No, I know how you feel about Baby Christian being your one and only child. I wouldn't force you into doing anything that you didn't want to do. Ana, the only speaking done tonight were the I love you's and the fucks...Oh and the oh fucks and do it again."

"So I didn't go jogging?"

"No. You have not left this room since I carried you over the threshold and yes went all Neanderthal on you and your ass, and I sort of loved it too Did you have a bad dream about that, if so I am so sorry?"

"Weird. I dreamt you asked me to have another baby and of cufflinks and a necklace in slate."

"How the hell..." He looked miffed...

"What?"

"How in the hell did you know I had bought you a necklace and had cufflinks made?" He went to the safe and pulled out two matching boxes and as he opened them I gulped... "I had these made..."

"... So our son could be with us at the wedding, they are from the slate you took from his garden, yes?"

"Yes Baby and now I am worried about the other stuff you dreamed about too..." I told him about my crazy, it seems, dreams and everything I thought we had discussed, which led to us talking. I guess it was something we should have done well before the couple of hours we have left before we leave to get our paperwork signed? We have been sat talking for an absolute age, Christian has given me my robe to wear and I get a rumble in my stomach. He smiles and orders breakfast. I guess I am hungry? As we sit and hold each other; he kisses my head and soothes away the madness of my odd dream.

"I wouldn't worry, about the other stuff, I am sure once I talk this through with a specialist, I may be open to having another baby some time."

"Okay, I wasn't going to ask you to change your mind Ana, because it's a hard thing to get your head around. I guess I am more open to having another baby with you, but only if you are a hundred percent okay with it and after we have had a couple of years more of getting to know each other's oddities, dreams and secrets."

"I think the dream was someone telling me we had to discuss this before we got married."

"Okay I can discuss this odd dream you had, but remember real women I can handle, and I do that only in my way, and there are a wide range in my life, as you so rightly pointed out, what with all the mad women, the bold and the brassy women who openly come on to me, when clearly they have difficulty understanding when I say no, I mean no, included in that are the pushy business women, then there are the deluded mad women out there, well I may have a little trouble with those, but Ana Baby, I am not even going there with trying to understand the weird arsed dreams of the only woman I have ever loved, the only woman who has made me feel alive for the first time in a long time, not if it means hearing you calling all this off as dream Ana wanted too." He looks worried after hearing I had doubts and was worried about marrying him, about all the women he could have asked to marry him, and I may have over done the speech on who he could be marrying too and about what my dream meant, He was right he knew women, he knew them in the biblical sense and he understood how most of them thought, but he said I was always different? Yeah, I am whacky and it seems a little physic, especially dreaming about a damned slate necklace and getting it right too.

He then shows me the dream necklace and I swear I sigh loudly, it's not the same as the one in my dream, its prettier, of course, and he has embellished the one in real life with diamonds. His cufflinks are matching my necklace, and as I touch the dainty thing, I am given a kiss as I start releasing those damned tears. Again I am left wondering how did I know about the damned necklace?

"Wow," I say as I pull away, "you are so very thoughtful Mr Grey, so thoughtful, I think I may have to marry you in," I look at my watch and smile..."in two hours, if that's what you want?"

"I do, I really do. So you like the necklace then?"

"I love it and you, so get out of my sight I have to get ready to marry you. I may love you a little bit Christian Grey."

"Good, because I know I love you a whole lot, and if you see visions of anything else in those dreams of yours, let me know, because you knowing I was getting the jewellery done was a little spooky Ana?" It was and there had to be a reasonable explanation for it, right?

After another of his wet between the leg kisses he leaves, after taking his things to the guest bedroom, we are not it seems shower sharing as we are on a tight timeline? My room is then invade by Mia, Kate, Grace and my mother, tagging on at the back is Gail and Holly, who is here dressed in her pretty dress and wow she looks different, my crazy sister is never seen in a dress, well she is, but only in photographs and in videos from our youth. She is more comfortable in jeans and tee shirts...

"We have been sent in to see if you are okay and to give you some breakfast..." Kate tells me.

"Okay, I am not hungry. Though if you have any juice on the tray, that would be good?" I ask Mia. Who is uncovering bagels and all manner of breakfast foods?

"Bucks fizz?" Grace counters.

"Just the orange will do for me please Grace? Gail and you Holly can I talk to you both in the bathroom please?"

"Oh, we can leave you to it; we just wanted to give you a friendly hello." Kate says as she bags a bagel. They all have their Bucks Fizz and are eating; the thought of food right now makes me heave. I want them to leave before I do. I am damned nervous and have had a nightmare of a dream thing. Apparently I dreamt about the baby talk, as we'd never discussed it, I never went for a run and Christian said I went straight to sleep, I am so damned confused, but then again, I didn't bring my jogging stuff, so I know it is true, but the doubts, they are there.

"Gail, I need advice, only advice you can give me, if you wouldn't mind, and you Holly, I need to ask you about the weird dream I just had?"

"I did one term in phsyc classes Ana, so it doesn't make me a bloody psychiatrist..."

"Ouch grouchy, I was going to ask you about messages from the dead, I mean how the hell did I know Christian had bought me a necklace made from the slate from Christian's Garden?"

"Oh... I mean... Sorry, I think that could have been my fault Miss Lambert." Gail says.

"How?"

"Jason, sorry Taylor was showing me the simple necklace that Mr Grey had had his jeweller make, he and I were discussing them, you must have overheard the conversation and I don't know blanked it out?"

"Oh, I thought Taylor was giving you a gift, and that was why you cried?" I say, as I remember the talk they had, something I should have remembered, but I didn't, but dream about it I did, gheeze just lately I m so forgetful and disorganised and so messy, I blame Mr Grey, I used to be so damned organised and now I am blending dreams and reality and some of it is not even my own reality, into my own recently chaotic and messy life. I think I am going damned mad? I need to ask Nonno is there madness in the family; I can rule out being related to Vita thank god, now there is real madness and deluded madness on a grand scale too.

"No Ma'am, I cried because it was the most beautiful and simple of gifts he could have got for you to remember your son by. I got a little teary as you know I have had three babies born to sleep and if Alex, sorry the ex husband, Mr Jones, if he had done something as nice as that for me, I doubt I would have left him."

"Oh... That must mean I was eaves dropping... Sorry... Fancy me dreaming about it though?"

"Its fine, we shouldn't have been discussing it either Ma'am..."

"Gail, it Ana, please call me Ana... It was all so real. In my dreams I was leaving him at the altar so to speak and running, and all because he asked me to have another baby, I don't think I am ready for that Gail, how did you cope?"

"It was hard; it was harder for me because Mr Jones wasn't as bothered by it as I was. He was rather callus about it all and his mother, whom lived with us and was near on still wet nursing her only son, was worse, she said god takes what you can't cope with and he agreed with her, and said I would have been a lousy mother and obviously god thought I wasn't fit to be a mother."

"Oh how horrid," Holly says as she sits on the bath and eats her bagel, "how hard did you smack the ma-in-law in the gob?" Gail smiles as she sips her drink. I like Gail and I can see why Christian considers her his sort of mother, she is very kind and caring.

"I think I hit her once and kneed him in his balls twice and on the nose once too. I mean they were so cruel, I had been home from the hospital for only an hour, when they suddenly started laughing and ordering me to make their dinner, finally after years of their abuse I had had enough, I told them to leave my house and if they did not go I would call the sheriff, my uncle and after a few they were sorry's and they were only joking and after they begged me to stop being nasty, as they were only trying to lighten the mood. I picked up the phone and called my uncle and I didn't change my mind, so after they were escorted from my home, they never showed their faces in town again."

"Wow, you grew a set of balls Gail, much respect, did you divorce him then?"

"I tried too, but they were hard to find."

"Christian told me you were a widow Gail, are you?"

"Yes, some two years later they were killed in a traffic accident! So he left me a widow, and childless, after I had wasted all my youthful years looking after him and his mother and wishing for a family with that idiot, I was left with just their crap to sort, as I was still married to the damned fool man, and in it I found his mother diaries, when I read them I was heartbroken to find out she had given me something each and every time, to bring on early delivery of my babies or make me miscarry, which I did a lot too, so desperate was I for a child I did not see I had picked the wrong godly momma's boy to do it with."

"She what?" I shouted.

"Umm, it seems she didn't want to share her son with his children and me, so she put something into the food she cooked for me. I stupidly never knew anything about it until I emptied their home."

"How awful, so it wasn't anything to do with god not blessing you, but more to do with having the ma-in-law from hell drugging you? She sounds like a proper nutter and he was a fool of a mamma's boy. So Mrs Jones, are you and T, you know thinking of getting married and having a baby?" Holly asked as she ate another bagel, where has she got them stashed?

"Holly, don't be so intrusive..." I say and as I say it I see Gail smile.

"He has asked me to marry him, and I have said yes, but I think at forty I am too old to have children, I am blessed to have found a good man who has a child he wants to share with me, so Sophie will be the nearest thing to a daughter I have, but she is enough, she is so beautiful and smart."

"Taylor has a child Gail?" I ask.

"He has, she is nearly seven and the apple of his eye."

"Oh..." I say, she is my baby's age. I wonder if this is why Christian has not told me about Sophie?

"He works a lot, so he doesn't see her as much as he would like, but when he does they are beautiful to watch together."

"Does Christian's life and job mean he is away from her a lot?"

"Yes, but Mr Grey pays for her education and he sees to it she has the best of everything, and where possible he sees to it they get as much time together as is possible." Holly has been eating bagels as we chat to Gail where is she stashing them, then I see she has a purse full of them she does like my bagels... I see that Christian's life impacts on many people in different ways; he works a lot, so too do Taylor, Gail and the rest, they work these crazy hours too. I guess we all work crazy hours and to have a child you barely see because of work is a horrid thought for me to consider, my child our child would be raised by nannies...

"I would hate that for my child."

"So are you going to have more Annie?" Holly asks. Gail smiles.

"It gets easier Ana, and the pain eases. I know I have had the pain and would still go through with it again, would that I could. People do it all the time Ana. You will too... I am always here to talk, should you need that shoulder, but I think from what I can see at least, you will be wonderful parents and your child would be lucky to have you and work is not everything you have to live for. You both need to learn to delegate and then there would be no need for a nanny..."

"I will think about it and thank you Gail, it was good getting to know you better. I am not a strong as you seem to have been, but I guess I can be if I try."

"Oh goody, I am holding you to that, I wanna spoil a niece or nephew, Dad would be over the damned moon too, he and Mum tried you know, but it never happened for them, they had to make do with me and a borrow of you now and again."

"Humm, you could have one, a cub for Uncle Wolfe to spoil?"

"Paff I ain't found a man worth humping yet... Though that Luke guy looks like he could gimmy my own wolf pack, what do you say Gail, should I try to start a pack of my own with Luke?"

"He is a nice boy and you are a nice girl. I would say try dating before mating, now we have to leave to let you bathe, do you want me to draw you a bath Ana?"

"Nope, I can run a bath, go and get a drink and you know gossip and do whatever the others are doing, I have not so long to ready this body for marriage... Thanks... And Gail for what it's worth you would have been a wonderful mother. Perhaps if we have children you could be a fantastic honorary grannie to our children?"

"So you are going to try?" She says with a tear escaping her eye, which is subtlety removed before it is joined by others.

"I think I want to think about it a little longer, but yes I think I may want to try, you know someday?" She smiled and took Holly with her. It seems I have a friend and ally in Gail, and now she was a woman I knew more about than I did about my own mother. Good, I think I will need as many as I can to stay married and sane to one complicated man, my wonderful man, Christian Grey...

Are you ready, 'cos here we come...

"Ana, Honey are you ready in there? Do you need help, only we have to be going soon actually Ana Honey; we need to go now..?" My mum is shouting through from the bedroom, as I enter in my dress from the dressing room, having done my hair and placed on the flapper headdress and veil thing I enter the bedroom to see my mother and Nonno...

"Oh my lord Papa, do you see what I see?"

"I see her my darling girl, you and he made a beautiful baby Carlotta D'Acciaio..."

"I know, she has his eyes Papa..."

"I am here you know, can you please help me on with this necklace, I am all fingers and thumbs?" Nonno steps forward and fastens the new necklace and it lies perfectly above the gold one that I have never had the courage to wear before; his locket is being worn for the first time when I marry his father. I guess it deserves to be seen; now he is not my sad secret anymore?

"You look beautiful, now we have to go; your husband to be is pacing the corridor and has been since nine, you are late?"

"I am? Oh heck..." I am kissed by him as he holds me tightly.

"Come let's get you to the courthouse and back for that amazing breakfast I hear he has planned. I do believe he has ordered the contents of the bakery to be brought to the hotel?"

"I am hungry now... I missed my breakfast too." Mum and Noono walk me to the door and just in time because Mr Grey is about to barge in...

"Wow..."

"Worth the wait?"

"Hu?"

"Am I worth the wait Christian?"

"Hu what, wait, yes I have been, you look amazing and you are late..."

"By a whole ten minutes too..."

"Nonno, Mrs Adams, may I take Ana to get some paperwork done? You will find the cars Elliot ordered are awaiting your arrival..." They smile kiss my cheek and leave Christian and I alone, well nearly alone, I see the gang of security fidgeting in the private elevator...

"So, let's get this paperwork done then, if you still want to marry me?"

"I do, I really do Anastasia D'Acciaio-Lambert..." We head to the elevator and get in. Luke and Taylor are dressed in their suits and look oddly happy, I say oddly because normal security faces are hidden behind shades and are missing a smile, which today they both have. The smiles not the shades.

"We have the Mr and Mrs on route... We will be with you in five. Four. Three. Two. One..." Taylor speaks to someone in a hushed voice; the threat must have increased because I am more aware of the men in black, now more than at any other time. That bitch is not going to ruin today. No, she is not but someone else is going to... We are apparently big news and somehow news of our impending nuptials have reached Seattle. Christian and I head to a blacked out SUV and I see three stretched limos pull off and a cavalcade of cars follow them, oh my god, how many people turned up for this quickie wedding?

"We made the Nooz Baby, here read it and weep..."

"Here at the Nooz, we have inside information that later today, Seattle's own wealthiest bachelor, the enigmatic Christian Grey, is about to get himself a bride, and word on the street is it is the same woman he was seen getting on his private plane with the other day. Early reports say it is Europe's and now America's Queen of Chocolate, the equally rich Anastasia Lambert, daughter of the deceased rock star Lenny Lamb, who died the same day she was born, how sad for her, yes he died as he was touring America with his band, Of Wolves and Lambs. Her mother is the mysterious and secretive former fashion model, Carla Steel. I have sources who say that the wedding will be so secret that they don't even know where it is taking place we were told Australia was the hot spot to watch. My spies in Vegas also say several hotels have been booked for the event, but which is the actual one hosting the event is a closely guarded secret...

I bet they have spent a fortune on billable hours with their attorneys, that must be one hell of a pre-nup they each signed? When they do tie the knot they are estimated to be only a hundred billion poorer than Bill Gates... Wow think of the millions they will be spending on ther wedding? From what we here at the Nooz have heard from the same close family source that the bride is a horrid beast of a bridzilla and she has ordered food flown in from all over the world and her gown is the work of one Stella McCartney. This has been a hushed and hurried engagement and marriage, world at the wedding will be when's the baby due..." I fumed and almost threw poor Christian's phone out of the damned window, he retrieved it before I did.

"It gets better..." Christian smiles as he carries on reading...

"They met in Europe and have had a secret romance going for quite a while... Miss Lambert has said the source, been eating for two for some months... We will pay a fortune for the first wedding or baby photo; we will even pay money for a photo of the bump and the reason for the marriage... Here at the Nooz we have to ask... Who was the one who pulled the shotgun, her mother or his? Word is it was his mother making them marry, she being the good Doctor Trevelyan, she is said to be thrilled that she gets to eat Ms Lamberts chocolate for breakfast lunch and dinner... And that she at last is getting a daughter for the previously much rumoured to be gay and youngest son Christian, she was also heard to have said at a nail appointment, that all she has to do now is to get a nice girl for her eldest son, Seattle's biggest party animal and generally drunk man about town, Elliot Grey. Who said when we called him for news on his brothers marriage and yes, he gave us a quote un quote whilst drunk... "I am the man who can but won't," he ended the call with the slurred words "Later's Baby, I have my bro's wedding to go to, the man is my baby bro man, you get me Bro?" He thinks the surfer dude thing he pulls is so cool, it is not I might add Mr Grey, a good image for a man of your age, to dress and act like he is still a teenage surfer dude, this same drunk dude had not quite finished our interview because as he hung up, he stated he hates the snakes, the spider, and the Kola's in Australia and that yep, he would love to be an honorary Aussie, fer-didi-come, he then hiccupped and ended the call when he dialled for a pizza, from somewhere in Vegas... So we know Elliot Grey is in Vegas, is that were the Grey Wedding is taking place? We have a man at the courthouse. So stay tuned for news here at the Nooz..."

"Elliot drunk called a news station?" I ask as I seethe...

"He was called apparently, but they had already made enquiries at the courthouse and at several of the big flash hotels, we have eyes on two cars outside the hotel."

"They will follow the pink limo; it's kind of hard to miss Christian..."

"That is the plan. They will follow it and the convoy to the Bellagio and then they will swap cars for a tour bus they use and be shipped to the chapel of your choice Baby, but they did get Elliot spot on, though them thinking I was gay and that your were and are eating for two is hilarious. Now they are not following us and we are going in to a private entry to the courthouse and into a private room. Once we have finished we will then meet the tour bus and the rest of the relatives are waiting back at my hotel for the breakfast to start."

"Who is on the tour bus?"

"My parents, your mother, Noono and Uncle Wolf..."

"Is that all?" I ask. "So why the mega line of cars?"

"Yes thats all who will be at the wedding, the same people that witnessed your parents marriage are apart from my parents and me are going to be there. The cars were to draw the paps away, Holly and the rest of our family are a little miffed but they also knew you would hate the circus that having them all there would be. Besides they are still sobering up from last night..." Oh...

"We are here..." We were driven around and entered the building unseen. We filled in the paperwork paid the fee and headed back out in ten minutes flat and four of those minutes were taken up by the girl filling in the forms mooning at Christian for god's sake. We headed to the Wedding Chapel.

"Okay, this is happening then?" I said as I started to fidget.

"Yes, but we can tear up this paperwork and head home if you wish?" Christian said, seriously?

"No... I want to marry you so very much and now... Because here we are..." We were met at the door by the small gathering I was glad were there, any more and I would have freaked out little bit more than I was doing already.

"Are you ready Ana, Christian?" My mother asked...

"Ana... Will you please stop shaking and let the good man Elvis marry us?" Christian asked.

"Elvis? Mother you never said Elvis married you?"

"Oh did I not? Well he did, and it was fat Elvis too. A very fat and sweaty Elvis, do you remember Andrew?"

"Oh Aye, he fair stank and couldn't stop shaking, and not in a good way, he was a big fan of the band and there we were, getting you married."

"Please tell me this one is at least not sweating?"

"No Bambino, he is very nice, if a little too bald to be Elvis."

"Papa, he just needed a new wig on, the girl before this wedding gripped his head and threw his wig on the candle when the groom passed out drunk and he refused to marry them. Apparently you have to be standing to marry..."

"Mum..."

"What I asked, I like gossip but not the stuff I am reading on line about you and me and your daddy. Christian I have people shutting them down."

"So too do I mother in law to be, now Miss Lambert, let's get Elvis to make his magic work and turn you into a bona fide Mrs Grey..."

"Or you into a bona fide Mr Lambert?"

"Baby?"

"Okay, I have been practising the Mrs Grey signature for quite some time, I think I mastered it at ten, and perfected it at eighteen and wow now I get to use it for real... Come on Grey let's get this show on the road and back for my bridezilla wedding feast, you did call I-hop right?"

"I did..." We head in to get ourselves hitched... I hold my locket as we head through the chapel doors. I am marrying the man of my dreams... Yeah for me I am going to be Mrs Christian Grey...

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Sorry, I am not used to this new stuff I have to work with on hubby's laptop, its well different to mine... I hate change lol... So they are getting married... I couldn't leave you hanging any longer but I will not be updating till next week as hubby is taking his lap top with him for work, yup he's working New Year... Bummer... So I will wish you all a Happy New Year, I wish all the folks in America well with their new president and wish Britain well with Britex and the rest of the world, peace love and good luck with the resolutions you make xxx Love you all to pieces and wish you all a great 2017...

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Read review and comment xxx

Thank you for great 2016 following...


	29. Chapter 29

This story is nowt like fifty shades; I just purloined E.L. James's characters buildings and some other stuff...

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You have been so very good with your comments and reviews, keep them coming please, I know lots of you read this, but not a lot of you review...

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I like to see the notifications ping into my in box; it makes me want to write more. I have decided to write shorter chapters too...

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 _ **Happy New Year to you all a week late I know xxx**_

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Dreaming of Chocolate and Grey:

Chapter 29:

Married by Frank, how ironic?

As Ana and I enter the chapel her mother is waiting for us as are the rest of the gang. We are really doing this, and I have checked the paperwork and yes we are... I look at the altar we are going to be married at and I see the space were a bald Elvis should be. There is no bald anything standing there, just a worried woman cussing on her phone.

"Sorry about this, but our only Elvis has left the building and is heading to the ER..."

"Hu?" Ana says.

"No Ana, its Uh-huh, thank you very much, and then you swing your hips." Seriously Nonno? You are making jokes?

"Sorry about this, but he refuses to work without his hair and he cannot put on the replacement as his head is too sore..." Says the angry woman heading the ceremony.

"So have you anyone available right now who can marry my fiancée and I?"

"Yes, we have... You can pick from a Cher, The lead alien from when Martians Attack, Robert Patterson, you know he of Twilight fame? Bing Crosby, The Hulk, we have a Thor and we have a Sinatra and we even have a Liza Minnelli and I think we have a Santa Clause, he has to work off season too." She laughs and I can't imagine anything as tacky and as stupid as being married by anyone other than a proper godly person? Do I ask if they have Jesus lookalike? "Oh and we have a SpongeBob too..." Really? God this a nightmare and I will wake up and soon, won't I? This serious thing, this massive undertaking is a joke to them. I may have to call a halt to this farce.

"We will take the Sinatra. Please?" Ana says without hesitation. I smile because I see the irony in having a Frank marry us, and wonder does Ana?

"How long will he take to get ready?" I ask. "As we don't have all day." I am not being snappy but we are being followed by the paps and have a mad woman with a gun trying to get us, or me?

"He is nearly finished marrying his last couple. They wanted Elvis too, but he was a little shocked and sore, his toupee tape took what little hair he did have right off, when his wig was so cruelly ripped from his head, along with the hair it took his scalp skin, so he's suing me for allowing idiots to marry here. So I have to ask, are you an idiot Mr...?" She looks down at her notes, "...Grey?"

"I am not, nor am I drunk and yes I have all my faculties... I think..." I muttered...

"And you Miss... Lambert? The same question to you? I'm sorry, I now have to ask, because in all my years this is the first Elvis I have had sue me and they sue big out here, with the help of those damned ambulance chasers, he called his lawyer before he had even left the building, now I am facing handing him my ass." I look around the room and wonder if this is being filmed? I look at Taylor and he is his usual stoic self. Elliot isn't here so it is not his doing either. Ana is still smiling and I guess that's why I am doing this, for her.

"You have my deepest sympathy with the law suit, but I am fine, healthy and of sane mind, not drunk and eager to get married to Mr Grey here." The lady, as yet name unknown, signs some of her forms and wonder what the hell have I got myself into? Did she sign a NDA?

"You are both fine and sober and able to marry, and here he is, enjoy the Sinatra Wedding Experience, here at Vegas Weddings..." We smile as we see Frank in all his rat pack glory, complete with the stylish fedora, complete with its angles and attitude; he is the casual Ole Blue Eyes it seems, I guess his tux is at the cleaners?

"Wow, he looks like the real deal. I met him you know, back in Italy. Ana you're getting married by an Italian." Nonno is happy with this? I guess he is because he's grinning, as are my parents.

"Nonno, shush he's waiting for us, and he is an impersonator. Not the real one, he's been dead a while." Okay this has got a little outlandish, it's then I see the hip flask, Nonno is drunk. Great.

"Mr Grey, Miss Lambert are you ready?" We both stare at each other, as Frank welcomes us to his staged area. After he has pulled on the trade mark hat worn by the big man, tightly onto his head.

"Ana?"

"Christian?"

"Yes, we are ready." I tell him and smile, Ana makes this real, even if it is the stupidest thing I have ever done. Not the getting married thing, no that is one of my better ideas, as it goes! We step forward. As we do his hands go for his hat, and we stare as he steps away from us.

"Sorry, unlike like Elvis I don't want scalping. Now I have to ask, as I am Italian like Ole Blue Eyes, do you want marrying in Italian?"

"No Sir, my fiancée cannot speak it, so English is fine." He smiles at Ana, and we join him in his space.

"We are here today to marry," he looks down and I think great, he knows not who he is marrying, this is a great start. Why did I agree to this? "Christian and Anastasia?" We each nod. "Love and marriage, love and marriage, they go together like a horse and carriage, this I tell you, brother, because you can't have one without the other..." Great he is crooning... "Christian, is Anastasia under your skin, and is she deep in your heart? So deep in your heart, that she's really a part of you?" Seriously?

"Yes she is..." Well she is.

"Anastasia, is Christian under your skin, is he deep in your heart? So deep in your heart, that he's really a part of you?"

"Oh my god yes. Sorry I mean he is..." Okay this cannot be legal? Can it? He asks for our rings and Carla passes them over with a tear, I take them and we each place on the rings her parents wore. I will treasure this ring because it was Ana's fathers and I know how hard it was for her mother to give it to me.

"Thank you Carla..."

"Thank you Mum, it's so pretty..." Ana has a tear or two falling down her cheek. Carla sobs into her tissue and Ole Blue Eyes coughs again... Gheeze...

"Love and marriage, love and marriage, it's an institute you can't disparage, ask the gathered gentry, and they will say it's elementary... Now no man should try, try, try... to separate them and with these words... Love and marriage, love and marriage, much like Christian and Anastasia, go together like a horse and carriage... You can't have one without the other, so before god and this great crowd, I pronounce that you Christian can fly your bride, Anastasia to the moon. You may want to kiss her something stupid..." I look at Ana, look at my mom and Carla; is that it, we are married, and to the show tunes badly adapted and sang to create a marriage service? I can't think straight, but Ana's face is a picture, she wants that kiss. I lean in towards 'my bride' and as I do she smiles and meets me half way grinning like a very happy girl, and we kiss. Lord her lips are soft. We are interrupted by a cough; it seems we got a little carried away.

"Is that it?" Nonno asks.

"I was wondering that myself; is this even legal Cary?" My mother asks my father.

"Yes dear, the paperwork was done at the courthouse and this is a place legally sanctioned to marry good folks who want a quickie ceremony, and Frank here is ordained to marry those same said eager beavers." After several cheesy, as the ceremony, photographs with Frank, Frank leaves as there are more people wanting to get married. The lady in charge hands me the paperwork and the photographer takes the shots of Ana and I and our family which we paid for in our package, Ana smiles as I stand besides her and hold her tightly against my side, my eyes flit here there and everywhere.

"Christian, we are married..."

"Are you sure? I mean really that's it?" I ask in all honesty. Carla is done wiping her eyes and laughs at my concern.

"Yes, I know Christian, it doesn't feel right, because it was cheesy and quick, Frank and I had Elvis and he did the same thing, but its legal and yes very unusual." She can say that again. Taylor approaches me.

"Sir, the paparazzi have found you and Miss, sorry Mrs Grey. The cars are around the back."

"Take us back to the hotel Taylor. We have added security there." I say as I pick up my bride and carry her to the car. She giggles and plays with my hair as I head out of this side show. I wanted her to have a proper all singing dancing wedding, not this circus. "Ana, I am sorry; we will pull out all the stops and do it again in Seattle or London or anywhere else."

"Why, I loved it. It was unusual and it did the job. I love you Mr Grey."

"Mrs Grey, I love you too, and we are like a horse and carriage."

"Um, I agree, meant to be together. Now I am famished get me to my pancakes please husband..." I place her in the back seat and the others get in their car and we head out. Our blacked out windows hide us from the three or four roaches with their cameras and the ones on their scooters try to follow us. Taylor and Sawyer are trained to evade capture and we leave them in the dust of the Nevada Desert.

"Ana, you look amazing Baby..."

"This is a good look on you too. Armani?"

"It is, and this, what is this?"

"Am-Dram cast offs..."

"Is that a new label?"

"No, it is a vintage reproduction. Nice though, the veil is old and original. Now, do you feel strange like me?"

"Strange Ana, how strange?"

"Married by Frank, a Frank I might add who cannot sing for toffee."

"He did hit a bum note or three..."

"He was funny."

"Hence we need to do it properly Ana."

"Nah... I have you and you are under my skin Christian."

"You are deep in the heart of me too, wife."

"Frigging hell... We are fringing married... Frigging awesome..."

"It is Ana..."

We make out in the back of the car like teenagers. We arrive at the hotel and Ana pulls away from my lips. Taylor is out of the car and he opens Ana's door, we are greeted by the family and friends we left behind, they throw all manner of stuff at us, confetti, rice and the photographer takes a heap of photos. Ana and I, we then throw the biggest breakfast brunch of all time. I hired the actual cooks from I-hop, they came complete with their secret batter stuff and my kitchen staff were told to make them welcome. I hardly doubt my Michelin five star holding chef, was happy giving up his kitchen for the morning and I highly doubt he will want to take the credit for the pancakes anyhow.

"Ana, Christian..." Our guests are here and all look happy. Mia is leading the cheering, her much admired boss is now her sister-in-law. Elliot has on shades and looks tired. Okay he still looks drunk, as do Marco and Sunny. They look like three frat boys the night after a kegger... "Did you do it, did you get married Chris?" She flings herself at me and I hold my annoying sister tightly. She is loud, but I love her. "What was Elvis like, and did you have a fat or skinny one?" I laugh.

"We were meant to have a bald one, but he left the building and we got married by Sinatra."

"No shit?"

"Mia Trevelyan Grey..." I hear my mother shout.

"Sorry Mom... Really you are married?" I show her my ring. "You are owned brother dearest."

"I am, and I like it. It feels the same though. Now my wife and I need a drink and some food, is everything here?"

"Oh hell yeah, and it's amazing. I snuck a Butter milk stack, just to see if they are the real deal and they are. Just like the ones Dad let us have when Mom was working."

"Those were they days." I say. "I miss their pancakes and our secret outings with Dad."

"Christian, you wanted to buy the chain you loved them so much." Mia reminds me just as Ana swings by, after being hugged to death by the band and Holly.

"Hi Mia..."

"Hello Ma'am..."

"Mia, it's Ana. Just Ana. Now let me at the food I am ravenous. We had a very funny wedding and now I want to eat drink and be happy, for tomorrow I have a series of interviews to do."

"Tomorrow is a long way off Baby; we have lots to do before then." Mia goes to annoy Elliot; she gets great pleasure from plaguing the drunk. He will pass her his wallet soon enough and tell her to leave him alone and shop. Her security have been warned to keep her in ther eye line. My family have also been told the threat is a top level one and I hope they realise it is serious.

We head for the dining room, and the smell in here is amazing. I watch as Ana grabs her plate and fills it with a selection of fruit flavoured goodness.

"We need this. Mine are better though, I will make you some, when we get back home."

"Home, a home we have yet to decide upon Ana."

"Hu, yeah we have a varied selection of locations. Something else we should have discussed in more detail."

"We did sort of? Besides we won't be in any house for very long, we both have contractual obligations Baby." She cuts her pancakes up as we walk to a table, she is hungry and I must feed her. Lord where the hell did that thought come from?

"Yes, I have the new places to source and I have the book tour still to do. I threw so many things into my life to put the past behind me that it's going to be a very bizarre few months, snatched days, weeks and moments, at least until the tour is over and I get a head of house in place." We sit and eat. This is our wedding day and it feels like another day at the office, fuck I wanted more for her special day. As I eat my pancakes I see her necklace and smile.

"Have I got syrup on my chin?"

"No, I was admiring how good your necklaces look. Is that the locket?" She smiles, puts her hand over mine and pats it gently.

"It is having its first public outing. It looks nice, especially against the grey slate. Thank you."

"Thank you Baby, for making me a better man and a father."

"Hey, right back at you Christian. Now when can we disappear? I have needs, married needs?"

"I think we have to dance and cut that huge cake and do wedding stuff."

"Is swimming wedding stuff, because is Mia swimming in the pool?"

"I guess Elliot needed some peace, if you want to join them we can, swim I mean, because your uncles have just thrown Elliot in too?"

"I may do later, our family are loud and drunk and its not even midday, we have here a family of lushes. How about we swim after we make this union legal and you know consummate this little merger we undertook this morning?"

"A very unusual mergers meeting." I see the family flapping about in the pool, they look happy, wet but happy.

"You really are hung up on it aren't you, our being married by Nonno's favourite singer?"

"Ana, Nonno had his fingers in his ears."

"I think we both wish we had at one point Christian." We laugh. "If it makes you happy, we could do the whole bows flowers and whistles thing, but I really did like the funny and memorable service. Now taste this and shut up husband. Stop over thinking stuff. So can we slip away for a weekend away after the concert?"

"Nope..."

"Okay, after the Coping Together ball?"

"I have already cleared the month after the ball from my scheduled. I am taking you on a honeymoon then. Ros was given air and a cigarette when I told her to clear the decks for a month."

"Seriously?"

"Yes Ana, I have it on good authority Nonno will take over for you and Ethan and Jose will help him."

"You are so wonderful, I may love you a whole lot more."

"Yeah? Perhaps not when you hear I have booked us a month golfing in Europe."

"You did what... I am divorcing you now..."

"Joke, I am taking my clubs though." She fed me pancakes and I feasted like the kid I was when Carrick took us on our illicit outing to I-hop, we never knew when those Dad days would come around, so we filled up whilst we could. Mom is not a junk food junkie and we only got to eat the occasional heart clogging junk with Dad. We had crêpes if we asked for pancakes at home, made with whole wheat flour and they are not the same at all.

"Ladies and gentlemen," Nonno tapped his knife against his champagne flute, "we are here to witness the marriage of my beloved granddaughter Anastasia to the only man who has ever cleared the Nonno check. Christian, you are a great guy, who in the short time I have known you, you have made me feel very relaxed and happy, happy that you love her and will care for her like she deserves. Now raise those glasses because that is the only speechifying that this old guy is doing. To Ana and Christian, to love, to happiness and to you both alla tua salute. Now drink up and let's dance."

"Do you want to dance with your husband Ana?"

"I guess I do, it's the best offer I have had all day Christian."

"One dance and then we are leaving this shindig and I am taking my bride to bed."

"That sounds like a plan. Who are those guys?" She asks who the band are.

"Rascal Flatts, all good weddings have to have a few rascals in attendance. hey are the support band for the concert, i heard them rehearsing and kind of liked them."

"You like country music?"

"I like this tune, and the words mean a lot to me." The band play and I sweep Ana into my arms and do as all smooth bastards do and sweep her off her damned feet and sing to her as I we slow dance in front of our guests.

"I set out on a narrow way many years ago. Hoping I would find true love along the broken road, but I got lost a time or two. Wiped my brow and kept pushing through, I couldn't see how every sign pointed straight to you; every long lost dream led me to where you are.

Others who broke my heart they were like northern stars, pointing me on my way into your loving arms. This much I know is true, that God blessed the broken road, that led me straight to you

I think about the years I spent just passing through, I'd like to have the time I lost and give it back to you, but you just smile and take my hand, you've been there you understand, it's all part of a grander plan that is coming true...

Every long lost dream led me to where you are, others who broke my heart they were like northern stars, pointing me on my way into your loving arms, this much I know is true, that God blessed the broken road, that led me straight to you...

Now I'm just rolling home, into my lover's arms, this much I know is true, that God blessed the broken road, that led me straight to you. That God blessed the broken road, that led me straight to you... Now Baby the big finish..." I dip her low and kiss my wife.

"So, is that our song?"

"I guess it is. You are the only one I would travel this road with."

"Oh hell, if I wake up now and this is just a dream, then I have had a great dream. Christian..."

"Yes Ana?"

"I want to have another baby..."

"You do?"

"Yes, more than anything. I was afraid to go through it alone, but as long as we are together we can do it."

"So, we best start practicing then Mrs Grey."

"Well my implant runs out in six months, how about I don't renew it?"

"Six months, I can work with that and by then we will be settled into our forever home."

"Why Mr Grey, I do believe those words were mighty flowery and romantic."

"I have my moments Mrs Grey, I have my moments. Now let's sneak out of this breakfast meeting."

"Are we stopping here Christian?"

"I guess we are and you have your interviews here tomorrow, so for the rest of the day and all of the night you are mine. Lets practice having married sex."

"Umm, okay, you drive a hard bargain. A second stack of pancakes or sex with my husband?"

"Decisions, decisions Anastasia Grey, so I am making am executive decision..." I wave at our family and carry my wife to our rooms.

"How rude we have to listen to speeches and cut the cake."

"I will have it driven to the hotel at Calabasas, now we have things to do."

"Sexy and masterful, I like this man I married. See you later folks we have things to do." We left the room and headed to our suite. We were met by Ryan and Reynolds who were guarding it from intruders. Ryan went in and checked the rooms.

"The room is clear, Sir..." I nodded my head and carried my bride through to the bedroom.

"Christian, what have you done?"

Hearts and flowers.

My husband has decked the whole room in flowers, there are dozens and dozens of vases with roses in and jars with heart shaped candles in them. Red hearts and hundreds of them. They look so beautiful. It all looks beautiful.

"Christian, this is... This is so... This is beautiful..."

"You have my heart Baby, and now you have what I was always afraid of giving anyone, and like these candles, my heart is captured forever by a jar called Ana."

"That was so..." I am in tears and in his arms, oh lord I am happy and feel loved; I am married and feel complete. He completes me. He is mine. I am his and happy doesn't come close to describing how I feel.

"Now let's get you out of the dress, as nice as it is its covering what? Something sexy, which I know is covering something even sexier." He stood me up and carefully removed my veil, and began undoing the buttons and kissing down my neck and back as he did. I stepped out of the dress and put it over the chair, with the veil whilst he stood back and looked. "I have a very beautiful wife." I smiled as he turned me around and undid the laces of the corset that Holly had suggested would make him weak at his knees and make his dick hard for me, and as he unclipped the stockings, I saw what she meant, he was erect and ruining the fine line of his Armani, with bulges, he skilfully removed them and they joined the rest of the abandoned finery. I'm now stood in just the pretty silk knickers and Christian was grinning like the proverbial a Cheshire cat.

I disappeared into the closet and grabbed the bag from Agent Provocateur and the one from my specialist rope maker and made my into the bathroom. "Hold that thought husband, I need this to go right, I splashed out on some really nice stuff to woo you with, and I hope it works. Get a drink I maybe a while."

"We have the room all night Baby; do you want a glass of champagne Ana?"

"We'll have one in here Christian, gimmy a minute. I need to look sexy for my husband, ouch, damn it; I'm wrangling snakes in here. I mean I have mastered all manner of kink and leather, but this is very strappy and one handed knots is hard."

"I do hope not Baby, I don't want you to hurt yourself, and get yourself tied up in those knots?" I laughed as I multi-tasked. I looked at the massive bathtub, and was shocked that they had turned on the water, put in the bubbles, scattered the rose petals and put the champagne and the glasses next to the bath and lit the hundreds of tea light candles in here too, okay this is romantic too, he loves me and I worship him, and worship him I will, if I can manage this rope tying, because it is hard enough on another person, but on oneself? It is harder; it's all straps and silk and kinky knots placed to tease.

The sexy silk rope ribbons are just that, but it felt so soft against my skin and my boobs looked good in their knotted confines. I took my make up off, as Christian isn't a lover of it on me, and I put on the stuff I got from Agent Provocateur and finished it off with the fluffy slippers. To finish the look my hair is combed into loose curls.

A deep breath is taken and I went in to see him. I was so nervous, but why I was is a mystery, I didn't know why I am, because he'd seen it all before and in some very revealing poses and positions too. It worked because as I stepped back into the bedroom he stopped sipping the champagne and grinned like a naughty schoolboy; the sexy stuff seemed to be doing it for my husband. Christian is catching flies as I take the whip in my hand and strike the floor with it, it sounds divine.

"Wow, I have a sexy goddess in my bedroom my wife is a very pink tease tonight, thank you, thank you very much Mrs Grey, you wear it well. I have married a sexy chef, a smart business woman and one hell of a sex goddess; I'm one lucky bastard, because I get the whole package with you Baby."

I set about undressing him and what a good time I had too. I unbuttoned the waistcoat putting it with the rest of the abandoned clothes. I added them to the pile by undressing him slowly and seductively, each piece is thrown on top of the ever-growing pile. He was still kissing me when I pulled down his last piece of clothing, as always leave the best until last, his boxers.

They too fell to the floor and his package sprang free and was so ready. He smiled as I looked at him. He stood proud of his wonderful body as I smiled and knelt before him, I took him in my mouth and feasted on him. I took him deeper and enjoyed it, his hands fisted the curls on my head groaning as I sucked and licked him. "Baby please yes, yes Baby, oh hell yes I'm coming Baby I'm coming. Suck harder Baby I'm coming, fuck. Yes, yes, yes fucking yes." The hot salty milk hit the back of my throat all as he shook to a knee trembling finish.

"Did Sir like his first treat?" I smile as I purr Sir like it's another teasing treat for my man.

"First of just how many treats Baby?"

"There are many treats awaiting my husband, but now I think he needs a nice bubbly bath, with his wife, there's another bottle of champagne waiting."

"Okay Mrs Grey, I am feeling a little bit dirty, the ride in the elevator was a little sweaty." He was still smiling from the first of his wedding night treats.

I shivered as he pulled me towards him. His fingers are moving slowly down my back, and through the gossamer silk robes I had covering the knots of my knotted body, I could feel him raising to the occasion again, I could feel his erection and shivered. He raised me up to meet his lips, his tongue opened my mouth gently and he kissed me. "Now, let's get these off, as lovely as they are, they are stopping me from ogling my wife's birthday suit. I need to get you in that bath." I was carried to the bathroom, where he undressed me again, this time slowly.

His hands are running over the silks and the lace panels I knew were sexy, and they finished of this blushing bride thing I knew I had mastered. The negligee was the first to go as he kissed my shoulder; he turned me to face the mirror in the bathroom and watched me through it as he slipped the lace straps down my arms. He watched as the silk fell down my body, letting out a gasp as he saw what was underneath. The sheerest ropes made from the softest silk are knotted in just the right places, knots that imprison my breasts and are tied in a way that looks pleasing to a man who loves bondage and I know he does, he slipped his finger in to the tightly knotted cup and undid it with his teeth.

"No ropes and kink tonight Ana, but you look amazing Baby, and with a few embellishments, these..." He bit my nipple, a nipple that looked like it was turning blue, and I may have tied it a little tight? "...Would look amazing with some of the things I have left from my red room Mrs Grey." I sighed as I got feeling back in my poor tits. God that felt amazing, the damned relief, was so needed, I tie a mean slip knot normally, but one handed and on oneself, nope, I am glad he didn't want to indulge in his treat, they were now throbbing painfully. Cupping my breasts softly in his hands, he began caressing them. He pulled them from their remaining constraints gently and turned me to face him. He knelt before me kissing my belly, and removed my knickers, then slipping in his tongue, he played with my sex and I mewed like a cat. I had to put my hands in his hair to stop myself falling over.

He kissed my belly again and worked up to my breasts again, his lips began suckling on one and pinching the other between his finger, he pulled my nipple back and I squirmed as he let go of it, it plopped back and Christian's mouth made a pleasing sound as it was released, and he then moved to my other nipple, which thanks to the twisting and pulling of his fingers, was already hardened and just as tasty he said.

He then threw the ribbon ropes to the growing pile of unwanted expensive silks. I'm now stood in just fluffy pink slippers. He lifts the right leg and removed the first slipper kissing my ankle as he slowly put it back on the floor, and he did the same with the left, then scooped me up and put me in the water of the massive bathtub. This was nice, sensual even, the water splashed over the top as he got in too, he popped the cork on the champagne, then pouring it into our glasses, he took a mouthful, he then kissed me, allowing it to trickle from his mouth to mine, then he grabbed my face in his hands and kissed me sending the water everywhere.

Taking the glass from me, he gently pulled me towards him. He began washing me gently, touching me all over, his fingers slipped inside me as he washed my sex. Turning my back to him, he then continued to play with me, his other hand was playing with my hardened nipples, he multi tasked every sensitive part of me, all whilst he kissed my neck, so aroused am I, that my feet are braced against the bath as I shiver and shake and cry for more. He carried on playing with me his fingers going deeper and deeper; his thumb is also stroking my highly aroused sensitive spot. I couldn't hold back anymore and quivered as I came, god he's killing me with sex, lucky me.

"Turn around Ana, I want you." I happily did just that. I am hovering over his aroused shaft and I bite my lip in anticipation of what is to come. My body is crying out for more, I am over excited and over aroused, given the added romantic atmosphere in here, it increased the way we were acting, the air seemed to be charged with some sort of crazy mad sexual pheromones or something! With my sex still throbbing and my need for more, I lowered myself onto him, and as I did I am on a sensory overload and as the candles flickered, we played, he drank the champagne, which we then shared through our kisses. I was now giddy on the champagne and being his wife. The love he had shown me since we began our romance? Was mind blowing and I was happy, happy like I'd never been before. I wrapped my arms around his neck and began slowly rising and falling on him, our tongues and mouths are frantic as we kiss. Kissing his neck as he held my backside, his fingers began wandering.

He then placed a finger inside me and crap that was nice; the feelings were enhanced by my backside being immersed in the hot water. It felt different and so nice, then he helped move me up and down his shaft, it seems he wanted more action. I noticed his breathing is becoming laboured and hard, as are the kisses and thrusts, the screams and murmurs, the splashes and tears, we were both breathing hard and moaning, when suddenly everything began jarring at my senses, they were now frantic and nearing overload.

We seemed to both hit this crescendo at the same time, our love making has built up to a heavenly, painful, pleasurable, earth shattering finish, the water was everywhere and as we came together, it was frantic. Then as we each shook to a slow and heady climax, we collapsed into each other crying and hugging each other tightly. Stupidly this all seemed better now we were married and he was mine, he always had been, he just took his sweet time in realising it.

"Mrs Grey that was wonderful, married sex is the best sex and its off the scale amazing with a sexy wife willing to kink me into oblivion, thank you." I was so exhausted I didn't care that he was right, so I just nestled against his chest stated and sleepy. He stood up carrying me to the bed, grabbing a towel as he did, he then dried me. That was just as nice as the sex we'd just had. I dried him too and he laughed as I did his pride and joy, and yes, it was bloody ready again.

"Baby only you can do this to me, it's like I have a permanent hard on and a grin on my face since meeting you again." I have to say, I feel the same, my nipples are forever like coat pegs when see him and think of sex with him! He climbed in at the side of me and we rid him of his hard on several times more. When we finished our wedding night and morning sex, I am so exhausted that I simply lay in his arms, spent.

"You killed me again Grey, I'm seeing stars here and God too, I love you Christian, but I need sleep, need rest, need you later too, but first I need sleep Christian." He kissed my head as I nestled into his chest.

"Sleep my darling wife, you looked wonderful today, today was wonderful everything is wonderful, but then you are my kind of wonderful, you and our baby boy mean the world to me and I look forward to adding in a brother or sister for him." He put his arms around me and we slept, yes I want a baby, I want what he wants, a brother or sister for my angel...

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Sorry for delay, but it is here, please leave a comment or two and listen to the song Bless the Broken Road by Rascal Flatts, it's amazing... I love a little country music its good for the soul...


	30. Chapter 30

This story is nowt like fifty shades; I just purloined E.L. James's characters buildings and some other stuff...

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I like to see the notifications ping into my in box; it makes me want to write more. I have decided to write shorter chapters too...

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Dreaming of Chocolate and Grey:

Chapter 30:

Enter the sharp tongued woman.

Waking up and slowly turning in our bed, I stretch and open my eyes and my hand searches out my husband, only I find the sheets are cold and my husband is not with me. I grab my phone to see what the time is; crap I am meant to be in the damned tv studio in an hour for makeup. I grab a shower and change, one of my power suits makes an appearance, I live in these normally but since being with Christian my work attire has become less, let's say austere? My hand runs down the panel of my skirt and I smile when I see my ring sparkles. I sigh...

"Ana, Ana are you ready?"

"I am, so stop shouting. Where have you been?"

"In my office, I still have a business to run Mrs Grey."

"As do I Mr Grey. So we are married."

"We are."

"We are indeed. Christian?"

"Yes Ana?"

"I meant what I said."

"What that you love me?"

"That is a given. I want to have another baby with you."

"Good, I would like that, and I will try to make the making him very pleasurable and memorable. Now I have hung your wedding dress in the closet but the ribbons and ropes? They are in your luggage. They are very well made Baby, we could order more? Perhaps?"

"Um they are and they were very soft, I have a company that make the ropes for the clubs. I am very glad you didn't want to indulge in rope play."

"Yes, so am I, but you need to practice those knots Baby, they were too tight for your breasts, and because they were too tight, your breast and nipples were in danger of being damaged Baby and marking my brides beautiful skin and turning them a shade too dark, purple blue is not a shade I want to see on your skin. Blush pinks are acceptable though..."

"Well it's a good job they weren't made from Barbed wire then, they are monstrously hard to tie." I smile as I say it.

"I am not a lover of drawing blood Ana, it's a tad barbaric."

"You like rope play though it's in your notes."

"I do, but it's not on top of my play list. We will still indulge in..."

"... Are you kidding me? Of course we will, it's a tad addictive and your red room is magnificent if a tad too red, besides you are so good at what you do and I want to explore the room more with you my kinky as fuck husband. Now where is my damned bag and laptop and stuff? God I was so damned organised before you wooed the shit out of me Grey."

"And they say I don't do romance, that Mrs Grey was very flowery."

"What? Flowers? They were left in the room where we had breakfast? We need to go, are you ready?" I am a tad unorganised and my crap is everywhere, I it seems have evolved from neat freak singleton to a married slob.

"Ana, calm down and relax. What is the matter with you, I said your words were flowery not where are your flowers Baby, but I am going to continue in showing you I can do this hearts and flowers thing, and your wedding flowers are over there?" I stare at the beautiful flowers and calm right down.

"Besides the nutter-sub still being out there, besides doing these interviews and besides being out of my comfort zone? Nothing why?"

"You seem very, I don't know? Not you and those reasons would explain it. So take a deep breath, grab this bagel and I have your bags and your holdall thing you call a handbag is there by the chair. Calm down woman..."

"Calm, I can do calm, I will run my mantra through my dorky brain a couple of times. Why are we now such a pair of hectic lunes Christian?" I take a deep breath. "I am stronger today because of my past, I live for today and make it count, I hope for a better tomorrow because faith in ourselves is better than relying on others. We make our world better not others... I am stronger today because of my past, I live for today and make it count, I hope for a better tomorrow because faith in ourselves is better than relying on others. We make our world better not others..." I take several deep breathes and sigh.

"Speak for yourself, I am very calm and enjoying the view of my wife in her sexy assed hard assed rocking the savvy business woman look she does so well. Now grab your shit woman we have to get you to the studio... ans yes I am stronger today because of my past, I live for today and make it count, I hope for a better tomorrow because faith in ourselves is better than relying on others. We make our world better not others, but now with the help of my wife, 'tis easier than it was yesterday..."

"Okay Mr Grey, take me I am yours and thanks for calming me." He remembered the mantra, my calming mantra last used by him at his mothers, just before I met the troll Elena and added in a new bit... I will use that too. God I love him...

"You will be later..."

"Promises, promises."

"Promises I intend to deliver on Anastasia Grey. Now move it woman. I now know why Dad moans about Mom getting ready now."

"One day in and already you are fed up of me." I laugh as I grab my crap and a couple of bagels. "So what did Taylor find out about Leila?" I ask as we head to the lift. "Did she have a plan and did this woman who help her know anything? What was she called again? Lydia?"

"She has told Taylors men all she knows and has been dealt with."

"You had her bumped off?"

"No, god no. I may not like her very much but murder is not how Taylor and his team work. She was informed she could be prosecuted for breaking her contract with me."

"It is hardly enforceable, the contract? It would mean you going to court and revealing what type of contract she broke, but one day Christian one of the many is going to realise this, if they haven't already."

"Possibly, and I don't care if they do. I have nothing to hide now that my family know and I am married, married I might add to a very likeminded woman." The ride down the three floors takes no time at all and as the door opens I see Holly. She eyes up Sawyer and Taylor at the back of us and smiles.

"Hey Sis, did you do the married thing?" I shake my head and tutt loudly. "Oh come on, it's expected you know. Hey T. Hello Sawyer, Luke Sawyer..."

"Holly how much coffee have you had? Or are you still drunk?"

"I am offended, and have had none, and I didn't drink much last night or yesterday, apart from two glasses of champers darling."

"Coffee?"

"Oh yes please I like the blend they have here. It's Starbucks Ana."

"I know, and can you switch to decaf Sis, please?"

"Okay, Dad and the boys are up and have gone to do their talks, here is your list, the bitch you have to watch out for is going to be on it with your wedding, Elliot fucked up and drunk dialled the Nooz? You also got papped inside the chapel; they have a copy of your wedding stuff and a photo of you and Christian with a fat Frank impersonator..."

"Taylor?"

"They all signed NDA's, but the photographer got an offer too hard to refuse, he was paid twenty thousand for that one snap Sir."

"He has a living to make I guess? Is it bad Holly?" I ask as Christian blows steam out of his ears. "Stop it Christian, it's only a photo. Now you had better put out a press release, and I will have my PR team working on it too."

"We need to do a joint statement Baby. Being as we are married. Mr and Mrs Grey wish you all to fuck off and die, yes we got married and no we didn't need your permission so, so do the world a favour and get yourself fucked."

"Umm, very flowery Mr Grey, Christian, how about you have a joint less flowery statement released and one photo from the photographer from the hotel?"

"Ros is on it, and it's a simple statement. Ana please be careful they were ruthless before, when you and I were single, being married makes us more of a target."

"I know, and I am very aware of what they can do. I am not new to this game Christian and I have always done PR, first for my chocolate lines and then for the book. This is not my first rodeo. Now, let's get this day out of the way." We head to the car and as we do Christian is constantly texting. I guess this is what being a big wig is all about.

My phone is off, when I turn it on it lights up, it's been off for a day, so very unlike me. I start texting and sighing. I now want something different in my life, I want to work, but I will not be doing 18 hour days, not if I can help it anyway. Christian and I are a hub of activity, and not in a good way, I have hundreds of mails and plenty to be going on with. I text and email like a starved man at a buffet. I look up and see that I am not alone. Christian seems to be a little preoccupied, and not just with his business. I watch as every so often he looks up and out of the window. He has avoided looking at me during the ride. Have I done something?

"Christian..." I ask as he finally looks at me.

"Yes..."

"Ouch, snappy much?"

"Sorry, I am reading the news reports before we get to the studio. It seems we are going to have to take Elliot's phone off him. The insider who was inside the big event has given them so wonderful quotes."

"Umm, don't blame just Elliot. It seems Uncle Sunny got carried away too."

"Who did he sell us out to?"

"The Daily Mirror, it's a scandal sheet for a newspaper in England, gutter press and now mainly internet based. He told them we were married yesterday and that the prenup was a hell of a quagmire of his versus hers."

"Really, I get to keep what's yours if you dump me?" He breaks a damned smile for the first time since we got in the damned car. "So how much more do I get?"

"Seriously Christian, you want to sign a post nuptial?"

"Nah, I am not in favour of being a kept man. I guess we keep it simple, you keep yours and I keep mine?"

"I am not discussing divorcing you one day into being married. Are you frigging serious?" He looks like I have slapped him in the face with a kipper.

"No, obviously. I presumed we would never need to discuss the big D? I mean I hope we never have to go down that road. Ana I am in this for life."

"Me too, now I have fired off an email to Sunny and fired his ass. He, when he sobers up will be shitting bricks. Marco was also warned. Nonno is apparently heading back home, he has been served papers to stop him from leaving her penniless."

"By your grandmother?"

"Yes, she wants to claim the vineyards from him as she helped start them."

"And...?"

"They are my mother's not hers or my grandfathers. They were left to Mum when her sperm donor 'father' died, something I know she knows, so why she is doing this god only knows? Nonno has always had to look after them, he has always lived there, and even when he left to go to London and then to Cali he ran them well and legally he was only paid as a manager and she knows this. I suspect it is her intentions of going for the public fight and embarrassment factor?"

"Do you need Dad to help, or someone in his firm to help?"

"That's sweet, but I think he has it covered. I can't help feel but she has more planned for me and you. She does know about Little Christian after all."

"So she does, but would she hurt you like that?"

"I don't know, I would have said no, not if I based it on the old Nonna, the one who loved me and cared for me, and she did. I think she did anyhow? Didn't she?"

"It would seem she did. She also seems a little deranged too."

"She is refusing the settlement Ethan worked out for her too. I think he is right and she wants blood."

"Where is she? Is she in fact on the slow boat to Italy?"

"No..."

"Where?"

"Nobody knows, she got the tickets and someone got on the ship, but he isn't sure who. The papers were filed in Anaheim, so I don't know?" He makes a call.

"Welch, please can you look into the whereabouts of Ana's grandmother Vita D'Acciaio. Last seen in Calabasas and supposedly headed to Italy?"

"Sir, we are following her already, as per Taylors instructions. She is in Las Vegas; she is staying at the Wynn. She is the guest of T.M.Z..."

"Fuck..."

"Sir, we have it on good authority she is telling her story to them for a cool half a million dollars."

"Gagging orders, can we have them put in place before she tells her tale?"

"No, she is all set to tell her tale and as far as we are aware she is allowed to do that. We can only hope to rebuke anything she implies to be truthful about her granddaughter and daughter, but alas only after she has spoken, until then the story is about her life and as such she is free to do that. Tell her story..."

"Have someone scanning the web for their tall tales and innuendoes Welch and get Barney on to finding the true worth of her financials, I am sure the Kavagnah's will help. She didn't get nasty and vindictive over night, this she has been planning for a while, so she will have stockpiled cash and investments, if she ruins or tries to ruin my wife and her family then I want her to pay. I want her followed too. Any news on Leila, whilst we are sorting out the insane people trying to fuck with us Welch?" I heard all that and shivered. Vita is dead to me if this is what she has planned. She will ruin me by using my son and that is not going to be pleasant for me, but it will be far worse for Christian. I have to contact my mother and as I begin to text Christian puts his hand over my phone and stops me.

"Ana, hold off on your mother, she was very honest with you and Vita knows this. Do not worry about my part in all this, especially where Christian is concerned, please? I hold no malice towards you and I understand everything you did and why you did it. I am at fault in this not you. Now, relax and breathe in deeply and run your mantra, before the day is out you will have had to say it and bite your tongue many times Baby, trust me."

"I will, oh and thank you for doing this, I have everything you need on Vita, I hold all the family papers, the Kavagnah family advise Nonno and my uncles too. I had already stopped her garnering anything from the businesses we as a family own and Kate and Ethan are pretty damned tight on security where any of my money is concerned. Including the vineyards."

"She will get a pretty penny for her tales of our baby Ana."

"Well its best we tell them for free then and under our own terms. If that's okay?"

"It is, so I have to own that part of my life and admit I didn't know you were pregnant and that I left you alone."

"Christian Grey, you did nothing wrong now shush. We are here and I am running late, they will have to rush me through hair and makeup and you, you look damned hot, did you have to look so damned alluring Grey?"

"Yup, but it just a face Baby, just a face."

"Gah, you are a walking hard on."

"Erm? I think you mean I am your good lucking bastard of a husband Mrs Grey, do I give you a hard on?" He laughs at me.

"I meant to say you make me very aware of your, your, oh god your you-ness!"

"You are quite the funny wordsmith my beautiful wife." Taylor lowers the door window and he presses the intercom.

"Miss Lambert to see the people in Studio Eight. She is here to do a series of interviews?"

"Sir, drive to security bay six and await security. How many are there with you?"

"Two cars, four security, Taylor, Sawyer, Ryan and Reynolds, Miss Lamberts PA, Miss Holly Wolfenden and Miss Lambert's husband Christian Grey, I called the numbers through to your security earlier."

"Okay, I have them, bay six. Someone will be waiting for you." I sigh and pack away my things. As we pull up there are golf buggies and a rent a cop is in each of them.

"Madam, welcome to Studio Eight. Can I see some identification please?" We each pass things to the guy in the very stiff shirt and he hands us visitor badges. Ryan and Reynolds are to stop with the cars. Christian and I are with Taylor, whilst Holly is with a very wary Sawyer, I scowl when Holly hand wander, she of all people know he needs to be eyes on the job, not watching out for her hands, she sees me and she pulls out her tongue, they then follow behind with stiff shirt two, stiff shirt three stops with our security, get me our security?

"Mrs Grey, keep close, though there are many cameras, we still were not allowed to do a full security sweep, but the reporters are going to come to you and it is a closed set."

"Why we are not doing anything dodgy!" I joke, but that goes down as well as a fart in a wet suit. I stop short of apologising. I am me after all and have a very unusual sense of humour. I guess I have to take things a tad more seriously. "Christian, he is no fun."

"He has a hard enough job with me, add in you and that flowery mouth of yours and he is a little bamboozled."

"Yeah I have been told I bamboozle and fool around a lot, what with my witty repartee and British stiff upper lip and wild sense of humour. Sorry T! I can do serous, I will get my chocolatier's head in the game, she is a bitchy serious woman, you may have met her a time or two T?"

"Mrs Grey it is fine wear whichever head suits you best, but be aware there are more nutters and fruit loops, as you English say, out there now you are married to the Boss, and Sawyer will have plenty of help whilst you do your book tour too. As I said keep close."

"I will. Christian I feel sick."

"Why?"

"I always do, I hate these things and get stage fright. I am fine if I am cooking, but speaking and you know being asked personal questions, it always has me flummoxed."

"I love your quirky words Ana."

"You always did, but you used to tell me to shut up a lot too." He smiled and kissed me on my wanton lips, damn I want more now.

"I remember you and your little Scottish words. They were very sweet and sing-songy!"

"Gaelic, not Scottish words and you told me I sounded like a duck spitting, do not tell tall tales Laddie, yer ken?"

"I ken, if that still means understand?"

"You ken well..."

I kiss him and as we pull up we are met by the assistant who has thrown together all this for me and the band, her counterpart in Hollywood has her hands full with the band. I do not envy his or her task, because they are a band of disordered chaotic old rock stars? Yeah chaotic and grumpy old men and to be cranky and demanding is their main aim in life, they hate doing this PA thing, apparently they need a lot of naps at their age? I laughed, because their rider lists are not very rock star-ish... gone is the booze and their harpies, their groupies and their fan rooms and in their place, Water tea coffee and blankets and a nurse's room with air canisters and their meds, with a nurse to administer their meds. I sigh and head in after I get lost in my thoughts.

"Don't worry Ana, we will wing it."

"I may tell a few white lies Christian, just back me up. okay?"

"I guess I will be able to follow your lead, but be careful they could check and I'd hate to make it worse, so I would say be as truthful as is possible and we will wing what we cannot tell them..."

We are shown to a television studio and it is very lush and dressed like a lounge room, with several plush sectionals, and a framed poster of the band on the fire place and copies of my father's gold and platinum discs in the alcove, the flowers are for me I guess, they are on a table by a fake fire and opposite my couch, there is a chair for the interviewer. I feel relaxed, do they expect me to be all rock chick daughter and lie on the damned couch? I will have to sit all prim and proper and pull down my damned skirt and pray no nutters are gong to kill me or my good name today...

"Miss Lambert, do you want to follow Dee here through to see Honey in hair and make-up, please?"

"Holly will be with me, is that okay and it is Mrs Grey and does my husband need makeup?" She stares at the face of my husband and I swear she drools. For god's sake, he grins. I owe him a spanking for that indiscretion. Eyes forward Grey... He grins again; he is enjoying this far too much.

"I am fine Mrs Grey." He grins again... He likes hearing my name. "I am not a man who needs make up and go easy on yours Ana..." Okay he is annoying me now and my nerves are already shot to damned pieces.

"No the lights are none to forgiving. Though they don't look like they need to forgive anything, sorry I mean you don't need much help..." Swoon much lady? I laugh and head in to see Honey and her team, Honey is in fact a six foot four man. I smile as he sits me in the chair and works miracles. My hair is brushed straightened and sprayed and I am shown back into the room. Then the onslaught begins when the first lady comes into the room/studio.

"Miss Lambert. It is so nice of you to allow me some of your precious time. However I am here to interview you about the concert, who is this gentleman? I thought it was just you, not the concert promoter too?"

"This is my husband Christian Grey and he is going to sit in with me, if that's okay?" I shake her hand and she sits, Christian sits off camera and smiles.

"Of course, so to be clear I am to call you..."

"...Ana, or Mrs Grey. You can throw that in as a sweetener; you are the first to hear the confirmation of our marriage." She nearly drops her water.

"In three, two and one..." The shit storm approached as the clapper guy counts us in to begin filming.

"Hello, I am here today to talk to the daughter of the late and great Lenny Lamb, from the legendary rock band Of Wolves and Lambs and the former eighties fashion icon Carla Steel. Welcome to the show Mrs Grey."

"Thank you for having me."

"Now as you probably heard, I called Anastasia here Mrs Grey, the press reports were true then you did get married yesterday?"

"We did. Christian and I were married yesterday."

"Congratulations, but what the fans want to know is why the concert and is the new album really all new songs?"

"Yes I was turning out my rooms in the castle in Scotland, and came across them, I have been sleeping with them for all this time, and they are all as fresh as the day the band recorded them. Now, in celebration of his work and that of the band, the second half of what was to be a double farewell album a very brilliant album, is being released twenty five years too late, but when you hear it the wait will have been worth it."

"So you found the album?"

"I did and gave it to Uncle Wolfe and he said we should release it."

"Are the band happy to be back, for real, or is it just for their retirement funds?" Bitch...

"No, far from it, the band are very much their own men and not in need of money though it is always welcome the extra cash because life ain't cheap like that question. No, it is more of a thank you to the fans, and my need to reward them for their loyalty and devotion to my dad, nothing more and nothing less. I am truly thankful he was loved as much as he was. My share of the album and my father's past albums will funding a new school of rock I am having built in Birmingham, in the university where the band were formed many moons ago, giving others the chance to be the next Lamb or Wolf..."

"He has been sadly missed Mrs Grey, I feel your loss and thank you for releasing the album, I hope it makes many more new Lamb and Wolf fans, and we old fans happy to hear finally this much fabled lost last work of your father Franklyn Lambert..." That set the tone of the interview; she wasn't interested in the gossip, because this woman was a diehard Wolf and Lamb Fan. She was more informed about my father's hits than I was and she brought me several fan letters and photos from his fans, like I didn't see enough on the gates at home? I waxed lyrical about the new album about the concert and about my father.

It seems her half an hour slot was not enough for the questions she had about my father, but she was professional enough to call time on the interview within her allotted time frame. I had a touch up from make-up and the second, third and fourth interviews were all much the same. I was shocked and surprised that it was the album and the concert and not me they were interested in. I breathed in a sigh of relief, until the last interviewer came out and oh hell, this one had a file as thick as her arm with her and they didn't look like fan letters, she has done her homework.

"Mrs Grey I believe?"

"Yes, pleased to meet you and you are?"

"Sorry how rude of me. I am Sandra MacKay, for News independent On Line. We are part of the Good Morning America syndicate and we have been asked to tape a segment for several news outlets, for distribution to many subsidiaries and syndicated news outlet." Over selling already? Really what's her game?

"Okay, I guess?"

"Would your husband Mr Christian Grey like to sit in, some of the questions pertain to him too?"

"As in why, he has nothing to do with the concert other than being my husband?"

"We are reacting to the press release given earlier by GEH, about your marriage and the pre press release of your second book, to a few readers we have on staff, you have a second book going to print, and it has a rather odd dedication, we then coupled the two Christian names and did some digging?"

"Okay, there is nothing off the table, as such, but we do want our privacy respected however. After all when all is said and done, the interview was to be about the concert not my private life and as for Christian being interviewed, you had better ask him, he is a far more guarded of his privacy than I am." Christian sits upright and glares at the woman. Does he know her too?

"I am fine, but usual protocol is you send a list of questions, do you have a list?" Christian asked in a very commanding voice. She is not one of the fifteen is she?

"Yes here they are." Christian and I looked at the list and the second question after our reason for rushing into marriage was one about our son, she even has his birth and death certificate with the paper work. I whisper to Christian and we cover our mics.

"Is she a club member?"

"No, she is not but her editor is an old friend of Elena, be on your guard Ana please?" We uncover out mics.

"Our son is not to be mentioned." Christian sees the question I tear up over.

"Why are you ashamed of him Mr Grey?" Fuck, red rag and bull... Christian is fuming.

"It was a very personal time in our life. One we want to keep that way. Why would you want to purposely hurt my wife, do you know how difficult losing a child is and how much we still grieve over him?" My heart is going to burst. "Do you have children Miss MacKay?"

"No and we wouldn't be doing this but our competitors are airing a tell all interview with your grandmother. Miss Lambert, sorry Mrs Grey, she is doing it live at six on the evening show, and this game is cut throat and I want the story, did you not know this already?" I see Taylor texting and know that it will be cut or gagged. I will then go and kill Vita and make her wish she was never born.

"That explains the sudden urgency in your being here and not the man who should have been here. Congratulations on finding out all this, this was well hidden, or so we thought. Now, we will give you the interview, but on our terms only."

"Okay I can handle that, if I get exclusivity in to your dating and what happened afterwards? We have to have it wrapped in an hour though it needs to go to editing. If we are to beat her to air..." What the fuck has she uncovered? I shake and fume in the same body surging moment, fuck we could be screwed and not in a good way either.

"Then what are we waiting for? Christian and I will be fine. But I warn you now I am known for saying no comment more times in an interview than a politician evading tax and expenses rows in parliament, and believe me it didn't make the girls television career take off, so be warned my husband and I are armed with some sharp as bear claw, expensive and keen eyed legal eagles..." I get my big girl boots on and my serious as shit CEO head on, this one it seems has a few of my hidden secrets.

"I understand..."

"In five, four, three, two, and one..."

"Hello: I am Sandra MacKay and it's a good day from Sunny Vegas, where today we have the world exclusive with the Queen Of Chocolate, Anastasia D'Acciaio-Lambert, and Seattle's ex most eligible bachelor, the Bad Boy Billionaire Christian Grey. They are the all new spankingly hot must meet power couple to hit the news since Bill & Melinda Gates; I want to bid a warm welcome to the all new Mr and Mrs Christian Grey." Did she fucking know about our pasts? I shiver and Christians hand grips mine, good god why did we do this? My ex grandmother is going to pay for this and dearly. "Welcome to the show, so the first question... who is the richer Mr or Mrs?" I sighed.

"We are as rich as each other Miss MacKay. When we married our wealth became one in the same." Christian gripped my hand.

"Good, no arguing over a prenup then?"

"No, we haven't signed one either of us, why do that if we are not into this one hundred and ten percent? I mean it was a fruitless waste of time, planning a divorce before we even attempt to make a stab at this married life thing?" I say as I smile.

"Why the rush to marry are you pregnant again Ana?" I sigh.

"No, no I am not, we are holding off adding to our family, for a while longer."

"We will be having more children but we are still grieving over the son we lost some years ago. It was hard on Ana, and I realise it is no fun for her to have to go through it again and not getting to bring our son home was hard on her, I guess it's harder on the woman, because they have all the damned hard work to do, but we fathers feel the loss too, but have to keep our emotions hidden and be strong for our partners."

"Yes, I am sorry for your loss, he died at birth, I believe, you lost your first child, a boy called Christian?" I sigh. Dab my eye and wince as Christian grips a tad tighter on my hand.

"He did, we lost him at seven months, and he was born sleeping, he did not die at birth." Christian informs her. "It is a common mistake and each person says and sees it differently. Our son, Christian was born sleeping not dead, he is an angel and a much missed baby, Ana and I miss him and it hurts..." He sighs and sits upright again.

"So, how was that for you doing it alone Mrs Grey?" How the fuck did she know that? "After all when you had him we have records of Mr grey being out of the country?" Crap that explains that then.

"I was alone, you are right, but only because Christian didn't know he was coming, he wasn't due for another eight weeks so yes Christian was out of the country and he couldn't make it to London in time."

"So why did you not stay together after the loss of your son?" Ouch that hurts. I see Christians face and seeing that hurts more than hearing the damned question.

"We both had our own things to do, things we had planned, lives we had mapped out for ourselves. You see this was not a planned pregnancy, we were not a couple we simply had a holiday romance, which resulted in a drunken night together, a night that caused a child being conceived. It wasn't something either of us planned. When he died however, we both grieved his loss in our own way, and we got on with our life as best we could. Separate and yes alone. The pain was just too hard to bear and we went our separate ways, grief can do that.

At the time it was horrid, but as time passed it got easier. Now I don't want to spend the time dwelling on the past, it is our past and private, you understand that right? I mean it was bad enough losing him but having to explain why we separated and kept him a secret is a private matter known only to Christian and I, as I said our son Christian, is just that, ours and not open for discussion, he has been discussed with our families, some listened more and one in particular was vile about it, and she, my grandmother, was horrid, she insinuated that he was nothing more than a dirty little secret, but he was far from that, he is a baby who we both miss and a son who both of us still mourn daily."

"So is he your friends travelling companion in your first book?"

"Yes he is; he is travelling with my friend Ollie, who died trying to get to my side, so I had a lot going on when he died."

"So the profits from the book going to the S.A.N.D's charity is because of his death?"

"Yes to raise funds to help the many men and women get help and counselling when they lose a child, it's devastating to both parents and no two cases are the same, other than not having a baby to take home and that's what they help with, the loss and be there if needed, to give you advice on coping, many f their care givers have been in the same position as we were at some point, it is a devastating pain and one that you cannot possibly imagine the severity of, had you not gone through it too."

"So you didn't get married yesterday because you just found out about him Christian, as Mrs Grey's grandmother is going to suggest later?"

"No, no we got together again because the paths we travelled collided again a couple of months ago and we are both now in a good place to deal with our loss and are better equipped than the two lost souls we were back then during that drunken holiday fling, and before that awful woman spews her bile with lies, I asked Ana to marry me because I love her, and I always have, not because of Christian, he is not the reason at all. This is just Vita D'Acciaio's last ditch attempt at crushing the nicest family I have ever met with her evil lies. You see she was told to leave the family after her plans to take over Ana's chocolate empire failed. This is just the sad revenge of a failed mother and grandmother. Nothing more and nothing less."

"I said yes to his very romantic proposal because I wanted more than running a chocolate Empire. I wanted the man I fell in love with when I was fifteen, and I wanted to add to our family, you see I have loved this man all my life and will continue to love him for the rest of it."

"You fell in love with him at fifteen; did he do anything about it and if you did shame on you Mr Grey, she was a child?" She stares at Christian and I see the hurt in his eyes when he too sees what I do the irony of a world finding out what that bitch did to him was wrong.

"No he gave me a wide wide birth, believe me he did not reciprocate my lust and longing, in fact it was so wide it was a chasm, but it didn't stop me lusting after him back then, and I swear it was teenager in L.U.S.T with a much older man, and in a wild way too and it was all my own doing, poor Christian he came to play golf and I stalked him like the hellion child I was!"

"Lust as in the brand name of your first chocolate line?"

"Yep. I came up with the name to pay homage to my childish crush."

"I didn't do anything with Ana at that time other than tell her to get lost; she was just the annoying kid who messed with my golfing holiday every year..." He smiles.

"When did you realise she wasn't just a kid with a crush?" She asks.

"I went on holiday when she was eighteen and she had turned into this stunning woman and guess that's when I noticed her."

"I made a play for him, I got a little drunk, he got a little more drunk and well one thing led to another." I sigh and blush.

"I might add I have only ever loved one woman in my life and that is this lady here, my Ana, she knows me better than I know myself, only one other woman knows me that well and she is my mother, who loves my wife's chocolates so is glad I married her..."

"So there will be more children?" She asks me, and Christian smiles.

"We are working on it..." She blushes. "Hard..." I blush. "Really hard..." He grins, the bastard.

"If we are lucky enough to be blessed with children, then yes, and before you ask we are not replacing our son, but adding in brothers and sisters. Baby Christian will never be forgotten. Now, can we get back to our promoting of my father's concert?" She changed in the blink of an eye, had we done it? We were almost truthful...

"Yes the epic twenty fifth anniversary concert. What memories of your father is this bringing back for you Ana?" Seriously?

"I never met him, obviously you know this, but the fans keep him alive for me, my mother has told me things about him and my grandparents, whilst they were alive they told me of the things he did. I have a lot more memories of my father saved for me by others, than most kids have when they lose their parent at a young age; I have hours of concert footage, and video of him as a child on the island where I grew up. I would give everything I have and everything he left me for a day spent in his presence."

"I sounded so crass there; I meant just that, are the fans helping you with their tales?"

"Yes, his fans are some of the very best there are. It is the main reason why Uncle Wolfe and I are releasing the second part of the album. They deserve to hear some of his finest work, because he was taken from the world too soon and had much more to give, and I hope this gives the world a fresh eye and ear into Of Wolves and Lambs music, they are an amazing band, my uncles and my father's best friends."

"What is it called, the album?" She seriously did not do her research on the concert then, just on my son, great.

"'Better Ask Forgiveness Than Ask Permission: The Lost Album..."

"It was really found in a bedroom?"

"It really was, after he was killed my grandparents simply put his things into his room at the castle and when I got older I would spend hours in there watching the videos he made and you know listening to the songs."

"As you say you have to be thankful you have that tie to him?"

"I am."

"Does your mother help?"

"My mother? Yes my mother, his wife helps me greatly. She is a silent and very understanding woman. Who like me fell for a man she thought wouldn't give her the time of day."

"They were married?"

"Yes, and unlike my husband and I they managed to keep that from everyone."

"How are you preparing for the concert, you are rumoured to have been having singing lessons to actually sing at the concert, is this true?" I laugh.

"I have never had a singing lesson in my life, and I am self taught on the piano, much like my father as it happens. As to singing, I guess you will all find out how bad I am at the concert."

"How will that work, the band performing without him?"

"I asked that and we have an amazing team of guys who have the same tapes and recordings that I have, and they have put together a really good video montage of him singing most of the songs on the new album, in the twenty five years since his death, the technology available has improved immensely, so much so you would not know he wasn't actually there. As I said it's going to be an amazing night."

"What are your plans Mr and Mrs Grey, after the concert?" Christian smiles.

"To have a honeymoon, isn't that what all newlyweds do?"

"Oh where are you taking your bride?" He laughed again.

"I think that is going to remain a secret for a while longer. We have to attend my parents charitable function two days after the concert, and then we are going to destination unspoken for a month, to work on our tans." He winked and she swooned. For fucks sake this man has my knickers in knots and they are dripping and her, the floozy with the noozie in front of me is doing the same. My husband the babe magnate god help me and my wild, wild jealous streak.

"Well it seems our time is coming to an end. Thanks for answering the painful questions about your son and I hope you have a long and happy marriage. I guess we will be hearing more about the concert, the marriage and the forthcoming book and who knows some wonderful baby news?"

"Well I hope it all goes on without a hitch and that we are blessed with more children." I say and smile as Christian, leans against me and kisses my head.

"We will be working on that and many more things in the upcoming months." He says as he ends the kiss. "We have many more paths to travel and I am looking forwards to travelling them with my talented beautiful wife. She is after all the brains behind the new Team Grey."

"Team Grey... I like that..." I smile as she does her piece off camera. We are given the teams okay to leave, the interviews and photo shoot were done and as Christian and I head out the dark skies are upon us. Wow we were in there for an age. I feel tired and worn out.

"That was some kind of day Baby, how about we get back, eat, shower and sleep for tomorrow it is a day nearer to the concert."

"Urk... Thanks for the reminder. I am soon to be a quarter of a century old and I feel a hundred today."

"My wife looks no older than the day I met her."

"What 2?"

"No twenty four... Now let's get you home, or back to the room at least?"

"Yes please that sounds like just what I need. That was one hell of a day."

"It was..." We walk to the golf cart arm in arm; it was not as bad as I thought it would be that's for sure...

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READ AND REVIEW 200+ READ THE LAST CHAPTER...

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However good folks of fan fic only a handful of reviews came through... Ha get me I am being needy again lol. I have been lain up in bed all week, no laptop and on Tuesday I had a hospital/ doctors appointment, and they found a cyst on my kidney, great to know where the constant back pain is coming from and why I am getting all these horrid water infections from. Good news though my new laptop vomes on Wednesday so if I am laid up in bed I will have something to do. I hate my phone, my big fingers and the just as big damned bill lol


	31. Chapter 31

This story is nowt like fifty shades; I just purloined E.L. James's characters, buildings and some of her other stuff...

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Dreaming of Chocolate and Grey:

Chapter 31:

Ana is confused...

Christian and I head back to the hotel, to pack. It feels really odd, like I'm in some sort of limbo dream, and I know I have had these thoughts before but now it seems like I am watching or living in the repeat of a film, I am tired and I am confused, I have been travelling for weeks and going nowhere fast, my head is in a dream state sort of quicksand, I seem to be running and getting everything I want, yet at the same time I am stuck in that dream state quicksand going nowhere? I guess it is because I have added in too much and all at once, I have so many balls juggling at the same time, and now everything is up in the air and I am doing the unthinkable and dropping a few of those balls in favour of my love life, my quicksand life it is all down to my being in an actual relationship, a marriage and a woman actually with the man of her dreams and I am no longer dreaming of being with Christian. I am with him; my reason for my sinking into this shity state is perhaps because I never thought this would happen? Now I'm hurtling into life with Christian at rocket speed and I seem to be ignoring the chocolate empire I fought hard to build. This is hurting me too, that I am failing my business and the thousands of people who depend on me and the millions more who enjoy the chocolates I have invented and make.

My once ultra strict, ultra organised life is now mayhem personified, my work load is mega heavy, but it always has been and it's how I like things to be busy, but now I am having to add to my angst, my private life, which is now out there for the public to pick at and talk about, and that's hurting me more.

I kept Baby Christian my secret for so long that it became second nature to hide him away, he was mine and mine alone, I was selfish and wanted him and the memory of him kept to myself, he was my secret comfort, he was my secret heartbreak, he was my secret talisman and keeping him deep within myself, I felt like he was my soul reason for doing well, and now that he is not a secret, and though my shoulders should feel a little lighter, not a lot lighter but lighter nevertheless, yet I don't feel that way, I feel a strange sort of loss, my keeping him secret made me stronger. Now how will I cope with not having him a secret? He was the whole reason for my doing so well and now he was out there, my organised world is set to implode with questions I have never had to face before, the how's, the whys will need answers. So now would I have to choose my chocolate life, or the life I have dreamed of with Mr Grey, or could I do everything, and have everything, could I really be Wonder Woman forever? Did I still want to be Wonder Woman? I feel a tug on my sleeve.

"Ana..." I turn to see Christian studying me. "Ana, are you okay?"

"Yes, just chilling."

"Chilling?"

"Umm, I guess I am not used to people knowing the real me and then there is the fact that keeping my private life private was hard enough before, now its... God, it's out there now and it's been my secret for so long, that it feels, I mean I feel, I don't know, I'm confused Christian, so very confused and I don't know..."

"...Are you are feeling a little vulnerable?"

"Yes, very. Christian you did very well keeping your cool."

"As did you Ana, I almost believed everything you said."

"Most of what I told her was the truth, I have loved you forever."

"And I promise to love you for the rest of my life Ana and I will help you manage this new part of our life, and will help with anything that you need help with, and the press will not keep bringing up Christian for long, and if they do we will deal with it together, you have had to keep the secret long enough Baby, let me help you handle some of this worry you are feeling, let me help you Ana, please share your thoughts with me and let me be there for you."

"I need help Christian, real help. I have gone too big and the magnitude of what I bought is only now hitting home and that was before I added in becoming Mrs Grey, to my wonderful world."

"Hold that thought..." He presses a few buttons on his phone and I don't have to know who he is speaking too as her voice carries, even on a phone. "Ros, any luck in getting Ana a list of potential COO's?"

"I have eight potential candidates. Six of whom are the heads of Mrs Greys competitors."

"Wow, who? I know most of them and I thought they were all settled and happy?"

"Milo Gogh, Gavin Ransom, Katrina Vaux, George Meddlesome, Carrie Gallagher and Vlad Forrester. All of them are eager to join D'Acciaio's House of Chocolate."

"Okay, yes to Milo, no to Gavin, he made a pass at me once." I see Christian frown. "Yes, yes definitely yes to Katrina, George, Carrie and definite no to Vlad, he has the right name, he impales girls all the time and uses them for no good. He was Jack's friend and they hung around all the time. Can you have them call me please Ros, and Ros thank you? I never thought four of them would leave their houses. They were I thought settled."

"They want to be a part in your success. Christian, Ana, the Swiss police wish to speak to Sawyer about Jack Hyde, his mother has filed a missing person report because her son George is sure you had something to do with his disappearance Ana." I didn't, but I vaguely remember Christian, Sawyer and Taylor discussing him leaving me alone, but what they were talking about I cannot swear to hearing, I think they said he was buried, I hope they covered their tracks if they literally buried the bastard. I shiver, would Christian kill to keep me safe? I watch his face as he talks to Ros, I guess he would...

"I will have Taylor and Sawyer contact them, though we know very little about what the odious man did besides try to black mail Ana, her mother and myself. Anything else?" I see the look Christian throws Taylor. I guess he was a pain in the ass, but is he really a dead pain in my ass? Ros Is talking to me now and I snap out of the vision of Christian putting the hit on Jack Hyde and my enjoying it.

"Okay, so Ana do you want me to interview them for you or do you want to conference call them and do it that way?"

"I will call them all and offer them the differing continents to oversee, it is too big for one person to run, and my family are still helping me and will play a big part in it, but they do not have the experience to run everything as it needs to be done. I have micro managed it all for far too long. I guess I will have to loosen the strings Ros. I mean Christian has COO's for his European and Asian companies, how does that work for you Ros, do they answer to you and to Christian or what, how does it work?"

"I am fine with it, I know my place is safe within Christian's company, I know I am his second in command, and that they work for me and with me to make his life easier, I can assure you Ana you are no different to your husband because he too likes to micro manage. Speaking of micro managing Christian, you need to review the European papers I sent you and the shipyards you wanted are now willing to negotiate but only with you."

"Ros thanks for everything you are doing in my absence, and I will review the work when we get back. Anything else?"

"Christian there is one matter that I need to speak in person to you about." I smile and nod my head, work does not stop because we got ourselves married I guess?

Wedding gift...

"Christian, I have all the paperwork for the Grey House Annex ready for you to sign off on, it will become D'Acciaio's House of Chocolate Seattle, as soon as you sign them, that is one hell of a wedding gift, not just for Ana, but for the workers here at Grey House, I mean having a bakery at the side of us, the cafe and those chocolates, wowsers Gwen will love me taking them home every night." I laugh. I get to take home the creator of said chocolates every night. There is a method in my madness to gifting it her, and I will throw my money at it being set up and running upon our arrival home after the honeymoon I intend taking her on.

"Good. I know I don't say this enough Rosalind, but thank you for all you do for me."

"It's what you pay me for Boss. Now, enjoy married life and stop worrying, we will cope with your failure to appear in the office. Though your office looks lonely without you in it."

"I can't say I am missing it in the slightest, now if that's everything?"

"Yes Sir." I end the call and stare at Ana, she is worried about more than her private life being not so private, but what she is really worried about I do not know. She is good at keeping things hidden that's for sure.

"Christian, we are here, how are we getting back to Calabasas?"

"In my plane, the family are coming back with us for someone's birthday tomorrow, then the concert and then we will fly up to Seattle for the ball. Then we take a trip, just you and I."

"That sounds like heaven, and as soon as I get help running my monster expansion project, the better. I want to head the company up from Seattle, so I will definitely consider buying the building next door to Grey House from you. Please?"

"Consider it already done, neighbour."

"That's good. My god I cannot believe the change in my life, the world I once knew does not exist anymore, my mother is back and is far from the bitch I thought she was, my grandmother is dead to me and no longer the sweet woman I thought she was, I married my one true love, my grandfather seems happier than I have ever seen him, my business is not the sole focus of my life anymore and I think I want to be sick Christian, as in now..." She looks a fucking awful shade of green.

"Sir..." Taylor pulls over and she opens the door and runs to the verge, I rush behind her and hold her hair out of her face. It seems my bride is a little stressed and it hurts me to see her this way.

"I am so sorry, I feel sick and stupid. I want to curl up and die."

"That is a little over dramatic, the death thing; I have seen you be sick before Ana. Stop stressing everything has a way of getting to where it needs to be, take me for instance, it only took me twenty three years to realise you and me were destined to be together Baby. Now, are you okay?" I pass her a bottle of water and she gratefully takes it.

"I wish I were as smart as this water..." I shake my head. "God the heat here is awful, I will never moan about the rain in Britain again."

"You will, because believe it or not everybody does, it is the same as Seattle; we hate the weather until we are not there. Now are you okay Ana?"

"Yup, I am upchucked to the max, wait till the concert, that will be horrendous. I hate it. I have first night nerves all the damned time."

"You didn't show any sight of nerves when you were interviewed. Now, let's get you home and relax you."

"I like relaxing with you, if it includes sexing me to relaxation?"

"I think I can manage that Baby, it seems like forever since I have been in my favourite place."

"Umm, I think your dick agrees, get down boy." I laugh as she hugs me. I am not to kiss her smelly mouth? We climb in the car and Ana lays her head on my lap, and my fingers thread through her hair, Taylor gives me the look and I smile and nod my head, he is concerned for her too. We arrive at the hotel and everyone is round or about, checking out and the fussing begins when I carry Ana into the lobby. Her mother is the first to fly to my side.

"Ana, are you okay Ana? Christian what happened?"

"I am fine mum, really I am, stop fussing please, it was nerves that's all."

"Where the interviews bad?" She asks Ana.

"No, they were a little repetitive but they went well. I am just worried about tomorrow and the day after."

"Your birthday and the concert?"

"Yes. The concert mainly."

"Ana, you will be fine; you are your fathers daughter after all. He was the same, but to look at him on the stage you would not know it. He threw up for hours before he had to go on that dratted stage and as soon as the lights hit him he was a different man, he morphed into Lenny Lamb and stole the show. You will be the same Ana, now Papa has left with the guys in their plane; he, your father and your grandfather are roadies for them." I shake my head.

"Were they still drunk?"

"They never sobered up from the wedding. Your mother and the rest of the family are coming with me and Bob, we have to be at a signing, and they are stopping with us at Papa's Ana. I hope that's okay Christian?" I nod my head.

"Thank you, I am sure they will love it."

"Mum..." Ana says as she looks around the place.

"Yes dear."

"Thank you for being my dad's best stalker."

"Okay... That's a little weird Ana."

"I know, I mean it wasn't meant as an insult, but without you being like you were I wouldn't be here."

"Is she okay Christian?" I look at her and Carla is right, Ana seems like she is a little, I don't know, drunk? "I will get a doctor, she is not right."

"Call my mother Taylor, and have her meet us in our suite, hurry Jason, please." I rush her to the elevator and to our rooms, my mother meets us there and as I lay her on the bed she retches again, I grab the waste bin and she dry heaves for an age. "Mom?"

"She is dehydrated Christian, did she eat anything or drink anything today?" I think back and no, she didn't, she was offered food and food was given her, but she didn't eat anything damn it.

"No, she said she felt too nervous to eat. I should have seen to it she drank more." Ana wakes up and looks at me with those damned eyes, and her face makes a weak smile.

"Hey, I am here you know and I could have eaten, I just can't get rid of this damned headache that's all. I will be fine, I am so sorry for worrying you all. I have had too many headache tablets and not enough water and food Grace, I am stupid and I am sorry."

"That will do it every time, how long have you had the headache Ana?" My mother asks.

"Since met Christian again." She laughs, but I do not see the funny side of it.

"Yes mine head has had a long standing ache too. It's something we as a family have gotten used to, Christian and his life. Now, drink water and perhaps have some soup?"

"I will, we have to pack."

"Sir, there is no need, I have packed your things and they are being packed and placed in the car now. All you have to do it change into the clothes I left out for you." Gail steps forward with a glass of chilled water, what would I do without her? Ana sits and takes the offered water and glugs it down.

"God I needed that, thank you Gail, thank you for packing for me too."

"Your dress and mannequin have been packed too."

"Thanks, you are a god send Gail thank you for this." She nods and head out of the bedroom. "So am I fit to travel Grace?"

"You are, but might I suggest you take it easy tomorrow, it is after all your birthday?"

"I hadn't forgotten. I don't usually celebrate my birthday anymore, I prefer to keep busy and work."

"Why?" I ask, surly she and I are not that alike, I too hate my birthday?

"I stopped celebrating them when Papa Frank died. I hated them. Nonna, I mean Vita made me a cake and we exchanged gifts, but it wasn't the same, it wasn't the same after Grammy Mimi died, but after I headed out on my own, I worked through them."

"Well from tomorrow birthdays are back to being fun Ana. We do love a birthday party. I happen to know Nonno has ordered the BBQ to be blasting when we get home, he has a lamb and a goat to cook, he said something about a Greek neighbour and fireworks too?"

"His next door neighbour. I guess I am having a party then. Thank you Grace. Christian see your mother out and thanks Grace, I mean it, I really am thankful for all you have done for Christian and me. Mum can I have a word please?" I stand and stare as my mother hugs my wife and she has tears in her damned eyes too, they all do. What the hell, I hate tears and there are a lot. I take my mother to the sitting room.

"I love your wife Christian, she is perfect."

"Is she only stressed Mom, tell me the truth, is she ill?"

"Yes she is fine and is dehydrated, she will have to see her own doctor for medication for the stress, but they do say getting married moving home and business are very stressful times and let's face it she has a lot of businesses to be stressed about, she also has a lot going on in her life, and to be honest with you I am surprised it has taken her this long to freak out. She had to face us with the Elena thing, she had the secret of your son and now she is married to you, has bought all those failing stores and is honouring her father with that concert. Her grandmothers secrets, and realising she had wronged her mother, you name it that woman has had to face it."

"I know and I am helping her, really I am."

"She needs to be shut off from everything, both her brain and body needs to relax. You need to take her away Christian, for a really relaxing holiday or even take her on a honeymoon Christian."

"I am taking her away for a month after the Coping Together ball."

"Where are you taking her, I can keep a secret as well as Ana can?"

"Africa, to see the lion she adopted for our son. He is called Christian and she has never seen him, so we are going on an African safari and spending two weeks on her island in Bora-Bora. She hasn't seen the island either."

"She is a very strange yet wonderful girl. I want her relaxed and as soon as possible Son, then perhaps work on a few more grandbabies for me to spoil please?"

"I am on it, I mean we are on it, but not until she is ready Mom, its stressful for her to think about it ending the same way." She smiles checks me over and heads off. My mother is different too, especially since the Mutton soup incident; it has three million hits and is still rising high on You Tube... Elliot is stoked? I have yet to see it as we lived through it. I grab a coffee as Ana and her mother talk.

Honest truths...

"Mum, can I ask you a question?"

"Yes, you can ask me anything Honey, anything at all."

"Why did you not have any more children?"

"Oh god, I never thought I would be asked that question again."

"Was it not what you wanted?"

"No, and please do not take this the wrong way, but I never wanted you. I am not wired to be a good Mother, thanks to Vita. I was so sure I would fail, and I did."

"So did you regret having me?"

"No, but I do regret not being strong enough to step up and be your mum, like I told you in Christian's office that day, I was a weak woman, but one who knew that giving you to Frank and Mimi was the best thing I did. Why did you want to know Ana?"

"I have promised Christian to try for another baby, and I am more than a little afraid, if truth be told of the same thing happening, and please say it doesn't happen I happen to know a lady who has had it happen to her three times, all though hers were killed by her mother in law and not because of..."

"... Ana, hush, little one, you know what to look out for now and next time you will have more help than you could wish for, the next time you will have guidance, love and understanding. Ana, I promise you with everything that I have and everything I hold dear, you will never be alone again. never. Do you hear me, you are not alone and that man in there will make it happen, he will keep you and his child safe. He loves you Ana."

"He does doesn't he?"

"Are you trying for a baby right now Ana?"

"No, I have six months left with my implant, and then I, sorry we will talk again."

"I just thought with you being sick?"

"No, I am on birth control for a reason Mum, I wanted to have everything taken away after I had Christian, but they all said no and I went for this thing in my arm, I was so sure I would never want another child, but I want to give Christian a family, I want to be a mum again, but that's a way off yet."

"Well practice your baby making for half a year then and enjoy yourself. Now I have to be going Bobby has fans waiting for his appearance."

"He seems nice." I have not spoken to him a lot it has to be said I need to pull my thumb out of my bum and be a good step daughter. Shame on me for not doing so.

"He is and he is not looking elsewhere either, that's a damned fine bonus this time, he was cheated on too so we are like birds of feather, though he hasn't got any children."

"Five marriages mum. Five husbands why?"

"I would have been set with the one, I loved your father very much, he was the love of my life and Bobby, he knows it too. The others were fame hungry and liked their wives young. I got too old and they strayed when they realised I wasn't that into them. I guess with Bobby he knew from the get go that I loved your father. He is a very good man, who I do love, very much. He is patient and understanding."

"I look forward to getting to know him. I want to forget the past Mum and that means you and I seeing a lot more of each other, please?"

"I have wished for that more than you could possibly imagine. I have lots f gifts for you and lots of letters birthday cards and well a life time of gifts and diaries for you to read. My therapist said to write things down and put my thoughts and feelings into the written word. I guess I go on and on about your father in them because he was my world."

"I wrote about Christian and my baby in my dream diaries. My therapist was right it was what I needed. Why did you not come up to me when you saw me in the spa?"

"I was afraid, I wish I had. I wish I could have been there for you. I am sorry for being weak Ana, but I am a fighter now and eager to make up for my past."

"Consider it gone; I am a different person and so are you. Now get going or my step father will hate me. We will meet at the house, yes?"

"Yes, are you stopping in the hotel?"

"Yeah Christian has security needs and Nonno's is big but not big enough to house his army of workers."

"It is your home; we should stop in the hotel."

"Nah, it's still got Vita's imprint in the place, she really thought I would sign it over to her too, boy am I glad I didn't."

"She also thinks she is entitled to the farm, but it was left to me by Salvador. I too am glad I did not gift it to Papa, she would have had a claim on that too."

"I thought he owned it too. I bought the farms to either side and more equipment for the winery, I just presumed it was a family farm and they owned it."

"It is, I take nothing from it and Papa ploughs everything the farm makes back into it. Ray and the boys will have it eventually, when I can persuade the man to take it that is. I want him to have it, he works the land and sees to the vineyard, but he is a stubborn man."

"I guess he gets that from his mother, Mum thanks for the talk. I will see you when we get back, yes?"

"Yes darling, we will have dinner when we get back. Now give me a hug, now that I can have them I cannot get enough of them."

"Hugs I can give you. Time though is not that plentiful at the moment."

"I have book tours to do with Bobby for the next couple of months and I am working on the next couple of books too. I too am busy, busy, busy, but do not worry I will come and see you now that I can and we can catch up more then." She hugs me like her life depends on it and I swear don't want to let her go, how the hell can my world change and not a little but in a mega way too. She lets me go and walks out of the door, I know she was crying because my shirt is wet. Christian comes back into the room and heads in my direction.

"Is everything okay Baby?"

"It will be Christian. It will be. When is the flight booked for?"

"We have an hour to get to get ready and to the airport. Gail left us clothes to change into. I guess we could save time and shower together?"

"Yeah right... They can hold the damned plane, I need my husband to calm me down and make me feel a little bit better."

"I think that challenge I can do. Now wench get your butt in the shower I feel like doing rude things to it and you and quickly as we have very little time to make this special, but we are about to have an amazing and quick shower, now wrap your legs around me Ana." I did as I was told as the water continued falling over both of us. I kissed him again, he had his hands on my waist and began slowly lowering me onto him, the hot flow of the water was making my skin so sensitive to his touch, his hands hold me to him, that smile, those lips, the kiss and wow his dick.

The slow movements were breathtaking and damned nice, his hands are caressing my back and he is deepening the kiss, the hot water is still flowing over us as we get lost in the passion, I suddenly felt the need to be more energetic, and as I moved more quickly on him, he pulled his lips from mine and sighed. We both looked into each other's eyes, I winked, because I wanted to speed up, and as I tried to he gripped my hips holding me to him.

"No Baby, slow down and keep doing it like that, don't stop doing what you're doing please carry on and whatever I do, don't stop, please?" I nodded as he moved his hands. One remained under my bum helping me stay steady on him. The other was on my sex and he began playing with that damn spot. I began screaming his name into his chest; this was unlike anything he'd done to me before. I bucked like a bronco bull, on his dick, and oh my god it was a-fucking-mazing...

"Don't stop please, Anastasia fuck me please Baby and hard and now..." I thrust harder onto him. My hands gripped his neck tightly. Moving faster, pulling more of him out of me, forcing him back in, this was amazing. It was rough, great and I was very needy. I was exhausted and as I continued the energy this was taking was killing me. He continued to stroke my sex, the kisses, the sexy smutty talking, the water, the steam, all these things worked together to cause a strange and sexual experience.

A combination of wet skin and screams furthered the sexual powder keg, and as he and I worked together, I came hard, the bloody match had set the keg on fire and as he kissed me deeply and held me closer, his hands are now on my backside and as he gripped harder, he moved me up and down upon him, my sex tightened on him. Our joint trusts were long, hard and the pleasure to my sex felt unbelievable, I was so near again and as I threw my arms around his neck and held on tighter.

"Harder Ana, oh Baby this is wonderful." I had my head on his shoulder and he kissed my neck biting the back of it.

"Christian please, I need you to come oh god now." Grabbing handfuls of his hair, and pulling him down to kiss me, he did as I asked. He pulled nearly all the way out and back in three or four times more, he kissed me and I screamed his name as we came together. He smiled as I shuddered to the most amazing climax, and as we both stopped fucking I hung off him limp and exhausted.

"We need more showers like that Ana. I love you." I was speechless and exhausted but yeah; we need to shower quickly more often, like daily...

* * *

Next chapter is Ana's birthday and they have a visitor... Read and review and thank you for all your good wishes, it means a lot that you care... And in just over two weeks we get to see darker I cannot wait. Xx love and stuff xx


	32. Chapter 32

This story is nowt like fifty shades; I just purloined E.L. James's characters, buildings and some of her other stuff...

* * *

Dreaming of Chocolate and Grey:

Chapter 32:

Happy Birthday to you:

The flight from Vegas to Calabasas was uneventful, Christian and I worked. Talk about noses back to the grindstone. I guess I will have to wait for the honeymoon. I tinker away with the new cocktail range, and decide I need at least six or seven new flavours. I also need a couple of days in the kitchen to put them to the make test. I guess I could make them at home, I have done before? I also fire off emails to the people interested in working for me and look at the houses they are now in.

Milo Gogh, I can understand his wanting to move, his head of house will never leave, as he is another John Hyde. I like him for Europe. He lives in Belgium and is fantastic. Katrina Vaux, she will be perfect for head office in Seattle, she speaks several languages and like Milo will never be in total control at the small family chocolate empire her father has built up, she is the youngest of five chocolatiers, all boys. Next, Carrie Gallagher, she is a dark horse and is a very private person, she is at present with Cadburys American, in their research and development department. The only thing worrying me is the fact that she may only be coming to my company to spy on us? She would be perfect for Australasia though, her parents live in Adelaide, but did she run from there for a reason?

George Meddlesome, he worked for John Hyde in America, until John died and Jack fired him, he has the potential to be the best, because he was with John longer than I was, only over here in America, he would also know more about the stores and factories here. He is a definite for America, if I can persuade him out of the shity little chocolate house he is in, in Poland that is? If memory serves me right, he and Jose were best friends. The three amigos, Jose, George and Ramón, they were Sirs advisors on many things, including giving their opinions on my worth to the company, and now I own that company, my how the world changes.

I shut down my lap top and stare out of the planes small window, good god the airport is coming into view. Time does fly. Literally it seems. Christian returns to his seat and leans over and gives me a sweet kiss.

"Did you get any work done Mrs Grey?"

"I did Mr Grey; I sent off emails to the four possible COO's, do you think Welch could do a full check on them for me please?"

"Ros has already sanctioned them and they should be with you shortly."

"Can I steal her from you?"

"God no. That is the one thing I will never give you Anastasia, my right hand..."

"Phooey, she is so good too."

"Why are you not promoting from within Ana?"

"Jose is going to be a working parent and I would not want to come between him and Ethan, he is good at what he does and he knows he has my total admiration and appreciation. He just has to ask and it will be given to him, he just doesn't want it. Ramón, he loves heading up the schools, he loves teaching and creating, I'd miss him if he stepped down or across."

"Okay, so you are having four COO's then?"

"Yup. Now hold my damned hand we are landing." He does and as he does he chuckles. "I hate flying sunshine, now shush or no nookie for you when we get back."

"Yes Madam... I will shush; I so need another one of those showers."

"It was rather relaxing dear..."

"So, are you ready for the party?"

"Nope, I hate them; I will however try my best to enjoy this one a little more now that I have you with me."

"That you do. What will you wish for when you blow out your candles?"

"It's a secret. If you tell you do not get your wish."

"Okay then. Make it a good one Baby." I will, I will wish for a baby and for nothing to go wrong this time. He grabs my hand like he can read my thoughts and gives it a squeeze. "Everything will be fine Ana..." Oh god he does read minds, crap I am screwed, and I smile and think yes please...

We land at Bob Hope Airport, apparently security always use LAX, but because of the threat of Leila, they are not doing things their usual way? I didn't ask I just went with the flow. We exit the plane, Taylor, Gail, Sawyer Holly, Ryan and Reynolds, Christian and I and get into the waiting cars. I thought Sirs' entourage was big, but Christian's seems to be bigger and made up of more men in black than ditsy secretaries and publicity people.

"Taylor have we any reports?"

"No sir, no sightings and no use of her cards. She seems to be laying low." I shiver.

"Ana, what's the matter are you chilly?"

"No, I just feel like someone is watching me." He looks around as does Taylor and Sawyer. "Ignore me; I am just being a little tetchy. We made the Nooz!" My phone blew up when I turned it back on; his too seemed to explode with pings. "We married because I am pregnant, what a surprise and they are digging into Christian's birth too, will their intrusion never end?"

"No, I am sorry to say, the freedom of speech over here is different than in England. I am being inundated with requests for interviews, how about you?"

"Yup, but they have had the one and only interview concerning our son that I am going to give. They will bring him up when the book goes on sale, as he is the dedication and the profits are going to charity too, those questions I will answer if I have to, but I am not putting more out there than needs be."

"I will have Welch block them from contacting you Ana. Now let's get back to the hotel. Gail are you okay?"

"Yes Sir, I am fine." Poor Gail heard our conversation and Taylor passed her a hankie for her tears. I guess we should think before we talk in front of her.

"Take the rest of the evening off both of you. Sawyer and Holly can stop in with us."

"Sir..." We hit the hotel and are greeted by the damned press. Taylor drives around the back and security are called to clear them back to the road. Though if they are guests, they have the right to be here the sneaky bastards. As we head into the foyer and people are taking photos of us on their phones.

"Christian..."

"I know sweetheart, I know. Ignore them. They will be like that for a while." One comes towards me with an autograph book.

"Miss Lambert, I am your dad's biggest fan. I have come all the way from Birmingham England to hear the concert, can I have your autograph please, and perhaps a selfie?" Oh god and so it begins. Christian looks at Taylor and I raise my hand, this is part and parcel of being my father's daughter. He will have to get used to it. I have had to.

"Sure, who do you want it made out to?" I sign his book and we take the dratted selfie, he goes and others follow, Christian is understandably pissed off when I sign and selfie a dozen other peoples books and photos. Eventually they disappear and we head up, I know I have pissed him off, but what was I meant to do ignore them?

"Ana, that was frightening all those people rounding up on you, was a security nightmare."

"Sir, might I suggest we move to local unknown? Mrs Grey is going to be hard to keep safe, if all the fans do that, I will not be able to guarantee her safety."

"Taylor, do what you think is best, we could stop at the house, I guess?"

"No, my family are bunkering down there Ana, we will head to another hotel, perhaps nearer to the Bowl?"

"Radisson Hotel Chatsworth, is an okay place, it's out of the way, but not what you are used to Christian? I'm sorry for causing so much upheaval Taylor. I won't stop to sign autographs again; I have always done it though. It will be a hard habit to break, but I will try harder." I feel like a scolded child. He smiles.

"It is fine; I expected as much, they were bad enough at your London home. I will get on to it. Gail will pack your bags here and we will make reservations."

"You may have to ring around, the concert will have filled quite a few hotels, sorry."

"Its fine Mrs Grey, it's what I do best." He sort of smiles and we head to the suite. Gail and Taylor are god sends. Holly and Luke get off the next lift and join us.

"Wowsers Annie, that was mad. Luke and I blended in with the fans and I am most hurt you refused to sign my boobs."

"That was you Holly? I didn't see the face just the jugs. Try to grow up, there's a good girl or I will send you back to London and let Jenny torment you."

"Aww phooey Annie, not Jenny, I stopped a few getting too close and Luke rounded on the others. Christian its always like that but in all the years I have been watching her, no one has laid a finger on her."

"Thank you, I too saw the boobage, please keep it hidden Holly."

"Yes Sir, now I am going to pack, it seems Mia has my room at the house. So I guess I am coming with you two?"

"Yes you dork."

"Okay packing it is, Luke do you need a hand packing?"

"No I have it covered. Thank you Holly." He blushes. They leave for their rooms and an arm drags me towards a hot body.

"Now, let's get that shower, it got a little hot down there."

"Oh yes please..." I turned and kissed him and for a moment I thought I saw someone watching us. "Christian, there was a woman watching us."

"Where Baby?"

"At the far end of the corridor." He turned, but she had disappeared, he called Taylor, Taylor and the others headed towards the place I had seen the spy and we headed into the suite, I was safe behind closed doors, or so I thought. Christian saw what I did, our room was trashed. Fuck-A-Duck... It was a mess.

"Sawyer, get in here now." Christian screamed down the phone, the others were chasing the ghost. He and Holly ran in and were stopped in their tracks when they saw the mess.

"Sir, I will check with security, whoever did this needed an elevator code and a pass code for the door. We should have left a guard here."

"Taylor wanted to, but I said it was over kill, my mistake and one that won't be repeated. Baby Stand back. Let Sawyer check the rooms Holly take Ana to your room and we will be in presently." I was shocked and afraid for the first time in a long time, I mean seeing die bitch in red blood on the wall can do that, I guess? I walked with Holly quickly to her room and threw myself onto her bed.

"Why is this happening to me now Holly?"

"It's all the loony fans of Lenny out there, that's why."

"They have never done this before Holly, it's not them, and as stupid as this sounds, even the naked stalker was nice. The only one who was off was the knicker sniffer."

"He was gross... Do you think it's this Leila woman?"

"I couldn't see her face, but it could have been. She was about the right size, but she was filthy."

"I am surprised she didn't wash in your suite and wear your clothes, I have heard the guys talk and she is a sandwich short of a picnic alright."

"What else do they say, only Christian doesn't say much about the others?"

"Just that she was odd and very into him. He has been at this a long time too. Are you okay with it all Annie? I mean I know you are into your kink too, but this is a step too far."

"I knew what I was getting Holly, and do not spread the kink thing around please?"

"Taylor asked did I know about Satin and Steel, I told him I was a signed up member. Was that where he found you after the baby reveal?"

"Yes..."

"Kinky fuckers the pair of you. Now, let me get you a brandy, you are shaking Annie. I won't let anyone hurt you Sis." She hands me a glass which now has three miniatures of brandy poured into it, from the mini bar and sip the warming liquid. It stops me shaking and I relax.

"What the hell are we going to do Holly? Am I always going to be hounded by his past and the damned fans?"

"Pretty much Sis, you are famous, you are recognised and you are Lenny Lambs only child, so of course the media want their piece of you, then you marry a pretty hot billionaire and tell the world you had a child together, a baby who died, so yep, they want it more now."

"I want to shrivel up and hide."

"Nope, never happening Sis, not on my watch anyhow. Right, drink that, do you want some nuts since we have cracked open the mini bar?"

"I could eat some nuts. Pass me the cashews..." She chucks me the tub and I shovel an handful into my mouth and chuck some at Holly. She tries to catch then and they miss her massive gob. She is about to chuck her crisps at me when Christian comes in with Taylor.

"Okay, food fight over?" I smile.

"It was needed to lighten the mood. Did you catch her?"

"No, and whoever it was has cut the feed to this floor, so we have no clue as to how she got up here."

"Have you ever brought Leila here before?"

"No Ana I have not."

"So how would she get in here?"

"It may not have been her Mrs Grey. It could have been anyone. Leila Williams was very resourceful and able to deal with the electrics and security; she messed with it at Escala all the damned time." Sawyer says as he heads in. "That girl was a freak and was very good at avoidance and manipulation and it doesn't take much to work out you and Mr Grey are at the concert tomorrow and this is his hotel..."

"Do you think she was here, and tell me the truth Taylor, do you think it was Leila too. Please?" He looks to Christian for permission to speak. Christian kneels down and kisses my head tenderly.

"Yes Baby, I think she could have been here, I hardly think Vita could outrun Ryan and Reynolds, but this girl did."

"So there was someone watching us then I wasn't going mad?"

"Yes Mrs Grey, she was already at the bottom of the fire escape when we got there, and as Mr Grey said she out ran Ryan, so must be pretty damned fit. We will check the feeds from the rest of the hotels security, but in my opinion yes Leila Williams was the one in your suite." Fuck a flaming duck...

We head back in to the cleared room, and whoever it was has ripped my things to shreds, everything I had left here is ruined. I dash to the safe and sigh. My baby's photos and everything personal I left here is untouched. Christian sighs.

"I am so sorry for bringing her into our lives Baby. So fucking sorry." We are locked in a tight embrace when Taylor comes back in.

"We have reservations at the Radisson, under the names Rowland, Tobin and Miller, if it was Leila she knows I use my name to book rooms. We will head out as soon as you have packed what you can. I will have security tidy up this mess, can anything be saved?"

"It seems my stuff was the only things she trashed. She has left Christian's things untouched. I guess she was too afraid to touch your stuff Christian?"

"Possibly, we can replace your dresses and clothes. She even trashed your underwear. It too can be replaced. Taylor have someone, other than Gail, pack my things away and have them collected. Gail is not to be alone at any time Taylor." He nods his head. "Come on have you packed Holly?"

"Me? Yup I am a pack and go in like two minutes sort of a gal."

"I have my stuff too, but she has ruined everything Christian. Everything."

"I know and it can be replaced. You cannot, now come we have to get ready for your birthday party Ana. Nonno is instant you are at the house at five."

"Oh hell, it's going to be loud, especially if they have invited the Greeks from next door."

"I believe he has. They are being checked as we speak."

"Anthippi, will be into you for information Christian, she is a Greek gossip. He son Vasilis was earmarked as my future husband, be warned she may tell you this, but it was only ever in Nonna, I mean Vita's head. He and I are friends and that is all, oh and he has just got engaged to a nice Greek girl too so don't even go there, besides I am a married lady."

"Suitors, did you had suitors everywhere?"

"Nope, this was a long standing arrangement Vita had in her own head, Anthippi, she wanted nothing but Greek for her son. I am not Greek simple as." He laughs and we head out. When we are sure we are not being followed, we head to the new hotel. Finally settled in I look for something to wear, the dress I had earmarked for the night was in tatters and I had to go with the one we, Holly and I found whilst shopping for my wedding dress. Damn it I need a new outfit for the concert too. I will kill her for ruining my Oscar de la Renta gown. It was the bomb and now its ruined.

"We can shower together Ana because we need to save water..."

"If you say so dear, if you say so..." We showed long and hard and saved not one jot of water, in fact we probably used way more than was necessary, its filthy work fucking in the shower with a rampant and very angry husband. When finally we get out he is much more relaxed, soothed even. The angst from his hotel is not forgotten but it is put on the back burner for now. He has his bags and I feel very envious he has many choices to be had, me I have very little he has not seen an only three sets of underwear left too. I wear the dress from shopping with Holly and do my hair. All watched by Christian. He smiles and hands me a box.

"Did you think I had forgotten today is your birthday?"

"I have everything I need Christian and way more than I had last year. What did you get me?"

"A little something, a little something nice. I hope you like it I picked them out myself?"

"I am sure they will be beautiful then, you have great taste." He is putting on his watch and he smiles.

"Just like my woman, this is amazing Baby and very nice." He kisses my neck and stands as I open the box, the Cartier on the red lid tells me its jewellery, but when I open it I almost drop the fuckers.

"Wow, these are very sparkly Christian."

"They are the same as your engagement ring Baby only smaller." I have at least thirty carets of bling on my finger and in my ears. Wowsers... "You look stunning."

"You don't look so bad yourself. I need clothes for the concert."

"All taken care of, a selection of gowns will be here when we get back from this party. Now are you ready Ana?"

"I am and thank you for the earrings they are beautiful."

"Like my bride. Now move you tush or we will not be attending your party. I feel the need to shower some more." I giggle. "I love that sound Baby, I fucking love it."

"Smut monster, stop with the F-Bombing please?"

"Okay, but you Ana, said it far more times than me, in the shower."

"Okay, are you keeping count?"

"No, I lost count after the wheelbarrow attempt at fucking you turned into a near drowning you thing. That is something that we will not be doing again, well not in the sodding shower anyhow." He takes my hand and we leave the room. It's a lot less decadent than his hotel but it is my kind of hotel. It seems Luke and Holly are sharing a room. I see them come out and grin.

"Cut it out Sis, it's a twin and we have our own beds, we had to double up because T got the last four rooms. Apparently there is some monster concert going down tomorrow and rooms are scarce."

"Don't remind me Holly."

"It will be amazing Annie and you will be great, now shut up and head down with Luke and I, Taylor and Gail and the other two are waiting in the lobby. They decided to take up Nonno's invitation to party."

"Have you talked to your dad Holly?"

"Yeah they were napping; it seems they may have last minute nerves too. It's silly because they are ace and have been practicing for weeks. Oh and sound checks at eleven tomorrow so you and have a lie in and do what honeymooners do best."

"We intend to Holly, Sawyer, is it safe?" Christian asks him.

"Sir, the way to the cars is secure, head this way please." We follow him to the elevator and Holly brings up the rear.

"Holly, are you worried?"

"Nope, I am carrying and if she gets within a foot of you she is a goner, Taylors orders are to shoot to disarm but to kill if it cannot be helped. Apparently she ran out of chance at an easy out and now we are to take her out of it and let the authorities deal with it."

"Yes, she has been let off with a private facility twice now and both times she has abused my generosity and the authorities will not allow me to ride roughshod over them again as they did when she took her son." He sighs as he says it, had she been taken away she would have been in a secure unit and we would now not be watching our every damned move. I don't need to say anything he knows he fucked up, but I understood his reasoning, even if I did not agree with it.

"Annie, I sent you birthday gift to Chris, he thanks you for dinner."

"What dinner?" Christian asks.

"Oh sorry, we stopped gifting gifts and now we feed the lions in Kruger park instead. Chris the lion is a well fed bugger. Handsome one too."

"Oh, okay... What cut of meat did you get him?"

"A whole fucking dead zebra..." I laugh. "Last year he had an antelope and I was there to see him eat it, it was epic. His teeth are sharper than Vita's too."

"Umm, hers do need some filing though. Thank you for the zebra, One day I will see him in the flesh too."

"Hey I only got to see him because I was working out there; Open a factory and shops there, and then you can go see him too."

"No, they don't think there is a big enough market for it out there, and the places that are I wouldn't want to set up shop. It's a poor country and only the rich could afford to eat my chocolates."

"You have looked at it then?" Christian asks.

"Yes, but it's a political minefield and not at all safe. I would rather keep funding the camp out there and feed the majority of the poorer South Africans, than open up a shop for the minority of rich power mad and land hungry South Africans. That is me and politics done for the day, well until Anthippe gets me started on what the Greeks invented. Tha argument you will never win."

"She sounds delightful."

"She is a great woman and her husband is hilarious. They are so much fun. I love them. Annie and I used to love winding Vita and her up. Now it looks like it is just going to be us against her Annie."

"Oh god she wins all the time Holly, leave her be for tonight, please?"

"Okay birthday girl, but if she brings out the Windex on my spot again, all bets are off."

"What?"

"She thinks it's a magic cure all for everything from dirty windows to spots and yes she will tell you it's a Greek invention, it is said that the person who wrote My big fat Greek wedding was an old neighbour of theirs 'cos sure as shit she and the dad in that could be sodding twins." Poor Christian hasn't a clue what she is talking about, but he says nothing. Welcome to the cray-cray side of my life. Crazy and wonderful and fun. We arrive and as we do I see the gates are barred and security are very much a presence to be felt.

"Christian?"

"It needs to be done Annie; the Greeks have shut their doors too and are using the pool side entrance. When we explained it was to keep Vita at bay she asked did we want to borrow her brothers security dogs to watch the fences? I said yes but Taylor said the men were enough."

"He has been doing this a while Holly." I hear Sawyer tell her.

"I know but Vita hates the dogs and they hate her. She has been in the damned pool more times because of those dogs than she has to actually swim in it. Word is she poisoned one and the others have never forgiven her, we can't prove it but she didn't cry like the others did when we found it after it sent her to the pool the night before."

"I remember that, she did look shifty now I think about it."

"Good god, what the hell sort of life did you have Ana?"

"In the most?"

"Well yes."

"Fun and lively and most of it for me was spent in school and in work." We head in and the party is in full swing, Granny and Gramps Trevelyan are a lively pair. Christian shakes his head.

"I apologise in advance, when drunk they turn into teenagers and troublesome ones at that. There is Elliot and is he kissing Kate?"

"Yup, he has been claimed by Kavagnah. Oh look Ethan and Jose are here too. Is that Jenny?"

"Yup Christian flew the old trout out for you. She is a tad happy to be here too. Well done Mr Grey, she may ease up on you a little. Not a lot, but she may not want to hurt you as much..." Holly says as she heads out of the car.

"Here she is the apple of my eye. Bambino, come to Nonno." I head towards Nonno and see he has tears in his eyes.

"Nonno?"

"I am happy Bambino so very happy, now come and meet the surprise guests..."

"I saw Jenny."

"Oh no, Chris sent a jet for these reprobates and they are dying to see you." I look up and at Christian, he has that smug look on his face and as I turn I see the best sight ever...

"Uncle Ray..." I rush up and I am checked over, inspected and hugged within an inch of my life. "How did he get you out of Australia?"

"He told me Mamma was in Italy, so we are here for a few weeks to be with Papa, the gang is all here..." I look across the pool and see my cousins. My uncles are in heaven too, it's been a very long time since we have all been together; my mother is at his side and is hugged too.

"I am glad to see you and your mum made up too. Now where is the man who captured my princesses heart?"

"He is here. Thank you Christian. Thank you so frigging much. If I haven't told you enough today, I love you Mr Grey. So very much..." He grips the hand that Uncle Ray offers him. I smile when I see the power grip war taking place; it seems both are going to have a sore hand, unless they each give in. They do and I swear they both have white hands and wince. Serves them right.

"It is a pleasure to meet you Ray, Ana talks about her Aussie Branch of the family a lot. She never stops talking about you."

"She hasn't ever stopped talking about you either. So you made an honest woman of my niece then?"

"I did, and it is the best thing I have done to date."

"Good to hear it, she deserves it. Carla here vouches for you and told me about everything, something my princess should have told me herself. Now, let me introduce you to the kids and the wife, she who has to be obeyed, she is a little crankier than usual, we found out Mariah is pregnant and this time we hope she gets the girl I know she wants, don't get me wrong she loves the boys, but hell none of them looked good in the dresses she got for Santino..." I laugh as I see my cousin Santino the turd shake his head. Yup we have pictures of my cousin in a very fetching baby girl dress, so convinced was Aunt Mariah that he was a girl, she didn't buy him boy stuff.

My youngest cousin Freddy, he runs at me, I have a very soft spot for Freddy, he and my baby were born within a week of each other and as I stoop to pick him up I shed a tear. Christian is watching us from across the pool and as I hug Freddie I see someone I never wanted to see again and judging from Uncle Rays face he has seen her too. Nonna is here and she has the biggest of cakes with her. Holly and Sawyer rush to my side as I hug Freddy for dear life. Holy fuck... What does she want with us now?

* * *

So a little bit of both Leila and Nonna Vita fun lol what happens next? Find out at the weekend... read and review lease and thank you xxx


	33. Chapter 33

This story is nowt like fifty shades; I just purloined E.L. James's characters, buildings and some of her other stuff...

* * *

Dreaming of Chocolate and Grey:

Chapter 33:

Happy Birthday Part Two:

My mouth drops when I see Vita in her best clothes and ushering in the bakers from my store here, they look as pissed off as I do. They however pale into nothingness compared with the looks she gets from Uncle Ray.

"Well, do I get a hello?"

"No, you get a hell go, you were not invited, so leave and now." I hug poor Freddy as I tense seeing her here. He looks so afraid too, what the hell does this woman do to us?

"Nonsense I am your grandmother I do not need an invite Anastasia. I see you even managed to get all my son's here too. Raimondo I see you made it to America at last?" He steps forward and I hand him Freddy before he does something stupid, he is not best pleased with her at the best of times, but now he knows the full extent of her duplicity, he despises her more, if that were at all possible.

"You are nether wanted here, or are you my grandmother. Now I will ask you again, in front of all these guests to leave my home and do not come back."

"My home."

"Mine, you were simply a guest, now I have asked you nicely to leave, please do so, or the men that are surrounding you will make it happen." Taylor has her covered.

"I brought you your cake."

"A cake I forgot to cancel. I want you to leave, I believe we covered the bases as to why you were to leave the last time we met, you hateful shrew."

"I have allowed you time to cool off Anastasia. Now I am here to talk to you about my place in the family."

"Mother, you have no place in this family. Now leave." My mother says, finding her strength.

"No, not before I get what I am owed, what I deserve for making you what you are today Anastasia. I helped you become what you are."

"As I recall Nonno did that, you did not do anything to help me; you only ever lied to me. Now you find yourself without the luxury my money affords you and I guess that's what you miss more than us?"

"I have enough..."

"So why did you attempt to take money from the company accounts then?"

"I needed somewhere to stay. You made it clear I was not to stop here and yet it is where I have lived for years, and my attorneys say I have rights."

"Then you were advised wrongly. I own the house and you left, how did you get back in actually?"

"I have a key, but didn't use it, because your staff were delivering the cake and I walked in with them, they chatted to me and the security let me pass with them, but I shouldn't have to sneak in like a thief Anastasia."

"Yet you did. Now leave, your money will be in the bank at the end of the day. For that you are to stay away from everyone here today. I will give you an allowance, and it will be nowhere near the free reign you had of my money before. It will be enough to keep a roof over your head and food in your belly, but not as much as you would like. My solicitors will deal with everything else in due course. The family vineyards and farm are nothing to do with you, neither has any of my businesses, so do not waste what little money I do give you fighting us for something your name is not attached to."

"You can't do this you... You...You whore..." The party guests were a little shocked, but we have danced this dance before. I will not be doing an encore. "I want what I am owed. I want my rightful place in this family back."

"Rightful?" My Uncle Ray shouts. "Rightful, what rightful place is that Mamma? Leave as Ana asked or so help me I will throw you out."

"Raimondo, how dare you speak to me like that?"

"Easily, now I know you for what you are. I always knew you hated us, but now I know why, it all makes sense, you put up with us because you couldn't have the family with our uncle, the one you really wanted. You are one deluded old woman, who has no rights to call us family. You are no longer my mother. I guess Uncle Sal knew what you had done and why you did it. I am so pleased you did not manage to beat my child from my wife's body too."

"She fell, she was a clumsy girl. She fell Raimondo, she fell, tell them Mariah, you are a clumsy gold digger." Really, can she not see what everyone else sees, they love each other to pieces. Vita is a moronic old hag, why did it take me so long to see her for what she is?

"Like I did mother?" My mother says as he it seems has a penchant for pushing pregnant women down stairs, thank god I did not tell her about Christian.

"You, you caused all this coming back for your bastard."

"My daughter is not and never was a bastard. I think we have rehashed this for the last time Vita. Now leave my daughter's home or you will pay the price dearly."

"Why what are you going to do?"

"Are you leaving?" I ask.

"No, this is my home." Really?

"Very well you were asked nicely. Anthippe?" I see Nonno's neighbour and smile.

"Yes Anastasia, what can I do for you, do you need a hand taking the trash out..."

"Let the dogs out, please they need a run right?" Her dogs are on her sun loungers watching their owner and looking out for her, her Doberman puppy dogs, all are the size of a small pony.

"Yes dear... Zeus. Poseidon. Athena. Apollo. Artemis see her off, there she is, see her off." I heard the growls before I saw the five black masses head for Vita. She turned and I swear I don't know what was funnier, her trying to outrun Anthippe's pet pouches or the fact that Vita did not see the cake, the pool or the security guys coming to take her away. It all happened in a very quick cartoonish sort of a way. A lot like Grace and the steak and soup incident, they were sat and stood watching the show, as were all our guests. Christian had made his way to my side and as I laughed he relaxed.

"Call them off I am going..." It was too late by the time Anthippie whistled for them to come to heel, as one of the dogs of the gods had pounced on her, he knocked her back into the five tier cake as she stopped her ass from heading into the pool. He was then seen sat licking off the butter cream from her face. Hilarious? You bet it was. My birthday guest wouldn't be eating that cake. "Get the damned things off me you Greek witch."

"I have been waiting for their training to kick in for years, heel boys, Vasilis, put them back, there's a good boy. Now are you leaving Ana's house or do I tell them to kill? They do you know, they have a fighting dummy with your face on it. I am eager to say the word Vita..." She had her hands on her hips and was stomping her foot, very typical of her. "Zeus..."

"I am going. You will hear from my attorneys."

"You choice Vita, fight me and you will get nothing, leave and do not come back. And you will get your allowance, which is more than you deserve." I shout, angry that she has tried to ruin my bloody birthday.

"I am going. I want nothing to do with you or this family. You are all weak idiots." Taylor and his guys took her key from her; like it would have worked the locks were changed. She and the cake were disposed of. My family were laughing as the cake that covered her splogged off and the dogs came back to feast on it. As I pet one I swear it smiled.

"They are killer dogs?" Christian asks?

"No, god no they just jump up and pin you down. They play they don't kill. Anthippie, tell my husband how puppy like they are please?"

"Yeah, they are too soft, they do kill, but with kisses, had she stopped the cake would not have been a problem. Their tongues would have licked off the cream that's all; it's my brother George who has the throat rippers. These are my cuddly babies. Now Ana, introduce the hotty?"

"Anthippie Anastasopoulos, please meet my husband Christian Trevelyan Grey..."

"I like him, if he were Greek he would be a god, he has very nice muscles. Vasilis has no muscles, but he has brains, put my babies back please Vasilis."

"Yes mother, Ana, nice to see you again, it's been a while..."

"Hi Vasilis it has you're right, sorry I have been too busy and I believe you are getting married too? Sorry, this is Christian. Christian this is Vasilis..." Christian was staring at poor Vasilis, with all seeing eyes. The grey of his eyes has darkened. It always amazes me how they change. Is he jealous of poor Vasilis?

"Pleased to meet you. Ana has mentioned you."

"Her Nonna thought we would get married one day, but alas she is not Greek. Besides we didn't like each other very much. She is far too bossy." Christian relaxed. What, I told him about Vasilis. I swear I love this man so damned much.

"Vasilis get the dogs home, before they ruin the BBQ. BBQ's were invented by the Greeks you know?" She is doing her Greek thing and I swear Christian wants to laugh.

"I didn't, but I do now thank you." We chatted for a while and watched as poor Vasilis wrangled the dogs back. My family are all huddled together. I don't have to guess who it is they are talking about. I head to the gates and pass Taylor.

"Mrs Grey?"

"I was just making sure she left."

"She did, I am sorry for you loss."

"My loss Taylor?"

"She was your grandmother who you loved; of course you have lost something, not through death, but through lies."

"I guess you are right, and all knowing. I guess that is why Christian employs you too!"

"I guess he has his reasons."

"How do you cope with his hectic lifestyle?"

"I adapt quickly to change, I have to, he made me very aware of this at my interview and I like it, no two days are the same!"

"You deserve a medal, and now you have all my crap to deal with."

"And we will. Your grandmother tells me she is going to stay with friends in New York; she told me, not asked me, to tell you she will accept your offer?"

"I bet she did. It is cheap at half the price to see the back of her. How is the search for Leila going?"

"It is hard; she is very good at avoiding us. She always has been."

"I would guess, I mean if I have to, she has more problems than the good doctor and Christian realised?"

"I blame her aunt. Elena raised her, so what do you expect?"

"She sure knew how to get into a person's head and stay there. I mean Christian was a mess and Leila was under her thumb for longer. I guess; gheeze I am guessing a lot, we shouldn't be speaking like this, I mean I could get you into trouble?"

"I can deal with trouble Mrs Grey. Do you need anything?"

"A holiday and a sleeping pill for tonight, tomorrow is a big day."

"A very big day."

"There you are, is everything okay Ana?" I hear the voice of my grandfather.

"Yes, I was just making sure she had gone. Why did she think it was okay for her to just turn up here and ruin it for me?"

"I would guess it was because she is a hard faced woman, with no morals? I was married to her for many, many years and have forgiven her for just as many things. I had to believe the woman I married was better than she was. I was wrong, even in her twilight years she still wants the family money, why? I mean Anastasia, she will not have long to enjoy it."

"Nonno, what do you mean she won't have time to enjoy it?"

"I opened a couple of letters from the hospital; apparently she didn't have time to forward her mail and she has been ignoring his calls too, its serious Ana."

"And..."

"She has a brain tumour; she has to know she has it right? I asked Grace's opinion and she says it could explain her recent behaviour. The mood swings and everything else she has going on, but if she hasn't seen the letters does she know she is seriously ill. Does she know she is dying and needs treatment?"

"Has she had it since Mum was born, because it seems she was nasty way back then?"

"I know. I mean I don't know, but I did feel sorry for her, she may be dying and doing it alone."

"She made her bed Nonno, as she told my mother and me, so she must lie in it. However if you want to go to her, then I can't stop you nor would I want to, you loved her and still love her Nonno. So are you going to find her?"

"Yes, after the concert I will go to New York."

"You knew she was going there?"

"Yes, she stops in a place Papa Frank let us use."

"I have an actual place to live in New York?" This is another surprise, why am I just finding this out now, I mean I have just opened a damned store there, I guess I should have asked if there were apartments there? Perhaps, because I only asked for store spaces?

"I would guess it's yours, he left you everything after all. I have only been there a few times, Vita liked to go there for the shows, alone."

"I bet that everything they left me is in the huge amount of paperwork I have to shown at some point today, Ethan has brought stuff with him for me to sign."

"Don't worry, they are good people. If he left you anything more, then embrace it and do good with it."

"I won't know until I read all about it. Ethan says it's a lot and it will take some going through."

"They are good people Ana, they have never steered me wrong. I invested my salary wisely. Vita can have that; she may need it in the coming months."

"Months?"

"Yes Bambino, months."

"Oh god, I know she did hateful things but..."

"...Don't blame yourself or anyone else, that woman will even have a plan for this no doubt."

"Nonno. She would have used it had she know she was dying, don't you think?"

"The letter did say it was in regards to her migraines, perhaps she has not been back, perhaps the headaches have stopped, who knows until I go and talk to her. Marco is coming with me. He will not be swayed as easily as I will be."

"Mrs Grey, your husband is looking for you." Taylor interrupts us subtly.

"Oh god yes, I snook off didn't I?"

"Yes Ma'am, he is worrying."

"Okay, Nonno come and have some real cake. The dogs are having the other."

"Umm, Nonna did not wear it well." We both laugh, but the laughter is tinged with a sadness, I am not heartless, and certainly not as heartless as Vita. We return to the party and immediately Christian is at my side.

"Baby, I lost you."

"Nah, I was making sure she had gone. Now have you learned all about what the Greeks have and have not invented?"

"She does go on a little. Her son is giving her a wide berth. What is it with all these continental mothers from hell?"

"It's a Mediterranean thing, women are loud and bossy and hippie once they have children. Am I hippie?"

"Are you seriously asking me is your butt big Ana?"

"Nope, just if I am hippie!"

"No you are perfect. As are your Australian family. They are amazing and very down to earth, if a little afraid of Vita." I smiled and told him of her illness, he didn't know what to say, like me he was torn between being heartless and being a caring being. We headed in to the party and I still couldn't shake this feeling of our being watched...

Master is Happy:

I managed to escape the masters goons; they are not as slight and as fit as me. I managed to hide under a car and they passed me. I cut it too fine in leaving their suite; waiting around to see what she has that I do not. I didn't see a lot of her, but what I did see, she looks like me, so he chose someone who looks like me, so the chances are he still wants me and has chosen a lookalike. It was worth what I did to get into their rooms, they will eventually find the housekeeper in her little cupboard, I needed to get in and she helped. The stupid woman was not keeping me from my master. She tried but failed. As will the girl at his side. I followed them to the new hotel. Do they think I am stupid? If they do, then more fool them, I am nobody's fool anymore.

I followed them back to the large house I am stood in front of. I had thought they were returning to the hotel he has here. I was wrong. I hid and watched as the party planners and happy people came and went. I was wondering how to get in when I spotted a bakery van pulling up. I make my way to it and I stopped by the sound of a horrid woman barking orders at her staff, the cake is big and amazing, I want someone to get me a cake like that, I want someone to care enough to want to get me a beautiful cake. Has the master bought it for her? I cannot get in as they are guarding the damned house. I see Taylor and think against going in with the cake people. He follows the cake lady closely. Has he drawn his gun? No. I watch and wait for what seems like forever.

Eventually the cake lady comes out looking like she fell in the damned cake, what a waste of a cake. I like cake.

I drift off to seeing Aunt Elena, she had invited me to live with her in Seattle, I hadn't seen her since I was a child, but when my mother died she was forced to take me in, that night she let me eat cake, a very big beautiful cake; to celebrate something she had never thought possible, she had a child to care for, but I was hardly a damned child, she became my surrogate mother at seventeen. For the first year she was extremely secretive of her 'business dealings' and I am after all a very inquisitive person, so I wandered around the places she said I was to keep away from and found her dungeon and fell in love with the place. When I told her what I had seen she took me under her wing. She began my training. She said the man who would be my master had specific tastes and she trained me in those areas.

I was not a goody, goody little virgin, far from it. I loved sex and had been doing it for years. The harder they were with me the more I liked it. This she said would suit my new master, I trained like a bitch for two years I honed my pain management to perfection, my Aunt Elena could cane me for an age, and I always lasted longer with it that she could, she was careful not to mark me, but could never best me. I took what she gave me and enjoyed it. Then one day she said my master would be taking control of me on my birthday, I was twenty and being gifted to him. My god what a gift she gave me.

He was amazing; he was fit and looked hot. He was skillful and masterful. I found perfection and I hoped I gave him everything he wanted and more. I was the obedient submissive and gave him no cause for concern and no cause to complain. Over the months I was treated better than anyone had ever treated me before, he treated me like a queen and the things he gave me were beautiful and expensive, the jewels the clothes, everything was expensive. He paid for art school and gave me an apartment.

I ruined it when I started to want more; I wanted us to be more. I then made the mistake of telling him I loved him, and I have lived to regret that for the past four years, making do with a man similar to him but not him. I gave my husband a son and with the brat came a mad depression too, I was so down I tried to end it again, as I did the day my master and one true love told me to leave and I opened my wrists to get his attention. That failed and I was sent to Flynn's clinic. I left there and met my husband. When he turned out to be more in love with the brat I left them.

I went in search of my art, I tramped the world painting sketching and being me for the first time in a long time. It was there where I met Eric, my soul mate and the missing part of me. We came back to America, and for a while we were happy. I sold my art and he sold his books. Until the night they came in and took him from me. I am told I went mad again? I don't remember being mad I remember being sad. I went to see my master for help and saw him with her. I saw something in his face I never saw when he was with me, happiness.

I had the answer to him wanting me again, our son... I took him from school and took him to see my master, in the confusion and the madness and the sadness, I couldn't focus I was lost, the brat was horrid and my master did not want to see me. Elena did, Elena told me I had to look better to get him back and I am trying, but I get confused more and more. I mean I know Elena is dead, but why I do not know, why is she dead, did I kill her too? I have had many more blank spaces in my memory than I have had before; I think when the intruders hit me with the butt of their gun they brought the old bad Leila back. I wake up some days not knowing where I was and what I had done.

I see the angry old lady get in a taxi and head to the stolen car and follow her; she is an angry lady, that much I can see. She gets to a hotel and I follow her, we are stopping at the same place. I will watch her a little more, she intrigues me and she could be a way back into the house. Though judging from her harsh words at reception she is leaving later and going to New York. I could go and stop at Elena's place there, and then go to Seattle and get him back. I am tired, I need to sleep. I get in the elevator with the angry lady and I offer her my handkerchief.

"Thank you, but it is not going to be much help to me, but thank you."

"You look like you fell in a cake."

"I was pushed into my granddaughters birthday cake by five beastly dogs."

"Oh, how awful did she not have cake for her birthday then?"

"I don't care what she had; she is getting nothing more from me ever again."

"That sounds like you are leaving her to it, are you?"

"Yes she and that man she married can go to hell."

"She is married?"

"Yes, she married Christian Grey, have you heard of him?"

"No, I don't think I have." My heart beats harshly in my chest, he married the harlot who looks like me, why when he could have me and yet he chose her?

"He is a billionaire from Seattle."

"She married him for his money?" I bet she did, she looks like the others and they wanted his money. I wanted him, the money was a bonus.

"No, she probably has more than him. She married him because they had a kid together and he felt sorry for her, that's all." She and he had a child, when? I never saw evidence of child in his place and believe me I looked everywhere.

"Oh and what is she called?" I ask if she is the same woman I saw him with, my lookalike?

"Anastasia, she is the queen of chocolate, Anastasia D'Acciaio, she has hundreds of shops and is the best in her field and she thinks she can stop me getting what I am owed she can think again."

"So you have had a falling out with your granddaughter?"

"I have, and you, why are you asking me all these questions about Anastasia?"

"You look upset and I don't like to see people upset."

"Why aren't you a nice girl?"

"I try to be, sometimes."

"Would you join me in my room for a drink, you seem to calm me? I have to be going to New York later or I would have said have a meal with me, I miss people being nice to me."

"I'd love too. Perhaps we could have dinner before you leave?"

"Wonderful, but it will have to be within the hour, I leave for the airport in two?"

"I will change and come and pay you a visit. This is my floor."

"Mine too. I am Vita D'Acciaio."

"Hello, I am Leila, Leila Grey."

"Oh what a coincidence my granddaughter has married a man called Grey!"

"It's a small world, oh look I am here, this is my room, get cleaned up and we can have a drink."

"Oh I am just next door, knock and come in when you are changed, I will leave the door on the hook, I have a bit of a headache, my damned migraines back thanks to my damned family."

"I will be in when I get changed, Mrs D'Acciaio. Take a headache pill and perhaps have a nap, it always makes me feel better." She is very pale under that cakey face. She seems very nice, why do her family and that girl Ana hate her? I like her.

"Oh call me Vita darling; I think we could be friends, come see me as soon as you are ready." She smiles and heads into her room. I find it very interesting that she is my masters new family; I need to know more about this granddaughter of hers. I take a long shower, change my clothes and feel a little more relaxed. I look like I did a long time ago, when my master chose me my clothes, like he chose these clothes for her, and I am wearing them. So I may have borrowed some of her things, she had enough, and I had none. I knock on the old ladies door and go in. She is having a nap and I wonder whether to wake her or go back to my room? I need to know about this Anastasia, who it seems has married my master.

"Vita, hello Vita, you told me to come in, are you tired." I shake her and as I do she falls on her back. Oh hell no, I did not kill the old lady, not this one, or did I? I shake her again and she doesn't move. I look around the room and see her bag, I need money, she looks to have money, and so I rifle through her bags and take what I can. I didn't kill her but they will blame this one on me too... I ring for room service and leave the phone off the hook, they can save her because I cannot, I head to my rooms and pack, and I have to leave before I get blamed for her demise too...

Happy Birthday Baby...

As the BBQ is well underway I am in awe at how Ana and her family are so together, unified, a family like none I have ever seen before. My family is amazing, but the D'Acciaio's they have this camaraderie like no other I have ever seen, they are good people. I loved Frank, he was a hell of a guy, but Nonno is just as amazing. I have been quizzed by Ray, but Sunny had already warned me of his love of Ana, he actually said he had a stash of spiders waiting if I fucked up, and not even Taylor and the guys could save me. I think I gulped?

"Son..." My father pats my back gently.

"Dad?"

"It's a hell of a nice family you have married into. I like them."

"I do too, so how's the head?"

"Very thick, I don't think I can keep up with them. I swear the banging in my head had better stop soon. They apparently are very heavy drinkers."

"They like their wine Dad, Ana said they give their children it at the dinner table."

"I don't doubt it; it's a very European thing."

"I know I have seen it in restaurants, but I never thought of it before."

"So what are the plans for tomorrow?"

"Taylor will come and pick you and the others up, Ana has to rehearse and do sound checks at the bowl. So we will be there early. Why did you ask?"

"I need to know how long I have to sober up; your mother is the designated sober Grey. Elliot is being led astray by Sunny and Mia is eyeing up the cooking cousins of her new sister, love is in the air."

"Really?"

"No, he is a big kid, he doesn't need any leading, because today look at him, he's the one at the head of the conga line. Your grandfather is the next big kid; he is as tiddly as a newt. If you find out what that means tell me."

"It's a Brit thing and means drunk Dad, he is very drunk and it's as pissed as a fart or a newt. I meant Mia..."

"Leave her be she is a big girl now Son."

"I will for now, because I have to toast my wife, and we have to head back and get some sleep. She is already afraid about tomorrow."

"I guess she has a lot on her plate. Ethan was saying she is a very wealthy woman today?"

"Dad she is richer than me before today."

"Is she?"

"Yup."

"Did she have you sign your name to paperwork?"

"No and I didn't ask her to sign my usual paperwork, we are in this forever. You and Mom have managed it."

"It takes some doing Son, but if you find the right one, and you have, it's a damned sight easier to do. Did I tell you she is a wonderful girl?"

"You did, several times. Dad go and get a coffee."

"I may do and some of that damned cake, it's amazing. Did you see that woman fall into the cake?"

"I did."

"I am going for cake and coffee, and for a hug of my new daughter. Did I tell you she is amazing?"

"Yes Dad you did." He smacks my back hard and wobbles off. I am normal, I feel normal and I have her with the smile on her face to thank for being this way. I am a sappy love sick fool.

"Ladies and gentlemen, can I have your attention please?"

"Yup shuddupayerface..." Sunny says. Faux Italian. I laugh.

"My wife, my beautiful and very clever wife, she turned hummmummm;" I smudge her twenty five years, "years of age today, I am not revealing her age as you ladies do not like it. I am glad to be here to share this day with her and her amazing family and friends. She is an amazing woman and I am so happy to have the chance to tell you all how much she means to me. I am sure the threats to do me harm will never be needed, as I never intend leaving her. Ana Grey I love you Baby."

"I love you to you dork and if any of you touch one hair on his head I will get the violin case sub machine gun out. Al left it me in his will."

"Al Capone..." Elliot asks and I laugh. As Ana shakes her head in his direction...

"No big Al from down the block." The guest laugh and she heads my way. "Elliot watch the..." Too damned late the drunken idiot is in the pool, he has landed on Granny T, who was drinking a Mai Tai. She is floating on a giant pink flamingo. She hits him with a pool noodle, and he tips our grandmother into the water as he splutters to the surface. The children all dive in when they realise it's okay to do so.

"Everyone who isn't yet in the pool. Please raise you glasses to Ana." It is then I see the tears and hear the music start. Her grandfather is singing their song, or so Marco tells me... I see him waltz her around the patio and sing and as he stares into her eyes, I see the love.

"Many a year ago in old Sorrento, a certain ditty was quite a thing, whenever Nonno rocked his baby in Sorrento, this little ditty she used to sing.

Chi-baba, chi-baba, chi-wawa, an' chi-lawa kook-a la goombah, chi-baba, chi-baba, chi-wawa  
My bambino go to sleep! Chi-baba, chi-baba, chi-wawa, an' chi-lawa kook-a la goombah, chi-baba, chi-baba, chi-wawa, my bambino go to sleep!

All the stars are in the skies ready to say goodnight, can't you see your doll is sleepy too? Close your drowsy little eyes, Nonno will hold you tight, whilst he sings a lullaby to you...

Chi-baba, chi-baba, chi-wawa, an' chi-lawa kook-a la goombah, chi-baba, chi-baba, chi-wawa  
My bambino go to sleep! Chi-baba, chi-baba, chi-wawa, an' chi-lawa kook-a la goombah, chi-baba, chi-baba, chi-wawa, my bambino go to sleep!"

"I love you so much Nonno..."

"I love you more Bambino..." I very nearly cry too... We are just about to leave when we see two police officers at the front door. Taylor is with them, have they caught Leila?

* * *

I am well into my new laptop, but do not expect updates every other day lol... I still have my other stories to write lol Read and review as per usual... Not long now folks...


	34. Chapter 34

This story is nowt like fifty shades; I just purloined E.L. James's characters, buildings and some of her other stuff...

* * *

Dreaming of Chocolate and Grey:

Chapter 34:

Death, decisions and sadness:

Ana and I are in the foyer of Nonno's home, Taylor is showing in two obvious police officers and I freeze, have they found Leila?

"Mr Grey Sir, these police officers here wish to talk to Mr D'Acciaio."

"Why Taylor?" Ana asks. "What has Vita done now?" I see the look they give her, it seems Ana does not. Crap.

"Mrs Grey, they need to speak to your grandfather."

"Okay, please come this way to the study, Marco go get Nonno for me please?"

"Ana..."

"Just do it please? I think Nonna has done something bad."

"When doesn't she?" He goes to get his father and Ana shows the police officers through to a very cosy study. It seems this is her room?

"Do you want a cup of something, coffee, tea or water?"

"No Ma'am, but thank you. You are her granddaughter?"

"It would seem I am, but it is something I am not eager to own up to. What has she done?"

"I am afraid I have to speak to her husband first." Nonno comes in and is a little worse for wear.

"Officers, what can I do for you this fine day?"

"Sir, firstly let me introduce myself, I am Lieutenant Gage, and this is Sergeant Lowe. Can I please ask you; are you the husband of Vita D'Acciaio?"

"Unfortunately, I am. What has she done this time? Filed charges against the five dogs who sent her flying into a cake?" Nonno smiles.

"Could you please take a seat, you too Mrs Grey." They sit as does Marco, I stand behind my wife. "It is my unfortunate task to have to tell you that earlier today the body of one Vita D'Acciaio was found in a hotel room by a hotel employee. It is my sad task to tell you she was pronounced dead at the scene, and I have to add there was no reason to suggest that foul play was a factor in her death, however we do have a few questions about this matter."

"She is dead?" Ana says. "Dead as in really dead?"

"Ma'am, yes. Did she have any health issues known to you?" Nonno is suddenly looking a hell of a lot greener around the gills.

"She had a brain tumour, she was not aware of this, and we ourselves have just found out about it. I don't know what the prognosis is, or was should I say? The way she was this afternoon, I doubt she knew anything either and I didn't have time to give her the damned letter either."

"Do you have her doctors name?" He nods at the police officer asking the questions. "Can we ask why was she in a hotel room alone?"

"She, I mean we as a family had a fall out with her. She was asked to leave my home here a few days ago. She came here to ruin my birthday party and left about three hours ago, in a taxi and on her own. Did she suffer?" Ana asks, she looks upset, despite her 'hating' her grandmother, she didn't, and now she was in shock. I sit at the side of her and she grabs my hand tightly.

"I couldn't say Ma'am; I am only here to notify you of her death, unfortunately I do not have information on her last moments on earth Ma'am, I am sorry for not being fully informed too. She was found I believe by room service, when they entered her room, they thought she was sleeping. That said there is an enquiry being made as to how she ordered room service after her death."

"Are you saying this was murder?" Ana screeches.

"No, but can I ask where you were three hours ago Mrs Grey?"

"Why do you want to know where my wife was?"

"Not killing my grandmother, that's for sure, no, I was here and there are dozens of family and friends and camera footage to prove my whereabouts, it records all the time, so you can have copies. As my husband asked, why do I have to give myself an alibi?"

"There was a guest in the room next to her, a certain Mrs Grey, would that be you?"

"No, though we are stopping in a hotel, because of a stalker." Taylor steps forward as I tell the officer this. I guess they had to ask?

"Your department are aware of the reasons why Mr and Mrs Grey had to move from their former hotel. The stalker is one Leila Williams. She is armed and dangerous."

"Leila Williams, not Leila Grey?"

"She wishes..." Ana sneers. "Why what has the bitch done this time?"

"It was a Leila Grey who registered to the room next to your grandmother, and CCTV shows this guest knocking and entering her room. It also shows them in the lobby and in the elevator, nothing was suspicious, until she left the room and checked out soon after coming out of your grandmothers room."

"How is she getting away with all this Christian?"

"Away with what Mrs Grey?" Gage asks her.

"She is a master at avoiding you, security and about everyone else looking for her. She was in the room next to my grandmother, really?"

"Mrs Grey has been there a few days, your grandmother only checked in this morning. Is this Leila Williams?" He shows Taylor his tablet.

"That is her. She ransacked Mr and Mrs Greys suite at his hotel. Earlier today, the drugged body of the housekeeper was found bound in a cleaning closet. She is lucky to be alive. She identified Miss Williams as the person who attacked her. She left her for dead."

"She did what?" I ask.

"Sir information on the housekeeper has only just come through, she was in a linen bucket. Hotel security missed her on their sweep of the floor, the afternoon housekeeper found her."

"Fire their asses, is she okay?" I ask.

"She is groggy and in hospital. She will be fine Sir, as I said I have only just been informed. Security have been dealt with."

"So, can I ask where is my wife?" Nonno asks. God this is bad, we are talking about Leila and he has lost the woman he loved, like Ana his bravado earlier was just that, they both loved the woman. The old pre tumour Vita could have been a nicer woman, though I doubt it, especially after hearing the horror stories from Ray and Marco, she just hid her ugliness around Ana it seems.

"She is with the Los Angeles county medical examiner, for an autopsy. You will have to come and identify her body, when you feel up to it Sir. I am sorry for your loss."

"Thank you, thank you both for coming today; it can't be good for you, either of you. What do we do now?"

"Sir, here is my card; if you need anything, like being taken to the medical examiners or any questions answering I will try to find answers for you."

"We will take my father later. How did we not know Papa?"

"I only opened her mail yesterday Son. She thought the pain was a migraine. Officer can I show you out, if you have finished asking your questions?"

"I have for now. If I have anything else I need to ask you, I will call. Can I ask that you do not leave Los Angeles, for the next couple of days?"

"Why are we under suspicion of foul play?" Ana asks. "If anything you should be looking for the Williams nutter." I agree.

"We will be seeking her out, if you see her or hear from her, let me know." He hands Taylor his card. "We don't encourage vigilantes either Mr Grey; I advise that let us deal with Ms Williams."

"We are looking for her and will not stop, but you have my word she will be handed over to the police department when we find her. Being nice with her was a big mistake and one we will not be doing again." I say and make my stance on catching fucking Leila Williams known.

"Nice?"

"Yes I put her in a private facility to get help for her manic depression, only for her to escape and come after me and my wife. It is as I said a mistake I will not be making again." He nods and heads out. Nonno shows them the door and Ana turns into my chest and cries. Really cries.

"Another person dies on my fucking birthday. I am never having another one ever... Christian, I feel crap, she was so good to me for so many years and now, I am confused and hurt, how do I mourn someone who hated my mother and me and lied to me for most of my damned life?"

"I don't know, if I had the answer to that Baby, I wouldn't need to see Flynn about my mother issues."

"Yup, we are fucked Mr Grey."

"No, we are not. We are going to get through this. Marco could you please go and round up your brothers and sister, you need help handling this too."

"I am shocked..." Taylor sees to them. Nonno is a mess and Marco is holding his father when the rest come in. Carla immediately heads to her daughter. We or rather I tell them what has happened. Only Sunny seems to be upset to the point of tears.

"Mamma is dead, she died alone."

"Sunny, stop right there, that was her own doing." Ray says. "She made her damned bed, she died in it."

"Raimondo, have a heart, your mother is dead." Nonno shouts. "He didn't hate her as much as you did."

"He didn't cross her as we did, he would have been on her shit list soon enough. Your entry to the priesthood was only weeks away brother."

"Shit..." Marco says. "Stop with all the church crap. We all know why she did that and it's in the past. Now Papa, drink this." He hands his father a tumbler full of booze.

"No, I need a clear head. Ana, stop here in your rooms, Taylor and the guys can have the lounges. Marco please send the guests home and tell them why and thank them for coming. Ray, go and see to the caterers and the neighbours please?"

"Nonno..." The two elder uncles do as their father asks and I ask Taylor to get my family to the hotel, they cannot intrude on their hospitality, not at this horrid time.

"Yes Bambino?"

"Are you okay Nonno, and I mean it, do not be putting on a front for me or anyone else, please, you are allowed to grieve for her and miss her and you know, be bloody upset, even if we don't feel exactly the same, we know you felt differently about her?"

"I feel very strange, upset, yet relieved, hurt yet not? I feel confused Bambino. I should have been stronger. When did you get so wise little one? Oh hell Bambino, my chest hurts..." I go to find my mother, but Ana stops me and smiles.

"These pains are they hurting pains or is it because you are sad?"

"Because I am sad, I am strong as an ox and not having a heart attack, I know this feeling; it is how I felt when my parents and my brother died, it is a feeling of loss Bambino, and nothing to worry your mother about Son." He smiles in my direction, he is a very wise man, or very nearly wise, I have my doubts on his wisdom because of Vita!

"I have a feeling Nonno that things with Nonna would have only got harder. We need to make arrangements to go and see her Nonno."

"I will have Ray drive me there, he doesn't drink and though his hatred of his mother is justified, he will do that for me. You, you and Chris need to get your heads down, tomorrow cannot be cancelled. You need to carry on with your fathers concert Bambino."

"Yes Ana, you need to carry on, hard as it is to carry on, you have too." Marco states. I agree this means so much to Ana.

"I am used to carrying on regardless of how I am feeling. I have done it for over seven years."

"Ana..." I say.

"I am just saying I couldn't let all those people down even if I wanted to, and over the years I have learned the hard way to departmentalise the differing parts of my life into easier to handle boxes, this will be no different. Taylor is here with your mother. Go and talk to them."

"Ana, we have already moved to Christian's hotel when your brother arrived. Jenny is worrying about you dear girl, she wants to see you so desperately."

"I will go and find her, thank you Grace; will we see you here for breakfast?"

"Yes, we will be here and all of them will be sober. Our security have already had to take my parents and Elliot back to the hotel. The rest are leaving too. Ethan says he will see you tomorrow."

"I have so many things to do Grace and I need some calm and I need help, Christian help me please?"

"I am here for you to lean on Baby, lean on me." My mother moves me away from my wife and gives her a hug. I don't mind giving way to my mother, would that I dare...

"Oh my darling girl, you only need ask and we will help you all we can, this is going to be a tough old time. You too Santino, if you need anything ask, you are family too. Now that said I am going. If you are sure you going to be okay?" Nonno is smiling and shaking his head, he is hiding a lot of pain, I see the look in his eyes, one all too familiar, I used to see it a lot when I looked in the mirror.

"Grace I think I will be fine, I am sorry that you all have had to leave, but..."

"...But nothing, I understand, really I do, now if you need anything call me. I am only at the hotel and can be here for you and Ana in the time it takes James to get here, right James?" My mother's security guy smiles. "Ana do you need something to help you sleep?"

"No, I will be fine Grace. I think?" She hugs Ana again and then she squeezes me tightly, now that she can, she smiles kisses my head and follows the crowd, she is leaving with her security. Mia follows her and my father and the Kavagnagh's head out too. What a way to end an almost great day, I think but do not say. It has been a balls up of a day really, the only good thing was this morning and after Vita left, I really need to make the honeymoon one to remember.

The uncles are in limbo, Uncle Ray is very stoic, he it seems had a hate for his mother only bested by Carla's. They both hug their father and Ana starts to be the bossy Ana she can be.

"Right, Uncle Marco, Ray and you Sunny, take Nonno to do the necessary at wherever it is you have to do it. Mum, you can help me a the rest tidy up. Christian can you see to it that security are settled?"

"Yes dear." I say with a smile.

"Ouch, she's back." Sunny says as he breaks a smile. "The Bossy Bambino. Papa, come on, the sooner we get this done the sooner we can get you back and in bed."

"Umm, the Brandy and wine are making me feel a little heady. Ray, are you okay with this?"

"I am here for you Papa." His children, including the cute little one Freddy all run in to Ana's study. Lord are they loud, included in that are the eldest three who all work for Ana. Apparently they are a hugely playful and happy bunch of brothers. I see that, I also see how they care for Ana. Mia Familiar, Ana was right. Family is everything...

Sleep did not come easy...

Christian and the boys helped tidy the pool and the house, even Gail and Taylor helped too. Jenny was very quiet tonight; she is keeping close, but not intrusively so, she watches poor Christian like a hawk. He has gone to do a security check, Anthippie has stopped to help clear away too, she has a soft spot for Nonno, so hearing of our plight with the mad woman, Leila, she offered us the use of her brothers dogs again, and Taylor declined the offer. So she is leaving her Greek God dog's to wander around her garden for the night, I wonder what the hell they could do apart from lick Leila to death? They did only lick and push Vita into the darned cake, and lick her. Elliot was too drunk to film it; apparently he wanted another Mutton Soup video...

I can't help the feeling of being watched, I have never been so paranoid. I think having Leila on the loose can do that to the sanest of people? Jenny heads in my direction with a mug in her hand.

"Is that my bedtime cocoa?"

"Aye Lassie, it is. Now, how yer fairin'. It's been a bad day fer yer?"

"I'm fine I think. Jenny please stop worrying about me. I am a big girl you know?"

"Yer will alas be my wee lassie, and I'm a meant to worry 'bout thee. Now, drink yer drink and get to yer bed. Yer man will be back afore ya know it."

"He is just seeing to security."

"Nah need Bonnie Lassie, between yon dogs and ma keen ears, we have yer covered. Now, ta yer bead Young Annie, did yer kin? I said gets yer to yer bead, be fer I skelp yer wee behind." I leant over and kissed my old nanny, she is a wise woman and I do as I am told before as she says she skelps my bum. Her skelps hurt... Not that she wacked my ass a lot, the threat was often enough to do the trick. I got skelped once, when I dove into the sea to stop a sheep drowning. I got skelped good and hard for nearly getting killed, the sheep was mutton stew later that week too. I take my cocoa and head to my room here. I haven't stopped her for years; in fact the last time I had a vacation here when I was pregnant. I sit at my desk and ponder that time.

Opening the drawer I take out the stationary I have stored there. How very childish it seems now... I unlock the draw to the other side and smile. The letter I wrote to Christian is still there, which given how Nonna Vita meddled into my affairs, I am surprised to see it here, unopened. Had she not rifled through my drawers here? I guess not or they would have known about my baby. Do I open it? I wrote to him so many times, this, this was the one that didn't babble and cuss, this was the matter of fact letter, this was the one I meant to post, this was the one I wished I'd posted. It was sent to his parents house, they would have seen he got it. Alas, I didn't. I leave it on the top and get ready for bed. How his super ninja's work I do not yet know, but all my bags are here and I smile, I leave them be and grab a shower.

When I finish I wrap myself in the robe that is hung on my bathroom door, at some point this has been washed or replaced, as it is as fluffy as they day I left it here. My giant robe to hide my baby away. I wonder did Vita do that? If she did it was a nice thing to do. I guess she wasn't always bad? I wrap it tight around me and fall onto my bed, poor Christian will be sleeping in pink sheets and covered with a girly pink throw. I hug myself and wonder about things, things it seems I have no control over. Life and death... I cry for the Nonna I loved, the nice lady who I was sure loved me, she had to have loved me, she was a sweet lady and cared for me, she mopped my brow when I was ill, she changed me when I saw sick, she dibbed pink stuff on my measles and knitted mittens to stop me scratching myself to death when I got mumps.

Was it all lies or did she have this thing waiting to explode in her head all the damned time? I am doing a lot of this today, but I guess we will have to wait and see what they find out when they do the thingy they have to do, the autopsy. I shiver because saying that word means all this crap is real. Nonna Vita died today and only two people were saddened, the two elder Santino's, Sunny and Nonno. I cry and I hug the soft robe and fall asleep, my husband must have forgotten about me. I sleep...

Baby news...

I head back towards the study Ana has here and see that Taylor and Gail are chatting. I watch as they touch each other, it is a sweet thing to see. I feel like an interloper. I cough and head in the room. They separate and I smile.

"As you were. I have been having a drink with the eldest of Ana's cousins. They are amazing, I mean really amazing. They love her like a sister almost."

"I believe they do Sir. She is hard not to love. Sir your bags are in the room at the top of the stairs, Mrs Grey's rooms are at the very top of the house. She has the whole roof space."

"Thank you Gail. Is there anything we need to worry about T?" He smiles. I may have relaxed protocol and called him T for the first time ever?

"Sir, there has been no sightings of Ms Williams and we have all the airports and bus terminals covered. We think she is still here."

"Tomorrow, can you make sure Ana has the jacket on? It did arrive, yes?"

"Yes Sir, the Kevlar jacket is here. Though..."

"...I know it won't stop a head shot. Would that it could. If she could cancel she would, but we all know she cannot. This, this will have to do."

"Sir, we have security there now, everyone from the cooks bartenders and cleaners are being checked before they get in the Bowl, and we have snipers positioned around the roof and in key places. She has three armed guards and us."

"I know it is over kill, but I want her walking away from that stage in one fucking piece. If she..."

"...Sir, she will be fine. Ms Williams gun would only be useful at close range and she isn't going to get that close, I swear Sir." He says. I know he is the best, I know he employs the best, but I am still worried.

"Mr Grey, Sir, go and get some sleep, you and Mrs Grey have a hectic day tomorrow and you too need your wits about you. I f you don't mind me reminding you?"

"Gail, thank you I will. Ana went to bed a whole ago. Jenny said she gave her a wee dram in her cocoa."

"She took it with her Sir. Now as Gail said, go and be with your wife, we have it covered, and the dogs and Jenny are on patrol. I did tell her to sleep, but she is waiting for Ana's family to retire."

"Are they not back yet? Perhaps I too should wait up?"

"No, they could be hours. They went too early and they hadn't finished seeing to the body."

"Oh okay. Well I guess I will retire for the night. The top of the stairs you say Gail?" She nods her head; I smile and head up.

When I get to the top of the house I see a door, a plague on the door has me smiling... 'Master chocolatier at sleep. Do not enter...' I do and smile again; she is on a poufy pink bed, with pink frills and lace everywhere. Ana is asleep in an equally fetching pink fluffy robe. It is massive and drowns her slight frame. I need to shower today off me and head to the door I presume is a bathroom. I am right. I see she has already showered, mores the pity, I watch her from the door and seriously consider waking her, but decide she needs her sleep. Thoughtful bastard I am. I will relieve the raging boner I have myself.

I let the water poor over me, god I need Ana, she does this better than my pitiful attempt at self relief. I can't do it. I think it's because of the years of being punished for 'tugging one off' I step back and think of Ana...

"Do you always say fuck a lot when you shower alone Mr Grey?" I nearly fucking shit myself, not a good look crapping in the shower.

"Mrs Grey, you made me jump. How long have you been watching me?"

"Since the second oh fuck... Need a hand there?"

"I didn't think so, but yes, yes I fucking need you Ana."

"Seeing as you asked so nicely, shift over. Do you like my rooms?"

"They are very... Pink?"

"They are... Now I think this is what you need..." She steps in the shower and throws her arms around my neck. "Let's rerun the amazing time we had this morning, you seem to have a very stiff problem Grey..."

"I would say we could rectify the situation Mrs Grey. Now get your legs wrapped around me Baby..." My god I love being married, if only for the fantastic on demand sex I get... However Ana needs her sleep and after the formidable re do of the past three showers we collapse on her pink bed, we try to sleep. Ana though wants to talk.

"I found a letter I wrote you earlier."

"Why did you write me a letter? I am here Ana?"

"No you dope, I meant I wrote it to you much earlier, like over seven years ago, earlier?"

"Oh..."

"It's over there on the top of my desk."

"Do you want me to read it?"

"If you want to, but I was sad and weepy when I wrote it." I get out of bed and see the envelope. "You don't have to."

"You wrote this telling me about our son?"

"Yeah, I did."

"So if I read it, I will feel some of your pain?"

"No... Yes, well no. I was very matter of fact-ish..."

"So do I read it?"

"No. I was a bitch. I was a hormonal bitch. I had just tried to see you at Grey House and was turned away like a time wasting kid."

"I believe, according to Taylor, we were actually away. He has the memory of an elephant."

"Okay, then please don't read it, you will hate me."

"I could never do that Ana, no matter what you say or do I doubt I will ever hate you. Sleep, we need to sleep."

"Okay, I wonder how Nonna and the uncles faired?"

"They hadn't returned when I came up. What part of your brain will not let you sleep Baby?"

"All of it." I could laugh but she is exhausted, I run my hand through her hair and she sighs. As I continue, she sleeps. I look at the letter in my hand and wonder what is in it? I open it. If she was a bitch I deserved it and more...

 ** _Dear Christian Grey, Christian, or is it simply Mr Grey?_**

 ** _I've heard that a lot today. Mr Grey is not available. Mr Grey is a very busy man little girl. Mr Grey does not see walk-ins, even if he were here. Mr Grey will not see you without an appointment. Did I want to make an appointment? I said yes, thinking it would be later in the day, but shock horror you are too busy to see me until the end of August, really I would have to wait four months before you would see me? I did think about sending you a letter from Otter Island offering you a golfing treat, and get you to come and stop for a free week, but then I thought better of it, being there with you for a week would have been disastrous, so I sent this to your parents address and hope they give it to you._**

 ** _By now you should be happily married with the Sasha girl. So telling you, that you have a son on the way would be I guess a kick to the stomach. I tried to see you to speak to you so many times that I have lost count. Your son is due to make his appearance mid to late October, I hope you get in touch, but I will not be disappointed if you don't, I am sorry to throw this at you, but you have the right to choose if you want to be a part of his life, not mine, but his. I want nothing to do with you either personally or financially. I am financially sound and have no need for you to 'help' with his upbringing. If you choose not to be a part of his life then I understand that too, this was not a planned pregnancy, believe me, if I could turn back the hands of time I would. Alas I cannot._**

 ** _So if you a reading this, and wish to get in touch then you know the address of Otter Island, you can get me at the address on the letter head too, my London home. My grandparents do not know about the baby, he is my secret and so I ask you please not to contact me at the Calabasas home I have with them. It would break their hearts to know that I have dishonoured them and the families good name, so he is my secret, for now._**

 ** _Really Christian I don't know what to say other than sorry, I was blinded by my need to have you and our son is a consequence of my stupidity. I hardly doubt you remember the night, you were drunk. I was so bad, the sex must have been crap, and or you regretted what you had done, as you up and left me alone. I did not set out to trick you or land myself with a baby, but he is here and I love him, I will love him enough for the two of us and will never badmouth you, I will tell him about you and of how you were tricked into his conception, and you were Christian and for that I am sorry._**

 ** _So, the balls in your court now, do what you think is right for you and for your son... I am so, so sorry Christian, my love for you blinded me and I created this mess. Please forgive me I am sorry, not sorry he is coming but sorry it was not done in a loving caring way. Tell Sasha I am sorry for ruining married life, that's if you choose to tell her I mean? He could just be your dirty little secret, because I will tell nobody who his father is. I own all my mistakes Christian not you. So my rant is now over, again I am sorry for causing you this problem. Ana._**

I read it twice more, and really it is nothing she has not already told me. I do see the irony in my availability to see her, through work, that she could have only got an appointment to see me the week she actually had him, this hurts me more than anything. She had to do this alone. Had she sent this damned letter I would have been there in a flash, fuck the appointment, she would have come before anything, I may have been pissed, but I would have come around, wouldn't I? Was she right I could have blanked her? I hope not, but I was a fucked up mess back then. The add into this fuckfess, Sasha, now she really needs to pay for this. I read it again and screw it into a tight ball and fling it in the trash can.

My wife is sleeping and is tucked in against me and as she does I thread my finger through her hair. She was right, I was a drunk fool, something we both know, and something I will spend my whole life making up to her, and I will be a good father to the children we could be lucky enough to be given. We need to work on making it happen, six months and counting...

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Next the concert... It is a star studded affair and I will be taking liberties with some legends of the rock and roll world... After all Ana's father did not actually write songs lol and I am crap at making them up lol... Working on it now lol... Read and review please xxx


	35. Chapter 35

This story is nowt like fifty shades; I just purloined E.L. James's characters, buildings and some of her other stuff...

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As this is a work of total fiction I am taking a crap load of liberties with songs, bands and people in this next chapter; I am no good a writing songs lol, I struggle enough with the damned story, so please do not expect me to write songs. So I am warning you now, we all know Guns and Roses etc would not have had songs written by Lenny Lamb... Right? Okay good... Don't sue me for being fictitious with my work of fiction lol.

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Dreaming of Chocolate and Grey:

Chapter 35:

Sing Hallelujah:

Ana and I are woken at stupid o'clock by a thumping on her bedroom door. We are huddled in a mass of limbs and our bodies seemed to have welded together as we slept.

"Annie, get your ass out of that bed and leave your husband alone, get dressed we have to be off in an hour, fame and stardom awaits."

"Fuck off Holly..." My wife is not a good morning person. "I am not doing it. You can't make me and I am still tired."

"So what's new? Breakfast in ten, everyone is here including Ethan and Mr Grey, they need to see you."

"Christian, why is your dad here?" She asks as she looks at me.

"I don't know that he is here just to see you Baby. Perhaps he is here for breakfast?"

"Okay Holly we will be down shortly." I say as Ana buries herself between the comforter and me. I smile as she sulks; I am literally looking beneath the sheet at a sulking Ana, the one from a decade ago. She pouts.

"It's here, the day, they day I have dreaded for months."

"Why?"

"Why, because I am not my frigging father, that's why." We get out of bed and I push and drag her to the bathroom, she goes in to do her thang! I will not walk in on her peeing ever again. Once having a loo brush thrown at me was more of a reminder than I needed, a simple fuck off would have sufficed. I didn't even know what it was until she pogged it at me... Her English colloquiums kill me sometimes. I am learning that what we Americans think of as English, is in fact far from her English. Lift vs elevator, ass vs bum, fanny is not a bum but it is a huhar vagayjay! We have a few weird conversations my wife and I...

"Christian."

"Yes dear?"

"I need a few minutes alone time in here."

"Why?" Why I asked I will regret all day.

"I need to do a number two and this toilet is not soundproofed."

"Everyone has to shit Ana." I am amazed at the stupid things my wife needs to keep secret from me, is it a woman thing? I am in hysterics as she pleads for alone time.

"Oh god, I need too poop, please leave me in peace..."

"Okay I am dressed and heading to breakfast, please feel free to shit in peace." I throw on a pair of jeans and a jumper. I laugh as I hear her singing to cover the noise... I could slam the door and pretend to leave her room, but the fall out would not be worth it, besides I now have the image of her crapping in my head, or rather in the toilet but in my head, urghhhh, she drives me nuts, and do you know what? I love it, I am laughing as I head into breakfast, great the gang and the Greeks are all here. I wave and smile. Elliot looks as rough as fuck and I waste no time telling him so.

"Lelliot, you look like death warmed up."

"I feel like it Bro. I am dying here; Mom has even rigged this crap up." I see the drip in his arm.

"He needs it Christian; he and the others were comatosed when we went to get him and your grandparents up. So I had a friend of mine bring over several of them." She points at the IV bag, "I had them when I over indulged at your coming out party."

"I remember Mother."

"It's not a cure all, but it is the only thing I could think of, he should go for a hike as Mia did and Kate. They are good girls."

"Okay Mommy, I couldn't walk let alone fuc... I mean jog. Now shush, Sunny needs a top up." I look over to the next chair and sure enough he is sat with a bag too, as is my grandmother and grandfather and the eldest of Ana's cousins. They look like they are on kidney dialysis, all lined up and looking rough as fuck. I shake my head and I swear my grandmother gave me the finger? Charming... I head to the buffet breakfast and I am amazed at the spread. I plate up mine and take a strong coffee too.

Looking around the patio, I note Marco, and Nonno are not here. Sonny hasn't a clue he is sat in a chair, let alone where his father is. I look up and see Ray and his wife, Mariah heading down, with Freddy and the other teenage son, Marco... All these names are very confusing, I mean each of Ray's sons are named after and uncle or a brother, Freddy is Vita's eldest brothers name, apparently, I think I asked Ana as the hugger bugger hugged me, he is a damned cute kid? I shake my head and then I remember Christian is named after me.

"Hello Mr Christian."

"Hi Freddy, did you sleep well?" I can do this talk to kids. I once was one. Right that went well for me, talking to kids.

"I did, we all shared a room. We had the big room that was Papa Franks. It is cool."

"Is it?"

"Yup, way cool." I smile as Mariah sits on the table with me. "Is Aunty Ana coming to eat?" He asks.

"Go and get breakfast, Aunty Ana will be down soon. All of you eat, Ray see to it they have more than muffins please?"

"Yes dear, boys, eat the eggs and ham and get some toast before your father is toast, do a man a favour and save me from your mothers harsh tongue?" They all go and fill up, they are as I said, and amazing family.

"So, how is she?" Mariah asks. "Ana how is she really, that girl hides too much from her family and we need to help her, she does so much for us, we need to return the many good things she does for us, and for once she will do as she is told."

"You know Ana, headstrong and independent."

"She is like the rest of them. Headstrong."

"How did it go at the coroner's office?" I ask. Ray was after all there with Nonno.

"Apparently, it was her tumour, it erupted? They are awaiting the final reports but yeah she fell asleep and never woke. Though the rupture was a bad one, so it was more than likely a very bad headache that led to her death, Papa is blaming himself and Marco, he is insisting she brought it on herself, Ray couldn't care one way or the other."

"He hated his mother then?"

"Yes, and with good cause. He saw all his mother did and he could never forgive her, She liked to get rid of problems i her own distinct way. I nearly lost our eldest child because of her helping me."

"We were told by Carla she had a certain method of getting her own way?"

"Yes, but let's not speak ill of the dead, Ray is mad enough she turned up here and is sorry she didn't do the family a favour and just disappear to Italy instead of trying to blackmail them with Ana's news about your son. You have my sympathy, she hid it well and it explains her over fondness for Freddy too. Such a sadness."

"It was yes."

"Now, enough, what are the plans for this mega concert, it is all our elder boys have been talking about, getting a front row seat to the greatest line up rock and roll has seen in decades?"

"I don't know, I know the guys are singing some of the new songs, Ana is singing the last song and the warm up act is a group of country singers who have used a couple of her father's songs, they are the Rascal Flatts? They were recording in the next studio to the guys and wanted in on it. The as the day went on all these stars would come and go and I was in awe of how many of her father's songs were used by some of the greats."

"Yeah, it's something else she keeps quiet about, her father's greatness. We knew he was good, he is all Carla talks about when she visits us her missing him and her daughter."

"Why did you and Ray not share this with Ana?"

"Carla wanted it this way. She has her reasons and I guess now those reasons are out there, she isn't afraid anymore."

"Afraid of what?"

"Breaking her father's heart, Carla loves Santino, he is her father and in turn Ana loves her Noono the same way, Carla though it would be too hard for Ana to hear he wasn't her real grandfather. So she took all the crap Vita dished out to keep Ana in the dark. Vita was playing games with people's hearts and souls and I don't know why, because my boys are not taking over her company or trying to take what she earned, like their father they work hard for what they get, and do it the honest way. Something Ray is insistent about. He stopped Vita coming to Australia after Freddy was born and we have had nothing to do with her since. She promised the boys riches and fame and he flipped." Ana makes her way towards me.

"Hi, sorry I am late to the table. What are you talking about?"

"The line up. I thought it was you, the guys and the warm up band?"

"God no... It is a very grand affair with everyone and anyone he wrote songs for being there and singing them as a tribute. They will sing one of the band's songs as well as the one of the many he wrote for them. I never thought to tell you. I resumed you saw the line up in the recording studio?"

"I thought I saw Axl Rose, but put it down to it being a wannabe look alike? So those guys coming and going as you rehearsed?"

"... Yes they were the great and the good of rock?"

"Oh crappola, Ana I am so glad you are my sister." Elliot was at her side, it seems three bags later and he was able to stand again. I shake my head.

"Yes Elliot crappola indeed and now you know why I am so bloody nervous. I mean I am singing on the same stage as Guns and Roses, Iron Maiden, Black Sabbath, the guys from Queen, Aerosmith and AC-DC. I am now in my own little bubble of fear, so I may have not mentioned the great and the good of rock. I know Uncle Wolfe is very blasé about it all. Holly has a new autograph pad and my father's royalties keep adding up because of their singing his songs."

"Ana are you okay really? I worry about you sweetheart?" Her Aunt Mariah asks.

"Me, I am fine, unless you mean about things other than the concert? Nonna things? Speaking of which where is Nonno?"

"He is sleeping; he and the boys had to wait around for a long time. They were a day to early really, but yes it was your Nonna, yes she died of natural causes, the girl had nothing to do with it, they knew that from her time of death to the girl going into her room. They asked so they could tell your guys."

"So you know about Christian's ex then?"

"Umm, I do and do not blame yourself. This family have had their fair share of deluded ex's believe me yours is nothing compared to poor Marco's. Now eat I am going to see to the monsters and their father. He is being a little too cool about all this."

"It's a..." Ana says and I smile as her aunt cuts her off.

"...D'Acciaio thing, I know." I offer to get Ana something to eat, but she goes to fill her own plate and returns with OJ and a rather large stack of pancakes.

"Very nutritious Baby."

"Shut up, I need fuel for today and maple syrup and pancakes is just my type of fuel. Jenny has made her famous claggy oats I see. Did you not fancy it?"

"No. I am fine with this omelette and this bacon, thank you." I saw Jenny with Carla as I got my breakfast, they were deep in conversation and I can only imagine my name was being bandied about, judging from the looks I got. Ana sits and she eats. Holly is very peppy today, it seems she has ran the hills and swam a hundred laps before breakfast, and she had company, Sawyer. I will have to have words with Taylor, Ana needs their total attention and they are too into each other to do that. Anything that stops her from being hurt needs to be done. Even if it means I give up Taylor and take on Sawyer...

"Spill, what's going on Grey?"

"Crazy things. Damned crazy things Baby."

"Umm, welcome to my world. Leila things?"

"A little."

"Do you realise how tight security is at the bowl?"

"Now I know how many stars are going to be there, then I would think a plentiful amount?"

"They have security issues too. So you have the equivalent of the whole Seattle's entire police force out there and most of them have a side arm, so with the bowls increased security, your hidden snipers and everyman and his child being searched and scanned, she won't get in. They have her picture and they have a unit scanning the crowd, overkill is the name of the game Grey and so with that I ask you please to stop worrying..."

"I will always worry, and I just care what our guys do Baby, they need to look out for you."

"Okay. Now I see you read the damned letter?"

"I did, and it was heartbreaking, but nothing in it was anything you kept from me in our talk. Other than you were wrong, I would have come to see you. I would have been on the next plane to London or Otter Island."

"To do what?"

"I am honestly Ana, fucked if I know. I would have been mad I guess, but eventually I may have calmed down. These past years I have mellowed a lot."

"Honesty, you can do honesty Christian. I would have hated for you to say it would have been heart and flowers. Then I would know you were lying to me. Honesty Christian is all I want, seeing as I wasn't very honest with you. I mean I could have gone and seen Grace and Carrick, I could have done more, lots more but I didn't."

"Because of Sasha."

"Yes, because of her in part, but because it is who I am. A D'Acciaio. If you haven't noticed yet, we are a little stubborn and hot headed and very easy to piss off. Now eat I have to be going, Holly is about to bust, she is so damned excited about today."

"Is she singing?"

"Nope, she is tone deaf and knows it. She plays a mean set of drums and we bang out some amazing tunes on the piano. But no she does not sing." We finish our breakfast and sneak off with Sawyer, Holly and Taylor. It after all only a sound check...

Testing, testing...

We arrive at the bowl and have a mirade of security checks to go through; we are no different than the others and after we go to the back and to the row of dressing rooms I smile as I see the stars on the doors, this crap just got real. I am with the band and they are all drinking tea and eating cake when we get in the room, I bet this is a rider they were surprised to see. Tea crumpets and cakes, water and copies of the English newspapers...

"Hi there Annie, I am glad you are early, the sound guys are hammered. Apparently we are not the only diva's here."

"Hi guys. So have you been called to do your checks?"

"Nah, we were waiting for you. Did you sleep well Annie?" Uncle Wolfe asks me. I stare out of the door as I watch Ozzie Osborne and his daughter Kelly head out of their room. Holy Shit A Brick Day... Is that Greenday next door, a band from my era? Oh hell, I rush to the toilet and the damned pancakes make a hastier than planned reappearance. I am so fucking screwed. Christian and Holly are at the back of me and I am suddenly calmed by someone's hands on my back. His hands are rubbing it in small circles, it calms me almost instantly. Holly gives me a bottle of water and two Kalms... I swear I will need a tub of these before the day is out. Those and a bottle of vodka. Perhaps that should have been on my rider, instead of an internet and a power source for my electrics, which in my rush to get here I left in my office?

"Thanks I just saw a few of the great and the good, and I swear I have never felt so out of my depth."

"You will be fine. Ana you and the guys are on next. Sorry but you are." Holly tells me. I am helped to my feet by my very loving husband of two days and I am hugged. The guys are horsing around and the bully that is Holly is reining them in. I swear they are so normal and unfazed I am shocked. I watch as Ozzie finished his checks and note he is heading our way.

"Hello you reprobates, long time no see." He is just like he is on telly, a little wobbly and very much the same as he has always been.

"How's it hanging Oz?" One of the band says I am not sure who, because I am agog. He answer whoever it is with a high five. I am staring at the Ozzie Osborne. The man from Brummyland and an old friend of my fathers. I have videos of this man here and my father drunk, not a great video it has to be said, but they were partying with the same people back in the day.

"So you are Franks girl are you?" He is talking to me, right? I am the only daughter Frank had and the only one here. He called him Frank not Lenny, too.

"Yes Sir. I am pleased to meet you Sir." I am awestruck. star struck and very nearly dumbstruck.

"Call me Ozzie. I liked your dad. Hell of a drinker, and the tales I could tell you of the wild nights, hell days, hell it was sometimes weeks, when we went on some hell good drink and drug benders. Have you met my girl Kelly?" I shake the hand of Kelly Osborne and smile.

"You will have to excuse my dad; he has many old tales about many now elderly men. Come on Dad we have to get you some lunch. Sorry he needs his food, his tv and sleep."

"I used to be such a party animal, and now its salad, two fat women on demand and a nap, Party on dude." He heads off in a world of his own.

"Two fat women?" I ask, and she smiles.

"He is known for getting stuck on the one of the many channels on our families reality tv program and since then he is addicted to watching them cook crap as he says."

"Oh okay. Are you coming back later Ms Osborne?" She smiles; okay I have my ass in my mouth and I may even be a little envious of her.

"Yeah, my mum is away doing her judging thing and I got lumbered Daddy Watching. Jack is at home with the family." Ozzie has walked off. It seems he isn't a people person anymore. She kisses my cheek and goes to wrangle her father. I just met Ozzie. Wow... Christian is laughing.

"He was a hell of a guy." He says.

"He was back in the day, a very mad man of rock. He and Frank had some famous fallings out and they even ended up in an Italian police cell for the night. I believe they got caught peeing in a fountain." I remember the cuttings from the newspapers. Uncle Wolfe is regaling Christian with tales about my father's more colourful past, one I don't necessarily want to hear about.

"Miss Lambert, your sound check. Guys are you ready too?" I stare at the sight before me and get a little nervous.

"Ana, you can do this; it's just you the stage and me." Christian says as I put off going on stage. The guys tune in and get ready. I stare and somehow my feet shuffle towards centre stage. Christian is in the wings.

"Annie, what do you want us to play?" Wolfe asks. I shrug my shoulders.

"How about, something he wrote? How about Every rose has its thorns?"

"Okay Annie." They play and I take in a few deep breaths. I have my hands on the mic and stare at something and nothing in front of me. I can't see it but it's there, my immovable object a fixed place it keeps me focused.

 _ **"We both lie silently still, in the dead of the night, although we both lie close together we feel miles apart inside. Was it something I said or something I did, did the words not come out right, though I tried not to hurt you, though I tried, but I guess that's why they say...**_

 _ **Every rose has its thorn, just like every night has its dawn, just like every cowboy sings his sad, sad song, every rose has its thorn, yeah it does...**_

 _ **I listen to our favourite song playing on the radio, hear the DJ say loves a game of easy come and**_  
 _ **easy go, but I wonder does he know, has he ever felt like this and I know that you'd be here right now, if I could have let you know somehow I guess...**_

 _ **Every rose has its thorn, just like every night has its dawn, just like every cowboy sings his sad, sad song, every rose has its thorn, yeah it does...**_

 _ **Though it's been a while now, I can still feel so much pain, like a knife that cuts you the wound heals, but the scar, that scar remains I know I could have saved a love that night, if I'd known what to say, instead of makin' love, we both made our separate ways, but now I hear you found somebody new and that I never meant that much to you, to hear that tears me up inside and to see you cuts me like a knife I guess...**_

 _ **Every rose has its thorn, just like every night has its dawn, just like every cowboy sings his sad, sad song, every rose has its thorn, yeah it does..."**_

"Wow..." I turn around and Christian is still watching me... "I will say this again Ana, you can sure as hell hold a tune."

"You have to say that..."

"No I don't."

"Miss Lambert, we need to run through Hallelujah and the guys need to run the green screen with you and the band. Is that okay?" I nod my head. I turn and I see the enormity of the thing that is happening in just a few hours.

The screen is indeed green and covers the whole of the back of the cavernous stage. I still cannot fathom how this will work, but I am assured it will. They will be playing a continuous stream of my father photographs and will be sort of lip sinking in his performances with the band. Foggy will be filling my father's shoes as the concerts front man, but just for the songs for which there is no video available, I wanted them to just play the songs which do have videos for, which is not a lot, as it was not a complete album.

"Okay, when you are ready..."

"I am ready whenever you are. Uncle Wolfe, are you sure this will work?"

"Nope, but just go with the flow Annie, your dad would have loved all this futuristic crap."

"I will take your word for it..."

"Miss Lambert, when you are ready, guys on my mark: five, four, three, two and hit it..." I take my spot again...

 ** _"Well I've heard there was a secret chord. That David played and it pleased the Lord, but you don't really care for music, do you. Well it goes like this: The fourth, the fifth, the minor fall and the major lift. The baffled king composing Hallelujah._**

 ** _Hallelujah: Hallelujah: Hallelujah: Hallelujah..._**

 ** _Well your faith was strong but you needed proof, you saw her bathing on the roof, her beauty and the moonlight overthrew ya. She tied you to her kitchen chair, and she broke your throne and she cut your hair and from your lips she drew the Hallelujah._**

 ** _Hallelujah: Hallelujah: Hallelujah: Hallelujah..._**

 ** _But baby I've been here before, I've seen this room and I've walked this floor, you know I used to live alone before I knew ya... And I've seen your flag on the marble arch and love is not a victory march, it's a cold and it's a broken Hallelujah._**

 ** _Hallelujah: Hallelujah: Hallelujah: Hallelujah..._**

 ** _Well there was a time when you let me know, what's really going on below, but now you never show that to me do ya, but remember when I moved in you and the holy dove was moving too, and every breath we drew was Hallelujah._**

 ** _Hallelujah: Hallelujah: Hallelujah: Hallelujah:_**

 ** _Maybe there's a God above, but all I've ever learned from love was how to shoot somebody who outdrew ya, and it's not a cry that you hear at night, it's not somebody who's seen the light, it's a cold and it's a broken Hallelujah."_** I heard his voice, so clearly, so deep so close and so frigging beautiful, I turned around and as I did I saw my father on the screen. He was there singing the hallelujah chorus. I am stood gawking at the screen, I am singing with my father... Fuck a flaming duck, this is amazing...

 _ **"Hallelujah. Hallelujah. Hallelujah. Hallelujah. Hallelujah. Hallelujah. Hallelujah. Hallelujah. Hallelujah."**_

I missed the final chorus, so shocked at seeing him there I was silenced. I had sang with his videos, along with his records, but never like this. Awesome is an understatement.

"We need to run it again the timing is a little off, not by much but enough to throw out the rest of the feed. Is that okay?" I nod and we sing it three more times. This could not be rehearsed until the big screen was in place, so for an hour I sang with my daddy. My mother had joined us for the last take and I swear those damned tears are catching, even hard men of rock and roll are in tears. As it is now timed to perfection and tuned to my voice, we are allowed to leave the stage and make way for Guns and Roses. Not at all awesome... I lied its frigging monumentally awesome. I like that darned word...

"Mum, what do you think?"

"I need a minute Ana; it was like he was here, like I could actually hear him."

"Mum, it was him."

"I know but it was like he was here."

"Yeah apart from he is like twenty foot tall and they have morphed me up there with him, I mean are my legs that long?" Christian is with her. I smile.

"You have wonderfully long legs Baby. Get them over here; guys are you coming for a late lunch before your naps?" The girls who work here are hanging around.

"Hey Kid, we are going to sink a few whiskey chasers and drink our fill of beer." I smile.

"Really? Holly said you were going for a nap?" Christian says. Uncle Wolfe slaps his back.

"No you moron, but we have an image to keep up, I need my pain meds, David hasn't got his own teeth in and can't find his good ones. Graham has a dodgy ticker so needs his nap, Flynn is a recovering alcoholic so cannot drink, and Frog there is taking more Kalms than Ana. He was never cut out to be lead singer of a rock and roll band, he is a chronic stage fright sufferer, who last sang in public when he was in the choir back when he was an altar boy in his youth and he is more afraid of failing Lenny than Ana is, but he sounds like Lenny and knows the songs. So kill the nap talk around the fans, some of the band haven't had any lady love since the late eighties Chris, there's a good chap?" Christian is laughing. He can shut up he is all good in the lady love department.

"Uncle Wolfe?" I laugh as he grins and the band then leave for their none nap time. I swear this is not the rock and roll life I envisaged. We leave the stage to the right and watch as Guns and Roses do their checks. Oh heck they are all rock and roll.

Home, hungry and horny...

"I came to bring you back to the house Ana, Papa was asking for you; he is taking this a lot harder than we all thought. Your mother has given him a sedative Christian. Marco and Sonny are keeping him company, not that he is very talkative."

"Oh god, get his own doctor to do a house call. No disrespect to Grace, sorry Christian, but he is a bugger for hiding crap from us. I know him better than anyone. Mum is he taking his heart medication?"

"Yes, yes he has and Grace has checked him over and he is just tremendously sad. He loved her so very much despite his bravado, and we may not have liked her very much, but he did and you too loved her until this all came out."

"We did, and I will admit it, I miss the old Nonna I had growing up. The holiday Nonno. The one who did what she did to Papa Frank, and Granny Mimi, I did not like."

"Ana, had I not told you how she played Frank and Mimi, you would be none the wiser. Love the lady she was not the one she turned into, now be strong and there for Nonno."

"Okay. Taylor we are going home, how did you three like schmoozing with the rock gods?"

"I can honestly say it's very whacky!" Taylor says as he leads us to the waiting cars. As we are leaving the other performers are arriving to do their checks. The crowds are already queuing to get in. It's going to be a long, long night. Holly is with Mum in her car. I see the look pass between her and Taylor. Have they had words? "Sir, there has been no news of Ms Williams."

"I doubt there will be until she slips up, then we have to be vigilant."

"Taylor, why is Holly in with my mother?"

"Your mother hasn't anyone watching her, I asked Holly to step up and she did."

"So it's not because her and Luke here are getting close?"

"There is that too. Sawyer her knows what he is her to do where as Holly is not taking this seriously enough, kick ass she may be and kick my ass she could possibly be able to do, but for now you and Mr Grey are my priority."

"She is my friend not my body guard, she is my travel companion, and does not get paid to guard me."

"Ana, would you agree you need help because of my fucking ex?"

"Yes, because of her and because of Jack I need help. She will die to save me and I would do the same for her." We arrive back. I won't argue with him, he knows his stuff. I will talk to her though. She can't help falling for Sawyer. He seems very quiet though. I will also talk to him and my husband too. That's after I talk to Nonno. We head in. Grace is here as are the rest, I also see that Mia is helping Gail and Mariah cook, when I walk into the kitchen to help, only to find it's all done. I feel like a fifth wheel of late and need to get organised,

Since being with Christian I am relying on his staff more and more, I know how to pack my own shit, I can cook my own food and I even know how to make my own bed and do my own washing. Though if I say something would that mean Gail lose her job? I sit and watch as they put the fruits of their labours in giant serving dishes. Marco comes behind me his arms wrap around me and kisses my head.

"Nonno is out for the count, I don't think he will be attending the concert, he is exhausted, and so Sonny and I have left him to sleep. Grace thank you for talking to his doctor."

"You are more than welcome, in my profession you are always on call."

"Mom, is he okay?" Christian asks before I can.

"He is an emotional wreck and as Marco told Ana, exhausted."

"He is fine Grace, really fine?" She nods and I relax. The gang is all here and all drinking water, I bet they drank the well stocked bar and cellar dry? Anthippie is here again, she seems to have taken root here, but I like her and all her Greakness. She has brought over what looks like a goat? They know how to BBQ whole dead animals. I stare at the group.

"Aunty Ana, did you sing?" I pick up Freddy and kiss his head.

"I did, lots of times, and it was so loud, I had to wear thingies in my ears."

"Like earwig thingies?"

"Ewes no, like headphones in my ears, so I can hear the people telling me what to do."

"We aren't allowed to go, so we are stopping with the Mama and Aunty Thippie and the dogs, they swam in the pool with me all morning. Papa says we can have some when we get home."

"I said you can have one Freddie. Ana how did it go?"

"Amazing. It was so awesome and the stars coming to remember him are amazing too. I spoke to Ozzy Osborne and watched Guns and Roses walk on the stage after me. Then to see my father and me singing together on a twenty or thirty foot tv screen was like something from a movie, very surreal, very spooky and I cannot wait to see it working fully, they have sort of brought him to life for me... Mum was in tears and like I said it was great."

"Yes she sounded amazing. My wife can turn her hand to anything she wants." Christian is my one man cheer squad. I didn't think it was possible but I love him more and more with everything he does to me and for me, even the security is a sign of how much he worries and cares for me. I am truly blessed. We eat, we drink water and juice and the family are cheery but not overly insensitive to what happened yesterday. Granny T and Grandpa T are chatting to the family and look far better than they were earlier. Carrick smiles, he is talking to Ethan.

"Can we talk to you now Ana?"

"Hu, yes, sorry I forgot in all this madness. Can Christian sit in too?"

"I don't need to Ana, why are you involved Dad?"

"My firm represented Ana's grandfather and father in most of their legal matters. How do you think we got membership of your grandfathers golf retreat? It was a friendship as well as a working partnership."

"How come I did not know this?" I ask Carrick.

"We did not represent you Ana, your man Pieter he does a fine job and you have never needed our services, and you have dealt with the real estate legal team, they are just known under another name."

"Oh, okay yes that makes sense. So how long did you know my grandfather?"

"His families real estate businesses used my father firm and his father's before him. We moved from Detroit when your grandfather inherited the estate he held in trust for you Ana, he was swamped, so Ethan's father, Papa Frank and my firm advised him, we have one branch of the office who deal solely with your estate business alone."

"Dad, West Wing is Ana's legal team?" Ethan smiles.

"Yeah you only have shares with our firm in the East wing. We pale into nothingness next to Little Annie here."

"Hell no." I say. "How? I mean I knew he was a very canny Scot Papa Frank, but how canny?" Ethan decides to start to tell me what I am worth and why, surely music does not pay billions? I guess the Rolling Stones are big earners; the Beatles did well, John and Paul especially, seeing as they wrote the songs, just like my father? My mind is agog with all this crap about money.

"Ana, very canny, as was your father. Your father invested all his earning very wisely; he inherited the house buying bug from your Papa. He though invested in low end up and coming areas. Since his death, the land, the property and anything else he purchased has increased in value in ways my father and I are yet to understand, it was like he could see a diamond buried deep in the mud, his instincts about the future of the things he invested in smacks of insider trading, but that was an impossibility, your father died and yet the things he bought still had yet to make their true worth known, most of your fathers wealth was made in the last five years Ana. It was like he had a crystal ball almost. Now you own some of the richest estates in this country, England, Scotland and worldwide too, you even own gold mines in Canada."

"How the hell did he predict there was gold in them thar hills?

"I'd laugh if my father wasn't there with him and the band when he bought the damned thing. They were on a prospecting weekend for one of the guys bachelor parties, way back in the day, I doubt I was a twinkle in my father's eyes and Carla had yet to get Lamb fever, when Lenny got gold fever. It turns out he liked it so much he bought the damned claim. Which it turns out held several seems of gold rich ore. I swear both your father and Papa could fall in a shit hole and come out wrapped in clover." I laugh until I realise they mean it. "I mean Otter island and the outer islands cost your grandfather a few thousand pounds, and they are worth, well you know what they are worth. You bought them Chris and you got a bargain too." I knew I had a good deal and I knew the island was calling out to be saved, he saved me and the island and I thank god I sold it to him now.

"So I am a gold mine owner?" I ask. I do like gold.

"You were, we had a very good offer and you sold when gold hit an crazy all time high, it has since levelled out so you or we sold it at the right time. You are no longer in mining."

"Good. Can you sell everything? Land homes buildings everything?"

"We are doing, and you own a lot less than you did ten years ago."

"The locker? I mean the room?"

"Here is the access codes and here is all you need to get in. The room is not as full as you think. It is just a room. Where he stored his diaries and his songs, the unpublished songs."

"How, I thought it was packed?"

"It holds the required seven years of paperwork in regards to your investments, and wealth. About ten boxes of diaries and the same in journals of his songs. He and you have this thing for leather journals."

"So my wealth?"

"Electronically managed in many off shore accounts, you pay millions in taxes on it yearly, both here and in England." My head aches.

"Ball park figure?" I ask, but really I don't need this stress.

"Twenty Billion, and rising daily."

"What the hell..." I scream.

"Ana, you are very wealthy." Christian and his father are both silent and listening as I lose the damned plot.

"I was already. Now, what do I do with it all? Do I become another Bill Gates and Melinda Gates giving it away to charitable causes, sponsor African villages whilst still making more than enough to buy and keep a small country going? I mean I am wealthy without their money, but this, this is madness shear madness." We have been in here for ages and I still have the concert to get myself ready for. "Can we leave it as it is and I will do the whole charity thing when I get back from this much needed honeymoon you are taking me on?" He is pale, his father is silent and Ethan is grinning, yes he and his father are good at their financial crap.

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Part two later this weekend, I am on a roll and there is no writers block on the horizon... I have a mapped out few chapters and rolling on just fine, Read and review and don't get too greedy or too needy for my plots lmao...


	36. Chapter 36

This story is nowt like fifty shades; I just purloined E.L. James's characters, buildings and some of her other stuff...

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 _ **As this is a work of total fiction I am taking a crap load of liberties with songs, bands and people in this next chapter; I am no good a writing songs lol, I struggle enough with the damned story, so please do not expect me to write songs. So I am warning you now, we all know Guns and Roses etc would not have had songs written by Lenny Lamb... Right? Okay good... Don't sue me for being fictitious with my work of fiction lol.**_

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Dreaming of Chocolate and Grey:

Chapter 36:

Sing Hallelujah Part 2:

Christian and I are sat on the terrace. The house is in chaos, yet silent? How does that even work? My head is in the same chaotic state. I look like the calm mill pond swan, elegant and calm, yet my legs are treading the water like a fat man escaping a hungry lion... I am astounded by the amount of money my father had amassed, but he hadn't touched it in over a quarter of a century, so it had grown and not been wasted on a rock and roll lifestyle, so with the Kavagnahs help its grown easily, my trust from Papa Frank paid for most things, he gifted me homes when needed, and my own money has kept me and my businesses afloat, could it be that I inherited this Midas touch the Lamberts had? I think I did, but now I have it what do I do with it. I mean when is enough, enough?

"Baby... Earth to Ana..." I am staring into the distance. "Ana..."

"Sorry I was a million miles away."

"The money?"

"How did you guess?" His thumb is fanning the back of my hand gently, which is calming me immensely.

"It was a lot to take in. The enormity of it all and finally finding out that his room was just that a store room. I guess the diamonds and jewels, the furs and stuff were not in there, but the diaries I wouldn't mind reading and giving the songs to Uncle Wolfe, he knows what to do with them. I will also make sure the royalties from his songs go to set up the school of Rock. Very Jack Black..."

"Yup, it's a lot to take in and a hell of a lot to give away, but the school is something he would have liked, and Wolfe, will he be okay with the songs?" I nod my head. "Even giving it away is a nightmare to do. Leave it with Ethan, he will steer you right."

"I am not worried. I already give everything I make from the books to SANDS. I give ten percent of my worth away. Hey I can make this year's donation to Coping Together a mega one."

"I doubt I will match it then." I laugh. "Mom will be very grateful and the charity will thank you. It will sort itself out Baby."

"I know. I guess I always knew it would be a lot, but finding out the amount is... It's overwhelming an a little bit scary."

"We can work on some sort of charitable foundation for your fathers money, if that's what you want?"

"I do thanks. I need to talk to Nonno too. Talking of Nonno, has anyone checked on Nonno?" I ask the family.

"Yes, he is sleeping like a baby. Grace says he will be out all night." Ray answers. "Unfortunately it also means he will miss the concert Princess."

"It is being filmed and he obviously needs his sleep. Christian, I need to get ready, thanks for this afternoon; it was just what I needed."

I know Christian wanted to be cosy together in my room, but my nerves are shot and are making me extremely bilious, I have never known my nerves to be so bad. I am out of my comfort zone of chocolate and Grey, my two obsessions. He and I go to my room and I wonder what the hell I will wear? She ruined everything I brought with me and bought whilst I was here. When we get to my room, I am surprised with a rail full of dresses. Cocktail and evening gowns, everyday wear and underwear.

"I hope I did not overstep my boundaries as a loving husband? Because of me you lost all your clothes."

"I did, but it is not all your doing. She is obsessed with you and I know that feeling all too well. Thank you. I don't know what to wear? I don't want to be dressy and I don't want to be casual."

"Jesus, I can't help, you look good in everything, including my shirt Baby."

"Hey it is all I had clean, what's yours is mine. I wish we had more time to you know make me feel better?"

"I can do quick, if needs be?" He winks as he comes towards me. Like hell he can.

She needs to relax...

"I doubt that; here let me help you out of those clothes." I peel her from them and sigh as her honey toned skin, "I need you in any form I can get Baby, whether it is just having a cuddle or being loud and rampant, quick or to spend all night making love to you, I need you, just you Ana. Now where were we?"

"Mid strip and so far I like what I see. Wow, you do need me." I look down and yes, he has a mind of his own around my woman.

"It would seem so, now finish what you started and worship me and start at my feet." I joke, but she pushes me on the bed and actually starts kissing my feet, fuck me this is hot. Her lips kiss my toes and I swear my dick smacks around like a flaying hose pipe, I hold it and keep myself amused, only to have my hand slapped away. I watch as she kisses my toes, my foot and then works her way up my leg and my dick knows what's coming next and he is eagerly awaiting contact, I know I like what's coming, because her first time doing this was all that and more.

"Do you want me to service your needs there Mr Grey?"

"Fuck me yes."

"Oh I do intend to Christian, I do intend to." She latches on and suckles on my dick, like a baby at feeding time, oh hell, oh fuck, oh god, oh hell yes.

"Ana, Ana yes for fucks sake, yes oh yes oh yes. I want you to take me deeper." I should have stopped whilst I was ahead and getting head. She stopped and joined me on the bed, what the fuck? I was enjoying that. I didn't see the next thing happening until it was too late, her teeth were around my balls and she looked up like a wild dog; please don't bite my balls off Ana.

"If I need help in the sucking you off department Sir, I will ask, now shut up or I will have these for dinner!"

"Oh god, don't I am attached to them." She grins and then winks and boy had she given me the heads up that she was gonna suck the fuckers and not bite them, it would have been good, how can that be so fucking good? I am now the one screaming in sheer pleasure; I am coming and hard. She sucks, as she plays, she rubs and pulls my shaft as she does, oh hell I want to stay silent, but I scream for more, I'm acting like the whiny child who wants more candy. I get my more when she manoeuvres her body over my legs and then she straddles me. I am so close, and then fuck me she slams herself on my shaft and moves ever so slowly, all whilst savouring her own release. How the hell did she get so close and on her own? I am struggling to keep up with the pleasure of her actions, I want to come and I am so damned close.

"Baby yes hold it there breathe, breathe deeply," she is in some sort of sexual trance thing, moving slowly and clenching me tightly within her core, she is murmuring her delight "Baby I am gonna move here, please relax a little Baby," but she can't, she is in some sort of hypnotic state of mind and undulating on me and I have never seen anything like it, she is transfixed on the ceiling fan and her body moves on me, all as I lay and watch, I am as mesmerised as she is, I hold the sheets tightly as she slowly circles my dick, releasing me and trapping me in doing a rhythmical dance sort of thing on my dick, the feeling is like all my Christmases have come at once. God she is good at this, she suddenly comes to as she gets her second orgasm, it must be painful, as she grips me tightly within. Fuck me, this is every man's dream, to be eaten by a pussy and as crude as that sounds, not one shit do I give, this is a-fucking-mazing.

"Ana, calm down and breath, I'm gonna move you over, you are exhausted." She ignores me and continues her wild thrusting, her hands are in her hair and she is frenzied, I can't move, because she has me pinned to the bed with her body, then as she crashes against me she begins thrusting harder, all whilst clawing and rubbing my chest, she begins to rock into me and I roll with it, grunting and moaning for more. We are a sweaty mess of bodies and the heat is off the charts hot, I am so fucking close to exploding when she suddenly stops and as she does, she looks me in the eyes and smiles. Fuck me; she is possessed.

"Was that good enough Mr Grey, do you want to come now?" She twists my hardened nipples and suddenly lies down on me and rides me hard, she moves up and down my body, the heat and the sweat has the lube her body needs to ride me horizontally. I had no time to answer or call out instructions, she was getting off again and this time I am there too, she thrusts as she slides on to me, off me and onto me harder and each in and out gets faster each time, I am delirious as she does it again and again. "Come for me Christian, and come for me now." I follow her instructions and my body gives her it's all. I grunt and I cuss as my seed fills her and as I do, she screams and collapses on top of me. After playing fucking dead for what seems like an age, with her lain still on top of me, her head turns and her eyes stare into mine.

"Was that as good for you as it was for me?"

"I don't know Baby; we may have to do that again. What the fuck got into you, not that I am complaining but hell woman that was..."

"...Different, very different, and amazing thank you."

"I would have to say fuck no, but getting that energetic fuck, then hell yes, because I loved 'Ana the possessed."

"How the hell are we going to manage our time away Christian?"

"I think a week away and you are going to fuck me to death Ana, all those book tours are gonna kill me, missing you and then meeting up again, god yes please, we will make it work Ana."

"I wouldn't like to go a week, now that I've had amazing sex I now need it like I need air, you your sex and your dick only."

"Wow, how crude of you Mrs Grey. I had three orgasmic overtures in one amazing session. We need a nap Baby, but you need to dress for The concert." We shower together, and tempted as I am to make love to her again, we can't because we have really pushed the time limits to the max. We change and smile as we do, yes Ana I feel it. We are perfect together. I am in a jeans and a grey dress shirt and jumper; I am a very casual Christian Grey tonight, because apparently a tux was not called for? I look at Ana and she has on jeans too, and one of my white dress shirts, she pulls off the rock chick look perfectly, she adds to the look her locket. Her hair is damp from the shower; she wraps it in a scarf and looks amazing. My wife is beautiful.

"Now I have to go. We need to get there and soon." I grin like a moron.

"I know... I like the reason we are going to be late, my wife was very demanding."

"I needed it. I really did. Now you have sexed away all my stress, let's get to the concert."

"I beg to differ I was happy with the great blow job." She bats my arm as we head out, after she first checked in on her sleeping grandfather that is, she placed a kiss on his cheek and sighed, she needed him there, but he needs the sleep more. The rest of our families are following us in some sort of presidential motorcade. I am still on a massive high when she hands me the keys to her Bugatti.

"I figure we should go in all rock and roll, don't ding him, please?" I grin.

"I wouldn't dream of it, here let me help you in Mrs Grey." I do and she sits in the passenger seat and looks just as stressed as she was before our not so quick fuck. "Stop worrying, all will be fine." I hope. I still have visions of Leila getting to her. We make our way to the bowl and as we pull up I am amazed at the crowds. From the approach we can see the hills behind it are filed with fans not lucky enough to get a ticket and I imagine a fifteen year old Rosalind Bailey with her candle, who sat there on the night Lenny Lamb died, he was my father-in-law. The man, the legend, and my wife's father was loved, the crowds here prove that. Ana gulps as we pass through the security corridor for the stars and their entourage. We have a large convoy it has to be said...

All hand's to the stage:

I have been surfing on some sort of autopilot for the past hour; I have paced the room, the hall and walked to and from the stage to watch Rascal Flats warm up the crowds with two of my father's songs they used in two of their albums. Most of the bands use the same setup, but the back of the stage looks like a music store. Guitars and drums are stacked in the massive space allocated to them. I am using the piano from the house here; it was collected a week ago for tuning and was delivered here yesterday. I don't know how the sharing thing works, but it seems to work? I am fussing over other bands and artists instruments when I am patted on my back.

"Miss Lambert..." I turn, and see Brian May and the guys from Queen... I am awestruck... I am drooling I think. I am numb...

"Hello, and thanks for coming..." Thanks for fucking coming? Anastasia, thanks for coming?

"Thanks for having us. We liked your father a lot. He wrote a couple of songs and though not number one's they are bloody good songs." I nod like a seal; all I need to do now is the seal sound and clap my hands like their flippers. hand me a fish and kill me please? I realise that was a stupid thing to think considering the lune is still out to get me.

"Sorry I meant to say, I am the one grateful for you doing this. I am sure he would have been thrilled to have you here too."

"We are looking forward to the headline act."

"That's me, why?"

"We hear from a certain wild man of rock you were great in rehearsals?" I thank them I think, shake their hands and kiss their cheeks. I am as I said awestruck. They head on to perform first. Christian has yet to leave my side. The band plays their songs and the crowd is a mass of flashes and lights, they have wrist lights and the whole audience looks like a twinkling Christmas tree thing. I watch as the acts come and go, I didn't realise that he wrote so many songs. It is my turn to introduce Black Sabbath, the band have introduced all the acts so far, but Ozzie had a special friendship with my father. I am hugged as I am about to hit the stage.

"You can do this Baby. I am just here."

"I am not singing yet." He smiles. "I may need more of those hugs when I get back though." He smiles and I shake as I take to the stage. Sabbath are taking their places... Ozzie is talking to his daughter and a stage hand. I approach the mic and cough, the drone and look of the crowd seems to be like a surrealist painting, I am down there with them but out here on my own. I am shocked into silence, can you hear a pin drop in a packed to the gills concert venue, it seems you can? I am stage struck and afraid.

"I, I, I..."

"My daughter and I, we would like to thank you all for coming tonight, we are truly blessed that these great bands have given their time to help Anastasia, the band and I to complete the concert that you were cruelly robbed of a quarter of a century ago. Ana and I thank you. Now, it is our great pleasure to introduce to you next, one of Lenny's drinking buddies and partner in many a public order misdemeanour, now give it up for Ozzie Osborne and Black Sabbath..." He comes on stage and he is totally different from the man earlier. We head off as he passes and he winks.

"I was easily led and he was a bad man leading me into trouble, ask Sharon, she bailed us out enough... Now let's hear it for Lenny's girls..." They all scream and laugh.

I am still silent as I shuffle off with my mother, oh god I haven't a hope in hell of singing. The crowd cheers and claps and the lights start as the band sing three songs and I am still silent. Other acts come and go and then finally it is Of Wolves and Lambs turn at the stage. I haven't said a word. Christian has tried, Mum has tried. Holly too has slapped my face hard. I am lost. I can't do this...

"Annie, you can do this sweetheart..." I look at my mum.

"I, I, I..." The green screen shoots to life and I stare, I stare as my father sings with them for one last concert, he is giving a concert from beyond the grave. I watch, he is singing like he is actually there, my mother and I are in tears... I didn't realise it but the song I have to sing is coming soon. I take my place at the piano. The green screen is behind me, and suddenly my father's voice can be heard, I smile and look up, he is looking at me. My father sings and I join him... I hit all my marks and I play the song perfectly, Uncle Wolfe smiles and plays. He is next to me and I watch as my father magically looks at Uncle Wolfe, they sing together again, I then join in as we sing the song again, during our afternoon of rest, the sound guys have looped it to play again... I let my father sing his last verse...

"Hallelujah. Hallelujah. Hallelujah. Hallelujah. Hallelujah. Hallelujah. Hallelujah. Hallelujah. Hallelujah." I join him for the last hallelujah, I did it... I did it... When it mattered I did it...

"Ladies, gents, fans, friends, family... I give you Anastasia Rose... Frank Lambert's greatest achievement, his brightest star and the love of his life... My friend and brother recorded this for Carla to play for their daughter when he was touring so she didn't miss him too much, what he didn't know was that when we recorded it, he would never meet the baby he made, and she, she would never met the man who loved her... Annie, our gift to you, your daddy recorded this for you..." Uncle Wolfe smiled and as I stare at the screen, my father is there, my mother is sat next to him in a swing chair and they seem to be on a wooden porch. I look and see the rings they have on, this is at their Anastasia home. This was done sometime during their last week together, my mother looks set to have me and my mother; lord she is huge. They look like they are madly in love and the tears well in my eyes...

"Hello little one, Mummy says you are restless and being a pain, give her a break and go to sleep..."

"Sing to her Frank, she likes it when you sing to her, sing her your song Honey..."

"Because you need to sleep, I will. Now Anastasia, be a good girl..." I see him rub my mother's swollen belly and sob. I am at a piano watching my parents sit happily together.

"Frank, she loves hearing your voice..." He strums his guitar and I am as amazed as anyone here as I watch him, it is then I realise, that the whole world is sharing this moment with me... With Mum and me... He is singing my lullaby, sort of live...

" _When you love someone as much as I love you, it hurts. When you need someone as much as I need you, it hurts. Sometimes you're the last one to know that this is what people call love, I knew it was true when I saw you today, it hurt my heart and my eyes wept with joy because you baby girl, are about to be the love of my life..._

 _I can't wait to rock you in my arms, and sing to you my rockabye baby, my rockabye miracle, I wanna rock you, to sooth you, to love you and sing you to sleep with a gentle rockabye melody, rockabye, rockabye baby..._

 _I can't wait to see you, and sing to you. I count the days until I do. I need to hold you in my arms and keep you safe. I held my breath today just to hear your heart beating, it's was a breath that burned and tormented my once wicked soul, my soul is dark but with you here with me there will be light in my life, because you my baby girl are the love my life._

 _I can't wait to rock you in my arms, and sing to you my rockabye baby, my rockabye miracle, I wanna rock you, to sooth you, to love you and sing you to sleep, with a gentle rockabye melody, rockabye, rockabye baby..._

 _I need to hear your laughter. I need to see you play. I need to hold you in my arms and keep you from all the madness in this world. I want to sing you a song of love and laughter and most of all joy. I want to show the world that my baby girl is the love of my life. I am waiting here to keep the wind from your face and the mad world from your door._

 _I can't wait to rock you in my arms, and sing to you my rockabye baby, my rockabye miracle, I wanna rock you, to sooth you, to love you and sing you to sleep, with a gentle rockabye melody, rockabye, rockabye baby..._

 _I count the days until I see what your mother's love made possible and show the world that you my baby are the love of my life. Until then my sweet blessed child, yet to be born, sleep well and stay safe in the place that you grow. One day soon, the world out here will be waiting to see my baby girl, and I will tell the world that my baby girl is the love of my life... The love of my life._

 _I can't wait to rock you in my arms, and sing to you my rockabye baby, my rockabye miracle, I wanna rock you, to sooth you, to love you and sing you to sleep, with a gentle rockabye melody, rockabye, rockabye baby..._

 _I wanna hold you in my arms and never let you go, I wanna shower you with kisses and shut the world away, I want the peace and quiet I have right now to last forever and a day, be still for your mamma and I will sing you a song, and one day soon you will be here in my arms, you are my baby girl and the love of my life._

 _I can't wait to rock you in my arms, and sing to you my rockabye baby, my rockabye miracle, I wanna rock you, to sooth you, to love you and sing you to sleep, with a gentle rockabye melody, rockabye, rockabye baby..."_

"And she sleeps..." My mum's voice can be heard. I then sob as I see who is filming us when my mum takes the camera from Papa Frank and Granny Mimi.

"Son, you are a lucky man..."

"I am dad, very lucky and you Anastasia are going to know how much we love you as soon as you get here."

"Senior, come on let's get packed... These two lovebirds need some alone time. Look out for our girls Baby Boy and we will see you when you get back, the concerts is only a week away and then we will not see you for ages."

"Mum I am nearly thirty and you can all come with us..."

"You will always be my baby boy, no matter how many grandbabies you and this pretty Lassie gift me and your father, now get Carla to her bed, I love you, all three of you."

"Yes Mum and we love you too." The film fades and I sob. Uncle Wolfe wipes his eyes and does what I cannot. Thanks the fans and introduces the other acts who are joining them.

"My god daughter is a little emotional at the moment, but we wanted to give her something special, he mother has been sitting on this recording for years. He wanted her to know he loved her mother and he loved Anastasia here more, he would be so proud of the bay who grew up to rule a different world to his, and if his parents where they still here too would be incredibly proud of the woman you have become. The chocolates you create are as sweet as you. He would have been your biggest supporter and best customer, he loved his chocolates. Now give it up for Anastasia, Lenny Lambs legacy and the best thing he ever created..." I swear there was not a dry eye on the stage; my husband came to help me from the stage. I stopped and hugged him.

"Thank you for coming. Thank you for loving my father, his music and keeping the music he created with this bunch of reprobates alive. I am always amazed at your commitment to keeping him and his memory alive. My mother, my husband Christian and family and most of all me, I thank you for being his fantastic fans, now please enjoy the rest of the songs that the guys here have for you, thank you, thank you, thank you."

I did it. I sang and I honoured my father and went all soppy and soft. Christian and I walk off to a standing ovation and all I hear is the thunder in the distance, he is sending me a sign, I hope, because rain would be a buzz kill, the clouds are in the distant skies, please let the night be rain free...

Christian and I join the family in our reserved section, and watch as the band play with the guys from Guns and Roses, Iron Maiden, Aerosmith and finally AC-DC. I am in a very good place after watching the video, my mother is being comforted by Bob, he is a good man he must be, to know how much she truly loved my father. I smile as she smiles. I have to thank her for the best birthday present ever. Although it was a day too late and had spent twenty five years hidden away, it was much needed especially seeing Grammy Mimi and Papa Frank again too.

The after party is a very loud, and is surprisingly not all about booze. It seems rock stars do not always grow old disgracefully. Ozzie was only drinking milk, before he left to get to bed. I am a dizzy mess when we finally get home, drunk on love and admiration of the man who was my dad, and mostly for my crazy family and my dad's band of brothers, who are always there for me and finally my husband, the love of my happy sodding life. He is my life.

No... Please god no...

We get in and everyone is loud, its early in the morning and the house was sleeping, well it was until we got in. I am super hyped and a little merry, as the house comes alive; I see or don't see rather Nonno. I grin and head to his rooms, I want to tell him how well it went, about everything and as I get to his bed I get this overwhelming feeling of dread. He is exactly where I left him; my kiss is still on his forehead.

"Nonno... Wake up... Nonno I have so much to tell you Noono... Please wake up Nonno, wake up please..." He doesn't move and I scream... It brings people to his room... Christian and Taylor are the first to my side and Christian holds me as Taylor checks for a sign of life, I see it happening but I am a sobbing heap a wreck...

"I am sorry Mrs Grey, but your grandfather has died..." Marco is the next to check. I guess by the time each of his son's check it must be true... Nonno has joined Nonna; it seems you can die of a broken heart... My mother is the last in the room; she is by my side and holds me.

"I knew he wouldn't last long without her, he loved her so damned much!" I think he did...

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Sorry... I ended it on a right tearjerker... More to come... I has hoped to pirate a few songs, but I guess it would then just be a full chapter of other artists songs... I will let you pick your own fav AC-DC song lol... Mine is 'for those about to rock' lol read and review please xxx Oh and I may have used the sex scene in another of my stories, I can't remember which though, but I am sure you eagle eyed readers will know which one, it may have been on a plane?


	37. Chapter 37

This story is nowt like fifty shades; I just purloined E.L. James's characters, buildings and some of her other stuff...

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 _ **I am so sorry I upset people with Nonno's death, but I wanted you to know people, couples, do die of broken hearts when they lose the love of their life, and this plays a part in a future episode... No hints lol...**_

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Dreaming of Chocolate and Grey:

Chapter 37:

A lonely road:

Ana has been so quiet, so alone and understandably sad, heartbreakingly sad. I have tried everything in my power to be a help to her in this trying time for her. She has had many, many rants, many meltdowns and each one has been a horrid thing to witness. She has pushed me away, she has crawled onto my lap, she has run, she has hiked she has been busy in her kitchen; she is not talking to anyone, not properly that is.

Carla is acting much the same, so Bob and I have been keeping each other company and bonding over our partners grief and our inability to comfort them as we want to, they are hot headed and strong willed and we are realising we are not much use too them, but we are there for them to shout at, and they have. Today is the funeral, and I am hoping that she will be able to move on a little. Five days is not I am told a long grieving period, and Mom says to expect her to be and to have sad periods, she will be upset with me and she will have all manner of rages, and I will be the one in the firing line.

I have helped as best as I can with the funeral arrangements, but Ana has been like a Whirling Dervish, she has organised and bullied people for the past couple of days, it has she said given her anger a focus. Her mother and uncles are numb with the pain. I want to be there for them but I haven't felt this type of loss. I have lost my son, our son and I am sad about that, but this, this is a whole different grief. Mom says it is different for everyone, but I am still lost in this wilderness. Mom and dad have stopped for the funeral, but they are heading off straight after it for the ball. Ana and I will not be attending as they are as a family in mourning, we will however make a sizable donation.

Ana is dressed in black, head to toe black. I am not sure what today will bring, but I hope for a little closure for the family and Ana, that burying them both could bring. I place on my jacket and watch as she brushes her hair one last time. I stand behind her and lean down.

"Ana..."

"Thank you for being here for me. I am sorry for being a bitch."

"I hadn't noticed. I just want to help you."

"You have helped me; you have left me to it and not crowded me. Believe me you have helped, a lot. I wish I'd had you when Christian died."

"I wish I had been there too. Are you ready?" She took a deep breath.

"Yes, as I will ever be." We head down and to the cars.

Her grandparents are being cremated, and will be joining her father and her other grandparents, the arguments this cause were too numerous to mention. Ana stopped the rows by telling them all, that their ashes will be shipped to the cemetery where Ana had laid to rest our son; she stopped the arguments by saying she wanted them to be near Christian. None of them had a problem with this, they would be together, and in a moment of absolute clarity, she then decided she wanted her father, Frank and Mimi in England too. It took a lot of paperwork to get her family exhumed, luckily they were too were cremated and not buried, we didn't attend, it was too upsetting however their caskets, urns or whatever they were laid to rest in, were still intact and along with Nonno and Nonna's ashes, will be placed in the space Ana had for her by our sons side.

The whole thing was a surreal thing, I have attended business colleagues funerals, but I have never attended a family funeral. Thankfully.

Ana has held my hand tightly throughout the service. I have been the very steady rock she needed. My parents have been my rocks. We are driving back to her home; the number of cars in the cavalcade is numerous, too many to count. He was a much loved man that much was obvious at the funeral home. Taylor is with Ana and I. Security is still tight because Leila is still out there. Stalking us, we have had odd phone calls, letters and photos. She is still watching us; the photos she has sent prove this. She has got close enough to fire off camera shots, which worries me, is the gun she has powerful enough to kill my wife from the same distance these were taken at? Taylor assures me she is not close enough for the hand gun she has. He assures us had she had a bigger gun she would have taken the shot.

My nightmare week is coming to an end; we have to get back to real life as early as next week. Ana is going to interview the people Ros has found for her as soon as we get back to Seattle. After that is, we have flown to London to bury her family. Uncle Ray and the family are heading back to Australia tonight, Ana and I, we are going as far as London with Marco Carla and Sonny. Their plan was only ever to be here for a couple of days to see the concert, but obviously their plans were waylaid for a week...

I watch as Ana refuses a glass of wine in favour of her cup of tea, she hasn't had a drop of anything stronger all week. A clear head and mind was needed, she said, to cope with death. Again what did I know? I was strong for her, I was her rock and I took the good with the bad, as all good husbands do. I am sitting watching as she circles the room. She makes sure everyone is fed, has drinks and is spoken to and thanked. All the time watched by her family, they think she is losing the plot, but I know better, this is how she copes. She works to forget, she ignores the hurt, and she buries her feelings. She has cried solidly when she is alone, but her public face is strong, so strong it seems heartless, but it is far from it. Her coping mechanism is hers and she owns it. I hate to think of her being like this with our son, she was, because she told me this was no different, other than she had more support this time.

Time ticks by slowly, people leave and now only family are here. Our bags are packed and again we are on the road to the airport, security, staff, family and bags. My parents are taking the small jet back to Seattle with Bob, who is continuing his killer publicity tour alone until Carla returns they left before us. I am sort of lost, fuck sort of, I am totally fucked. I am sure this married life thing isn't meant to start with two funerals, a super stalker and reburying dead relatives ashes? Ana is staring at the back of the car, where she knows the casket containing the ashes of five of her relatives has been placed. They are the reason I am a little freaked out if I am honest, the funeral director delivered the dear departed at some point during the wake. Taylor placed them in the Bugatti, her Nonno loved this car and we are driving to the airport with them. As I said freaky.

"Thanks for this, Nonno loved this damned car. It is only fitting we take him to the plane in it. I feel odd Christian."

"Travelling with your dead relatives can do that to a person Baby."

"I know, I mean my dad is in there too."

"Stop reminding me."

"He can't harm you. Now thanks and watch the road. Where is Taylor?"

"Behind us, with your mom and Holly. He isn't happy."

"He hasn't been happy all week. We will be in the air in less than an hour. We will be in London and a different country to Leila. So he may relax."

"Nope, he will not relax; well not until he has her in his sights." I watch the mirror and see him in the reflection. I grin and debate speeding up a little and think better of the idea. As we near a junction, I see a small Honda and as it crosses in front of me running me off the road, I see the face staring at me. Fuck Leila... She smiles as the Bugatti spins off the road, and I then have to watch helplessly as she turns her car into the one Taylor is driving, and as she jumps out she lets the Honda run into the front of his SUV. He is rear ended by Ryan and the other guys; I get out of the car, as does Ana, despite me telling her to stay put. Sawyer is turning his car around, it is chaos.

"Christian, she has a gun..." Ana saw what I did not; Leila is covered in blood and is aiming the gun at Ana.

"What did she have that I do not Master?" I hear the click of the gun and see it as she points it at Ana, she is staring at my wife, and my wife being the hot head grief stricken and damned annoyed woman she is, flies at Leila, Leila laughs, and fires off a shot, I watch as Ana falls, I run at Leila and as she points the gun at Ana again, I throw myself over Ana, I hear the shots, three of them. I feel a warmth and a burning. I hear Taylor, I hear Sawyer, but I do not hear Ana... My world goes dark...

Drunk driver or security threat?

I am driving the very annoying Holly and Carla to the damned plane, I think I will pack a parachute and bail out mid Atlantic; these women are not great at taking orders and thy fucking need to take the Leila threats more seriously. I am more annoyed than normal because this is a security nightmare, there are a half dozen cars and he and the wife are in that stupid fucking car. A car with no place for me. Carla and Holly are driving me to distraction or rather Holly is trying to be nice to Carla. Mrs Logan, Jenny she is the only silent one in the damned car. She is worried about Mrs Grey, as are we all. She seems to be taking this too calmly, though Christian did tell Gail she is grieving when she thinks there is nobody watching her, he though, he is the exception, and he has not left her side.

I am watching the road as we leave the house, we are boxing him and that damned car in between Sawyer in the front car and me taking up the rear, something is off, something feels wrong. I look up as we approach the intersection and see Sawyers car move forward quickly, then I see the beat up Honda, it is heading towards the Bugatti, fuck no whoever is driving it has sent them flying into the verge, I pray to god Sawyer sees this as I cannot break fast enough.

"Hold on ladies..." The damned drivers door opens and someone jumps free from it and the fucking Honda heads straight for me. I try to swerve but I was too focused on that damned car. Not today lord today is not a good day to die... My air bags deploy as the fucker behind rear ends me; I will be having words when I get out of the car. I open the door and see the sight before me, Ana... "Get away from her Ms Williams, Ana stop, stay where you are Sir..." I shout but it's like a bad B movie, there is a single shot fired at Mrs Grey and she goes down. The boss then throws himself over his wife as Leila aims at Ana's still body. I see a flash I hear three, or four shots, no three, three shots are fired. I look at the big picture, Sawyer has fired a shot, but only after Leila fired off one at Christian, and at the same time, from behind me I hear another crack of a gun and see Leila head to the ground. It seems Miss Holly is indeed a crack shot, either she has or Sawyer taken Leila Williams out with a headshot.

Ana's mother is screaming and the others are getting out of their cars. "Stay in your damned cars..." I shout and they do. I head towards Sawyer who is hovering over that damned woman.

"She is dead. How about them?" Sawyer asks. I kneel down and see the boss has taken one in the back and is lain over his wife. "T?" Sawyer is by my side and sees what I see. A giant fucking ball ache.

"It's not good; get the paramedics here now, Ryan get two busses, now for fucks sake... We can't move him, and Ana is out cold, either because of her head hitting the concrete paver and there is blood, or because she has been shot? We can't move him to see to her, because from the blood and the hole in his jacket, Leila has shot Christian in or near his spine. If we move him, we could risk him being paralyzed and were the fucker awake that's what he would want, so we could get to Mrs Grey. We are not equipped for this fucking fiasco. Heads will roll. Mine probably...

"Ana... Annie, is she alright, why are you not helping them?" Carla screams. Holly holds her back.

"They can't move Christian, he has been shot Carla, now come and sit in the car, Marco, Sonny, help your sister." She rally's the others to keep Carla from throwing herself at the mess and her daughter. The paramedics arrive, after what seems like forever, but in reality it is only about five minutes, as they turn up so too do the fire and the police. We explain the situation n harried instructions to the police, the medics work on the boss. He is strapped carefully to a back board and they and the firemen turn him and place him in the bus, I watch as they look over Ana. Sawyer goes with Christian, and I stay with Mrs Grey. She has been shot in the shoulder and is out cold from a concussion. I guess the flights cancelled and the party is moving to the hospital. We are heading to Cedars-Sinai Medical Centre, there is no time for my usual, as yet untested protocols to be put in place, besides this is the top of my get to hospitals. I call his parents, as we head there. I am just in time too.

"Mrs Grey, there has been an incident, call anyone you know who deals with trauma to the spine and back, I am afraid Christian has been shot." Blunt I know, but she is the woman with the clout.

"Where are you going Jason?"

"Cedars, Christian should be already there, I am with Ana. She has only sustained a graze from the gunshot, but Mrs Grey her real problem is with the head wound she sustained when she hit the sidewalk, because of it she is out cold." I watch as they pack and bandage her head. This woman, this girl needs a fucking break for god's sake...

"We are heading there now..." I have texted James and he is aware of the situation. The cars are recalled and they will deal with getting them here safely. I fucking hope. Gail went home three days ago; she will now wish she had stopped to care for her adoptive son. I will wait until we know what the deal is before I worry her. We get there and are rushed through to the emergency department, my eyes search out Sawyer, he is pacing the floor in front of a set of double doors, there is blood on the floor and he doesn't look too great, and that's Sawyer, not Grey.

"T, he is in a bad way, they need to take him up." I nod. "They need paperwork signing."

"Fuck the paperwork... I have the authority for him, but not for Mrs Grey."

"Is she okay?"

"No, well I don't know. She has only a graze from the bullet, the problem is her head, and it took a massive hit."

"Where the fuck did she come from and how did she know where we were and when we would be there?"

"I have no idea, but it is going to be on my shit list Sawyer..." We wait, for again what seems like forever, but in reality its way less than a quarter of an hour, when the doctor comes out he asks for Grey's next of kin.

"I have power to act in an emergency, until his parents get here. Do what you need to do to save his sorry as Doc, please?"

"The bullet is stuck in his back, if we are lucky it has not lodged all the way in, but until we get him on the table and open him up, we won't know for sure." I nod.

"Do it, his parents will want answers, his mom is a surgeon." He smiles and heads back in, he is wheeled out, face down on a table and heading to god knows where. I head to see to Ana. Her uncle's are here, as is Jenny, her mom and Holly. I can't tell them anything, other than she was alive. Then it began the hours of actual waiting time. My Grey charges are in the best of hands, but my hands have their blood on them, I need to know who leaked our departure to the damned woman. If she weren't dead already her and I would be n the Nevada dessert picking her plot.

Five days later...

I am standing guard over Ana, watching her sleep and waiting for her to wake, and I am not the only one, this place has been like Grand Central Station, the family are worried, everyone is worried, and they have good reason, because Ana Grey may not wake up, or Ana Grey when she does wake up, could be damaged, the longer it takes the more medical problems she could be facing. We are on wait and see duty. It is hard on her mother and Jenny. Holly has been a rock for me, and like the rest of the family we wait. I Luke Sawyer have prayed more in these past few days than I ever have, and I have served two tours in Afghanistan and a few others where my prayers were not answered, the fucker in the know, him up there, he best make my boss wake up soon and with nothing wrong with her too.

"Ana, wake up Honey, you have had more sleep than you need, wake up for me Ana, please wake up for your old mum."

"She should wake soon Carla."

"I know Grace, but it isn't soon enough. I need to know she isn't, you know..."

"I know. She will be fine."

"How is Christian?" I am watching as the mothers bond over their kids. Kids? They are grown arsed people, but moms are moms whatever your age, I guess?

"He is immobilised and in a drug induced state until the swelling on his spine goes down. If he as much as moves before swelling goes down and at least heals a little, he could undo all their hard work, and if he finds out Ana is not okay, he won't rest. Not until he sees her."

"He will walk again right?" T says it will be a long haul but he will be able to walk again.

"Yes, he may have to have many months of physio, but yes, he was lucky, is she was stood another foot nearer and she could have severed his spinal cord and left him paralyzed, I guess it's good right, that she wasn't?" The rustle of the cotton sheets stops the two mothers from speaking.

"Ana..."

"Mother? What the hell are you doing here, where am I and where is Papa Frank?" I watch as my boss sits up and stares at her mother and Mrs Grey. "Where am I, and why are you here, get out, get out. Nonna, Nonno, Papa... Where is Nonno? Get out Carla Mae, get out, get out, I don't want to see you, I thought I made that clear Mother?"

"Ana, calm down. Please calm down."

"Who are you?"

"I am Doctor Grace Trevelyan Grey."

"Christian and Elliot's Mum?"

"Yes dear." I watch in horror, Ana Grey has lost her memory, that much is clear to even me, the none doctor. "Carla, could you go and bring in her doctor please?"

"What is wrong with her Grace, why does she not remember what has happened and that we were reunited?"

"Mother, leave. Could you send in my Papa, and my nonni?" Carla looks lost, how is she going to tell her beloved daughter her grandparents are dead? "Is Christian here, if you are here Mrs Grey?"

"You remember Christian?" Grace asks.

"Of course, he is here at Otter Island, he was a little drunk. I mean really he does realise you cannot play golf in the snow right?" I am lost.

"Ana, how old are you?" Carla asks her daughter. "Ana, how old do you think you are?"

"Derr, even you know I was eighteen just over four months ago. Ha you been around more Mother you perhaps you would have remembered that?"

"Carla could you walk with me? Ana I will be back in a minute. Okay?" Okay this could be bad.

"Yes, then you can tell me why I am here?"

"Yes Ana, as soon as I have a word with your doctor."

"Okay, but take her with you and send in my grandparents please, if they are here, wherever here is?" We head out before she asks who I am too. I call Taylor.

"She's awake and seems to have lost her memory. She is back to being eighteen T. So what do we do?"

"Keep watching her Sawyer and do not speak to her until we have spoken to Dr Grey."

"Okay, how is the boss?"

"He is being woken up later today; with any luck he is fine. Time they say will tell." I end the call. I approach the women.

"Grace, how has she forgotten everything that has happened to her, is it permanent?"

"I don't know is the simple answer, it could be temporary or it could be permanent. We will have to wait to see what the doctors say. Was that Taylor you were talking to Sawyer?"

"Yes Ma'am, they are preparing to wake Mr Grey. I guess you should be there?"

"Carla?"

"Yes go, go and see your son. I will wait here and talk to her doctors, and pray she remembers everything, and I do mean everything, Grace she doesn't remember she had their baby?"

"I figured as much. That was the last time they saw each other, the winter on Otter Island. I would send for Jenny, she was there at the time and is possibly the only one she will talk to."

"I will, I hope everything goes okay with Christian." They cheek kiss and separate, I watch the room and see Ana fusing with the equipment. Her doctors are there and I pace the floor, what will this do to the boss? I man she thinks is the same as he was when she was fucking eighteen. She is oblivious to the changes in her life, I wonder if that is a good thing or bad, being given a fresh start at life? She has a lost a lot of people near and dear to her since she was eighteen, including their baby, how will they tell her this crap? Holly... I need to get Holly.

"Hey Holly, she has woken up, get your butt back, she is going to need you."

"Hu? Oh my god, she is okay yes, she can talk right?"

"Yup, she is talking like the eighteen year old Ana too, because Holly she thinks she is eighteen."

"Fuck-a-duck..."

"Exactly."

"I will be there in ten minutes, with Marco and Sonny, yes?"

"Yes, she isn't aware all her grandparents are dead, seeing them would help." She shouts at the guys and ends the call. I await her arrival and commence my pacing.

Ana the eighteen year old...

Okay, so I am not eighteen, and my mother is my best friend I hate this reality I woke up in. My head aches and my shoulder has a major scar I never had before. I have listened to people talk, I have been told I could get my memories back, but so far nada, zilch, nothing made any sense. I have security keeping me prisoner that much I do know, a cute guy called Sawyer and his crabby boss Taylor. They are here because Christian is concerned about me, why the fuck he is concerned I do not know, because he doesn't even know I exist and believe me I do try to make him notice me. When I took the booking I was shocked when he turned up to be honest. I need to see here Olivia is, because it is time to put the capture the Grey god into action. If they let me out of this room that is.

I sit in my room, mother has brought me some clothes in, they are really fuddy duddy and old, but I wear them, because anything is better than having my arse on show. Holly has brought me a laptop, and an equally futuristic mobile phone and my journals to read. I looked through my cooking journal first and it shocked me, it seems I am good at this chocolate thing. I know this is not the one I was working on, where is that one? I have asked and they are not telling me anything. I am a damned prisoner being fed bullshit and being kept in the dark like a fucking mushroom... I intend finding out what they are keeping from me and why. I have been imprisoned here for like a full day and a night and everyone including my uncles are feeding me bullshit. I like that word, bull-shit...

The changing of the guard is my opportunity to escape. Mother and Grace are having dinner; Holly has gone to change with the cute guy Sawyer. I need to find out what they are hiding from me. Oliver is not in my phone, she would be great at this, she is better and more fun than this Holly, she is a stick in the mud, and no fun. Nobody is fun anymore. Marco and Sonny are not telling me anything either. I guess it's got to do with the lack of my grandparents? I asked and was told they were going to tell me everything tomorrow when they take me home. I know I am not on Otter Island anymore, because it is hot, bloody hot. Which is a mystery in itself. How the hell did I get from Otter Island to here? The new guy Ryan is speaking on his phone as I slip into the bathroom and out of the door. He is oblivious to my getting my freedom.

Where do I go now? I head to the lift and get in. I press the G button and we head to the ground floor. I find myself in a massive entrance to the hospital and see the Taylor guy with Grace and Mr Grey, Carrick is here, why? I hide behind a pot plant and watch them. They head to the lifts and I note they are heading to the fourth floor. Okay, I can work with that, my floor was the first, so whoever they are here to see is up there. I get in the next lift and smile as the people get in with me. My head is throbbing as we reach the floor. They are at the island desk thing speaking to doctors when I sneak in, whilst I try to figure out who is here, is it Theo?

They head into a room and I follow. Taylor is on the phone, and is cussing, I think they have realised I am missing. Taylor heads to the lifts and I grin. Sucker... I sneak to the room he was guarding...

"Mom, how is she?"

"Christian, it is you who needs watching not Ana."

"Mom how is my fucking wife, stop ignoring me, or I swear I will get up and go and find her myself." Wait one fucking minute, am I hearing things? I'm his wife, or has he married another Ana? "Mom, is she okay?"

"Son, you only woke up an hour ago, now stop and listen to your mother. Ana is fine, she is well but she has no memory of you, other than those she had of you at eighteen, and yes that the last time she saw you, you were arriving at Otter island drunk with Elliot, ready to play golf in the snow?"

"She doesn't remember marrying me?"

"No, Christian she does not remember anything..."

"Mom, she doesn't remember our son? She doesn't remember that night?"

"No, nor does she know her grandparents are dead, she is blissfully unaware of the past, especially the last three weeks."

"How can it be blissful, she doesn't fucking remember marrying me, Mom Does she still love me and need me? Mom, get me out of this fucking bed. I need to see her and break the news of Nonno's death and the rest of this mess."

"No, no you cannot, it could harm her more and she loved you at eighteen so I guess she loves you still, but without the added baby news in there." I have a baby, we have a baby? I look at my midsection and can't imagine a baby being in there, I feel sick and my head throbs.

"Mother..." He sees me... I stand stupefied to the spot. That isn't me he is talking about; I would know if I had a baby right? I would know Papa Frank had died, right? I sway and I see the floor heading my way...

* * *

So how do I go on from here lol... did you like the twist? I had thought of having her run and as fast as her legs would carry her... Read review and tell me... Lol... Awaiting news on the tickets for the London premier... Fingers crossed xx


	38. Chapter 38

This story is nowt like fifty shades; I just purloined E.L. James's characters, buildings and some of her other stuff...

* * *

Dreaming of Chocolate and Grey:

Chapter 38:

The immovable Mr Grey, and the zombies:

I saw Ana watching us talk, and wonder how much she heard. My parents are here and she is there. so where are our security? She looks so uneasy and she is swaying.

"Papa, Papa, go and get her please, before..." It was too late, she hit the floor and from the sound of it, she hit it hard. "Mom, Papa..." I can't damn well move. Papa goes for my wife and brings her in and Mom checks her over and as Ana wakes, she looks as mad as hell, what did I do?

"Ana, are you okay Baby?"

"Baby? What baby?" She sits up suddenly. I remember I mentioned Christian.

"It's a term of endearment, our term of endearment."

"No, no you said I had a baby, we had a baby? I mean I know I am not eighteen, I looked in the mirror, so I know I am older than I was before this happened. Grace my head aches!" She holds her head.

"Mom, is she alright?"

"Yes, and this is why they were easing her into her true reality. This is too much Christian, too much too soon."

"I didn't know she was there until after I spilled forth my worries about my wife."

"We are married?" She looks at her finger and smiles. "No shitting me?" Gone the woman I married the mature and strong business woman and here in her place is the annoying Ana from Otter Island. I grin as she admires the rock and the band.

"Yes we are married; in fact we have been married a week, a whole week. Mom, Papa can you leave us alone for a while?"

"Ana needs to be resting." Mom tells me.

"No, what Ana needs is a reality check and I need to know who I am or who I have become. Wow that was very grown up of me." I smile as my parents leave. "So, when did I win you over Christian? I am sure it wasn't the night you arrived at the island?"

"Ana, what do you remember?"

"Erm you arriving drunk? Then I woke up here in a bed. Nothing more than that."

"Crap, you heard me say your grandparents are all dead though?"

"Yes, I should have figured it was bad, because Nonna would have been the first one at my bedside. I mean I woke to find my mother at my bedside and yours. I mean that was very Twilight zone-ish."

"So let me explain some of the things that have happened in the past few years. Make yourself comfortable."

"Okay, I mean I think it's going to be okay, right?" I nod my head. "Shoot, and don't hold anything back, I will expect tears will be shed right?" I nod again. "What is the matter with you?"

"I was shot as I tried to protect you, I had a bullet removed from my back, and it missed my spine by mere millimetres."

"Can you wiggle your toes?" I do and she smiles. "Good, you will be fine. Now explain everything the others are too afraid to tell me, start with Otter island and work forward. I mean have we been together since that night?"

"No, we parted ways that night for seven years..." I tell her everything I know to be true, which was a lot harder than I thought it would be. We had to stop several times for her and I to just catch our breath, wipe our eyes and just try to figure our shit out. The day passes and we are visited by doctors nurses and relatives, they are sent away. Ana is handling this very well. I am doing this right I think? Taylor brings in lunch. He is very annoyed at how she slipped away from their watchful eyes. He, like the rest of the relatives is worried about Ana. I think we are in a good place. We finished lunch, which was ate in silence, but our eyes kept returning to watch each other. My heart is beating fast. Lunch is finished, snacks and tea are drank, dinner is served, all as the world continues to turn and questions are asked and answered. Mom comes in as Ana finally falls asleep.

"How did it go?"

"It was very interesting, I mean I had to do what Ana did not too long ago and it was not a nice thing to have to tell her."

"About the baby?"

"Yes, I mean Mom it was really hard and I don't know how she managed it. I was in pieces. Literal pieces Mom." I then talk to Mom about it and our future, I am not giving up on her getting her memories back, she has too, to make this whole shit storm better. I have been given a clean slate but I don't want that, we need the missing bits back, they are needed all of them the good the bad and the indifferent. My mother leaves when she has her hug, Ana wakes as she leaves and as she does, another damned doctor comes in and asks Ana to leave.

"Why?" I ask.

"Mr Grey we have to run some tests, tests which may cause you some pain and one or two could be a little personal. We would have done them earlier, but you didn't seem to want the intrusion."

"I don't want it now, and my wife here has seen the junk if that's what you were getting at?" He grimaces. Okay a little near the knuckle, but I don't care much for their intrusion. Ana smiles.

"As much as I may have seen the junk, I think in this instant I will do as they ask. You shut up and get yourself sorted out, Mr Grey. Oh and doctor, his junks working just fine." She says as she walks out of the door, fuck me did she just tell the doctor she saw my rising problem? She grins as she heads out of the door, of course she did. Sawyer follows her and they laugh and joke about something and I wonder what the hell is going on between them? The doctor inspects my back, pricks my damned feet and obviously has no need to see to my nether regions, as I insisted the damned tube was taken out of my dick when I woke up. I must admit it was a lot harder pissing in that damned bed pan thing than through the catheter. Ana turned her head when I did use the damned thing. He leaves me and tells me I am better than I should be; why though eludes me, because I feel like a wrecking ball hit me in my kidneys. Taylor comes in with an envelope, when the doc and his crew leave...

"What is this?"

"My letter of resignation."

" _WHAT, WHY WOULD YOU FUCKING WANT TO LEAVE ME?"_ I shout.

"Sir, I fucked up, I didn't cover the route, I didn't find Ms Williams, someone in my team told Ms Williams when we were leaving and I cannot find the leak. I failed to protect Mrs Grey."

"You did everything you could; we were the ones insisting we used that damned sports car. Speaking of the damned car, did you get the other passengers out of it?"

"They are back at the house. In Mrs Greys study." I rip up the damned letter. "Sir?"

"Leila Williams avoided a lot of people and was able to get up close because she was good at it. Shooting Ana was something you couldn't help, it happened too quickly for you to get out of the damned car. Had Luke not acted as he did, he too would have been too late. Should he be fired too?"

"No, he did his job."

"You did too. Now, how is Sawyer working out?"

"He is more than capable of being Mrs Grey's CPO. He is attentive and he is focused on just her. His relationship with Holly Wolfenden will not affect his role as body guard. He is able to separate the two roles, and he seems to be very keen to take their friendship further, as does she." He saw my jealousy. He knew what I was really asking.

"Where are they now?"

"In Mrs Grey's room, she is tired and is sleeping." I didn't like the fact that she was so far away from me. "She will be discharged tomorrow. You however will be here for a couple of weeks more."

"Like hell I will. I need to get back. I have a company to run."

"Which you can run from your bed here, should the need arise Christian Grey..." My mother snuck back in. "How was Ana really? Carla and I saw she was sleeping."

"She is confused and desperately wants the missing bits of her life back. She handled the deaths of her friends, relatives and our son very well considering. So Mom, why do I have to stop here, I can wiggle my toes, I am able to feel a prick on both of my feet, I am sore yes, but not disabled and if needs be I can sleep in a bed in Seattle just as easy as one here in Los Angeles."

"We can look into a medical evacuation to Seattle at the end of the week, your spinal injury Christian is cause for concern."

"I am fine."

"Yes, whilst lain down, and immobilised by the drugs."

"I told the doctor the last one was the last one. I can make do with pain killers. I can even make do with a chair to get around in, what I won't do is stay here strapped to this damned bed. Mother I have a plane, I have staff and I can afford a nurse to stay with us should my mother not want to help me get home?"

"Christian, you are being very ornery; does Ana even want to go to Seattle? She has a lot to sort out, both personally and legally in her own life. She is eighteen in her head and hasn't a clue as to what happened to her for the past seven years. Despite you telling her of her past, she still does not understand the enormity of it all."

"I have to hope as my wife, either eighteen in the head or not, legally is my responsibility, as I am her husband? As to her family, they would never rob her of her business, far from it, if they are as good and as loving as they seem to be, they will look out for the business, until she can take it back, or gets back her memory. Ethan will see to it that her financial ass is covered, so to speak, and as she is my wife I will make sure she has anything else covered, until such time, all she has to worry about is recovering. Now, can you please make the move to Seattle possible or not?"

"I would prefer not, but you will only get someone to do your bidding. I will ask. Anything else?"

"Yes we need to get her families ashes buried in the family plot in London. I have no clue as to if ashes start to smell or go off?" My mother laughs. "Why pray tell are you laughing?"

"Off? They are in sealed urns, they are in another casket sealed for customs and ashes do not smell. I would think the people you hired cleaned them before they sealed them?" How the fuck do I know these things?

"Okay, so how long before I can take her to lay them to rest with her?"

"A couple of months. You are not fit enough to fly that distance, we may struggle with getting you to Seattle. She can always go with her family Christian."

"I am her family Mom. They are being placed with our son, I want to be there."

"Well use that to get through your physical therapy."

"I will then."

"You are going to live at Escala?"

"For now, yes, why?"

"No reason. Other than the many levels. You could come and live with us? Just until you are better able to handle the steps?" My mother the worrier.

"I have staff and I have ways of making Escala work, but thank you, I will take it under consideration." She smiles kisses my head and leaves. Hopefully to get me out of here with Ana. I hate being away from her. I try to rest but can't, despite saying I was fine, I ache and I am in pain, my back is on the scale of one to ten, hitting at least a fifteen. I close my eyes and try to get comfortable. I fail. I am about to press for assistance when Ana's head peeps around the door.

"Can I come in?"

"You don't have to ask Ana. Yes come in."

"I couldn't sleep; my head is in such a confused mess. I tried to sleep Christian, really I did, but I woke up crying. I don't know how to deal with all this confusion."

"Confusion?"

"Yes, confusion. I mean here in my head I am the girl who wanted you anyway I could. I remember getting the dress, I remember getting my hair done, and I even remember getting the lady garden waxed. Yet I can't remember succeeding in getting you into my bed."

"That makes two of us Ana, and for the first time we are on an even keel there."

"A sailing neology?"

"You sail Ana."

"I do?"

"You do."

"Okay... I sail, what else do I do apart from create chocolates?"

"You do a lot of things Ana." I will forgo the Satin and Steel business she has and stick to the things she would have done back then.

"Can I get on the bed with you, if I am careful? It sounds silly but I think I sleep better?"

"I know I sleep better Ana." She takes of her slippers and I peel back the cover, she gets in at my side very gingerly. "Are you comfortable Baby?"

"I feel odd, but yes I don't need a lot of room."

"Odd, how?"

"You know here in my head, I am still stalking you like a nutter, and now we it seems are married, we are going to be okay though, yes?"

"Yes, I know we didn't say in sickness and in health, but I did promise before Frank Sinatra and him up there to keep you under my skin."

"Erk... We were married by Frank Sinatra? Really as in a joke?"

"No we wanted Elvis, but we ended up with Frank..."

"Okay and you kept your face straight so I guess it was true. I like my rings."

"I am glad you like them, I was only responsible for the engagement ring, because your mother gave us hers and your fathers wedding rings to wear."

"Hu? My parents were married?" I fucked up again...

"Sorry, I guess that shocked you?"

"A little, but I guess that's why I want my damned foggy head to clear. What else is waiting for someone to drop on me?"

"Nonno and Nonna were not your grandparents?"

"Shut the fuck up, really?" My mouth needs to shut up. "Explain that one then?" I shuffle and wince, "Are you in pain?"

"A little, now where were we?" She snuggled in and I held her to me. She was asleep before I got half way into the tale of her great uncle being her mother's birth father. I too fell asleep, the pain eased with having her by my side.

I wake early Ana is startled as my hand squeezes hers. I couldn't help it but she fell off the fucking bed... I couldn't twist to catch her before she hit the damned floor, again.

"Ana, Ana for god's sake Ana..."

"Stop your bloody hollering, where the fuck are we?" I try to peer over the edge of the bed. "What are you in a hospital bed for and why are we not in London?"

"Ana..."

"Yes Christian?"

"How old are you?"

"I am as old as my tongue and a little older than my teeth, why? You should never ask a lady her age you know."

"Ana how old are you?"

"Are you saying I am not a lady?"

"Ana..."

"Oh god, you know how old I am we have just had my damned birthday. I was twenty five a couple of days ago? The day after we got married, why?"

"So you don't remember losing your memory?"

"No, I mean I did?"

"You did, you were eighteen and the last thing you remembered was that night at the castle in the snow."

"I was eighteen, we were at the castle and it was the night I made you take my virginity, now was this pre you and I doing the do, or after?"

"Pre, why?" She laughs.

"No reason, so why did I lose my memory and are you on drugs and you are the one who lost your memory, though I cannot remember how we got here and why we are here, so explain why I have not got my own bed, how I lost my marbles and for how long, and why I am on my bum here in your room, and you are in bed up there?" She gets up and leans over me, kisses me and inspects me.

"Ana, do you remember Christian?"

"Yes, our son. Why?"

"You didn't remember him yesterday."

"I didn't?"

"You didn't remember us having sex Ana."

"Oh, oh I mean oh god. How could I forget that?"

"You knocked your head; you have seven stitches in your head and were out of it a few days."

"Oh hell, we were in a traffic accident, no we were pushed off the road, a car, I was shot, your ex shot me, that bitch shot me."

"She did, what else do you remember?"

"You screaming no."

"Ana, I love you."

"Okay, I am or I was in your bed before you tipped me out, so was the forgetful Ana hoping to make that sex thing happen last night?" I laugh.

"No, we were just not able to sleep without each other. How's the head, it hurt last night."

"It did? I will take your word for it, but it has a dull throbbing within it now. Now tell me why you are wincing, are you in pain and what happened to you for you to end up in that bed?"

"I got shot when Leila shot you again I dove in front of you and she shot me in the back."

"I hope they are keeping her locked up this time Grey, because if you have her in some cushy clinic we are through."

"She was shot. Holly or Luke shot her, each fired a kill shot."

"Good, so what is the damage done to you then?"

"She missed my spine by a few millimetres, had she been any closer and the chances are I would be dead or paralyzed." I rang the buzzer thing for the doctor, I need her checking over and I call Taylor. He comes in before the nurse.

"Taylor how the hell did he get shot, I thought you were carrying?" He grins as my wife gets up and in his face...

"Mrs Grey, you have your memory back?"

"I would seem I do, so why was he shot and how did the lunatic get so damned close to us?" The nurse comes in. "My husband here the new Dr Grey, wishes for his wife, me Mrs Grey, to have all manner of tests and instruments used to see why have my memory back. It would seem I banged my head as I fell out of bed a moment or two ago and last night I had a really bad headache, perhaps the two things worked together? I think he needs me scanned prodded, x-rayed and whatever else he needs to get his darned answers."

"My wife, this time is quite correct, she lost her memory and it is back as quickly as it disappeared."

"I will get your doctor to come and speak to you." She disappears. Am I that scary?

"Mr Taylor, how did she get close?"

"I don't know? The route and time we were leaving were strictly need to know. Security and Stephan were the only ones told. I would hate to think any of the security gave her the information."

"Okay and she is definitely dead?"

"Yes, and it seems the kill shot came from Holly. Sawyers was a close second."

"Good I have Bonnie and Clyde watching my ass then. Now, I have plans to make. We need to get you a male physio and I need to bury my relatives before they start to whiff..." I laugh so hard I swear I nearly put myself in back in the O.R.! "What, are you mocking the dead relatives Mr Grey, because that would put you on my shit list?"

"I said the same thing to Mom last night. Apparently they are good for a while. Great minds Ana."

"Well it's not like I can leave you, the invalid, especially as you saved my life now can I?"

"You could work on setting up your Seattle head office?"

"I could, yes I could. How do we get you home then?"

"Mom is working on that problem too. Now Taylor can you have Gail get all Ana's favourites in at home."

"Sir..." He leaves us to it, but as he leaves Ray arrives with the youngest of her cousins. Freddy and one of the older ones, Marco Junior, the others it seems are packing to go back to work or back home to run the farm. Freddy ends up on the bed and is poking my leg.

"Mr Christian..."

"Yes Freddy..." I say as the cute kid pokes me again. Charming kids, I may be changing my mind about having boys right now.

"Did that lady really get shot and did her brains really go all mushy Marco said they did, she is a dead zombie and was taken out of the game by Holly, like pow, one shot?" I cringe, did they see her die? "She was nice, but whacky, she gave me a sucker and she patted my head like I had nits or like I was a dog, with nits and I am too old for a sucker I told her no thanks lady. I got a sticker from the dentist look, I am seven and too old for a smiling tooth, see I got a sticker today Mr Christian?" He is so like Ana. off with the fucking fairies and has several tales to tell at the same time.

"She did what?" Ana asks.

"She didn't knock my tooth out, no that was him, Marco and a bat." He point at the elder brother, who laughs. I stare this is a comedy of fucking errors. Who did what and why was he at the dentist?

"I told you to duck and you didn't." Marco the older of the two kids, is not looking too happy. "I am grounded because you didn't duck. I mean how that will work when we I go back to school, Dad?" He is at school, chocolate school with his twin, Santino the third, or as this family call him Turd! Charming family.

"I lost a tooth wanna see it?" He shows me a tooth and grins, fuck me he is missing both his damned teeth, he looks odd. I smile and give him back the front incisor and wipe my hand on the bed sheet. Ana smiles.

"The lady who got shot. Freddy, what did the lady who got shot say and do and where was she when she said it?" Ana asks very calmly.

"Nothing, well she was in Thippy's house looking over the fence at things, you know the zombie lady? Marco said she was a zombie and they had to blow her brains out or she would eat you and Aunty Ana."

"Freddy try to think what the zombie lady said to you." She asks him again, with more patience than I have.

"She asked what all the fuss was about. So I told her we were going home, and I couldn't stop because we had to pack we were going soon, all of us. She gave me a sucker and said I was a good boy. She stared at you and Mr Christian and muttered swear words and called you Master Dark, I told her you were Mr Christian not dark and to leave before the dogs came and ate her, she said she was their dog walker and they did as she told them or got punished, she laughed and talked to someone else about whipping the poor dog, she said the bitch was gonna get it and she is the nicest of Thippie's god dogs too."

"Who else was there with the zombie lady?" I asked. Losing it as I am, the will to have kids of any kind is now crossing my mind, a little too late, but they are hard work the older they get, it seems?

"Who, the lady who had mushed brains Mr Christian?" Why the hell is this like pulling teeth?

"Yes the zombie lady. What did she do next Freddy?" He shrugged his shoulders.

"She said she needed to see you dead Aunty Ana, did she want to make you a zombie too, and is she gonna still be a zombie or is she really dead? Marco said she would come for me in my sleep, but Holly mushed her brains, so is she dead or what?" What the fuck does Ray let his boys watch? He shrugs his shoulders.

"He has older brother's, and so shoot me the younger ones, they watch all sorts of shit."

"Uncle Ray, he is seven..."

"I like them, zombies they are cool and I love Walking Dead. I like Negan and Lucille, it's his weapon. I tried to wrap wire around my bat, but Marco or the Turd told Mamma and she told Papa and he burnt my Lucille and said I can't have another one, because I hit Marco in the balls with it, it was funny, but I did it by mistake, he cried like a wuss and so did Papa when I whacked Papa's baby maker with Lucille, to show him it didn't hurt. It did 'cos he cried a lot, they both did." I am lost now, who the fuck are these two, more Italian relatives and why would they beat the crap out of each other with bats, wrapped in wire? I mean I hit Lelliot a few times with my old slugger, yeah okay, I may have walloped my brother a time or two with his own baseball bat, charming well adjusted boy that I was, those were mad times for me, I was a spotty prepubescent boy and damned handy with a bat?

"Uncle Ray, he is a barbaric beast and you let Little Freddy emulate a killer..." Ana says. I still don't know who the fuck they are talking about, because try as I might, I still haven't got the names of the rest of this family etched in my brains, just yet!

"What it's not real, they watch it when I am out working, their mom needs all the peace they give her, when she can get it and that games system gives her peace from a house full of rowdy Italian boys and I took the bat off him when he hit my knackers, and one of the other brainless kids I seem to have produced... Now Ana, I thought you were the sulky teenager again, or did the other pain in my butt, Brother Marco, in my life get that wrong?"

"I was a little troubled with a few memory glitches. I am fine now; my brain seems to have self righted itself."

"Aunty Ana, are you a zombie, do we have to shoot you in the brain or get Holly to shoot you too?" She laughs and I am shocked.

"God no Freddy. Marco, as old as you are you know the younger of your brothers and especially Freddy here, are not to watch blood and gore shows and definitely not walking dead okay?" My wife is back though this walking dead is a mystery? Is it an Australian thing, with a zombie attachment? I watch as the cousins, including my wife, get a little heated, I just want to know about fucking Leila, before my head explodes.

"You suck Aunty Ana." I grin, because she does that very well, I think but I do not say, and as if by magic she whacks my leg damned hard.

"Tell Aunty Ana about the crazy lady Freddy." Ray tells him.

"I did, she watched you from Thippy's house and then she watched you from across the road in her car and she was always talking to her friend about you and Aunty Ana."

"What friend?"

"I don't know, he was her master and I didn't see him. Was he like my friend Egor, the egg monster Papa?" I stare. This is making my head explode. Marco shakes his head as he sees me frown.

"He had an invisible friend who ate all the eggs in the house. When really it was Freddy he liked to throw them at passing tour paying wine ladies, ladies who got drunk after visiting the farm." Marco smiles and they rough house Marco and Turd are the family snitches. I wonder if these kids are normal for D'Acciaio off spring, because if they are, we are adopting teenagers, girl teenagers...

"He did, I know you think it was me who threw the eggs but it was Egor not me. If it wasn't Egor then it was you Marco, or the Turd."

"Freddy the woman, the zombie woman, who was she?" Ana says, but not quite as calm as before.

"I told you everything, she was a zombie who watched you and she hated you Aunty Ana and she had a friend who I didn't see, she thought Mr Christian was Master Dark and she was not a nice lady, who I did not talk to, only to tell her we were going home and soon and I had to go pack my shit." So she got her information from this little guy, though his tale was filled with zombies and teeth and a bat called Lucy, we still do not know how Anthippi allowed her to be in her yard. "Oh and she was her new dog walker. For the dogs of the gods. They liked her. She liked them. They licked her a lot and she laughed. They don't mind zombies." Again with the damned zombies?

"Sorry I can see it was a mistake bringing these two in, we were visiting the dentist, apparently, Marco here the wiser elder brother, he was helping Freddie here rid himself of a loose tooth, he had wrapped string around several objects to get Freddy's loose tooth out, the bat was the last attempt at a dollar, and it ended up costing me four hundred when Marco hit Freddy in the face with the bat, it was apparently not meant to hit his tooth, face or anything else in the kitchen, but the idiot had it on elastic, it bounced of the kitchen cabinet, and you get the rest, the bat bounced back and hit Freddie here square in the mouth. Now we have given you a headache and a half. We will see you when you get out of here, though we have to be going home tomorrow, the guys need help at home and your cousins have to be back in school, we only stopped until you woke and you had the damned bullet removed, that the zombie lady fired at you."

"How old are you Uncle Ray?"

"Old enough to need my bed. Now, we are booked on the flight for the morning, will you be home or what, and when are we, you know, seeing to the olds?"

"Oh god, when Christian gets better we will go to London, unless you need it done now?"

"Nope, as far as I am concerned they are gone, where you put their ashes and when you do it is up to you. Carla and Sonny may want to be there, and Uncle Marco may want to you know do the whole weeping thing, but I am not that into what happens next. I want firing into space; I always wanted to be an astronaut, or a pilot. So remember me when my time is up and send me into space for some peace and quiet. Please?"

"Have lessons. I did. They were the best gift I ever gave myself." I say and mean it.

"I may do, especially if Mariah has another boy, I may need to escape if she wants another go at the girl child, my wife sexed me to death to get this latest blessing, but I love being a dad, all be it the guys drive me to taking long walks and working more hours on the vines than I need to, I love them all but christ she needs a girl to put in frocks and shit and give her a girly name like Alice or Emma, and this one we get to name, I won't miss Vita for poking her bib in, not this time, now we have to go, before they kill each other. Now, you know I love you Princess and if you need anything we can delay the flight home or come back, remember that okay?" I smile, but I know them well enough to know that he means it. They leave and not a moment too soon, because my head is throbbing like my back, it explains how Leila knew where we were and when we were leaving, but how did we miss the gods of war's dog walker? I wince again as the doctor comes in to see Ana.

"Mrs Grey, I do believe your memory has returned?"

"Yes, is that normal, I mean it just came back?"

"When?"

"I fell out of bed, or rather this lug pushed me out and I hit this bumpy bit on my head here and it hurt a little and I was back. I had a blinding headache last night too, it was excruciating really." He feels her head and checks her eyes and ears and does his test things, I want her t be in a machine and scanned from head to frigging toe, I want every bump and bruise noting and I want it now.

"It is not uncommon for another bang on the same part of the affected brain to kick start your remembering process, the brain is like a master computer and there is still lots we do not know, how is your head now?"

"It hurts, but not from the head injury, but from my cousins, they have just paid a visit to cheer us up."

"The little guy who I just passed?" We nod. "He is quite lively. Now I was going to send you for a CT scan, but unfortunately we cannot."

"Why, is it money, because I can afford it Doctor?" I tell him.

"No, nothing like that, it was why we didn't scan you before, because you are pregnant Mrs Grey. Have you not been told this already?" He reads his notes, "I see the problem, I am so sorry, it hasn't been entered on the records correctly, the blood works are here, but it wasn't inputted into the computer, I am so sorry. I will rectify that. Now we can do other tests if you want to get an accurate brain scan, but normally we do not do them more than we need to, and you had several of these tests done when you came in to us."

"No..." Ana says... "I am covered, I have this thing in my arm, and this is the best way of you know baby stopping, it failed, it didn't work, oh god really, I am, we are I mean we are really having a baby? How? I mean do not answer that, I know how, but wow really? What about the all the tests I have already had, I know I had an x-ray, I know Mum said you scanned me, is the baby okay or have you zapped him with radiation and crap, will he be okay, will he be safe, is he okay tell me, or has the damage been done doctor?"

"That implant, it must have ran out early of the baby stopping stuff. Very technical I know, but these things happen. Was it not planned the pregnancy?"

"Wow..." I say, shocked and stunned Ana sits and I cannot hug her as I wish. "Is she going to be okay, I mean without the CT scan and x-rays?"

"Yes, you will need to keep a close eye on her. If the headaches return or if she blacks out then we will risk another CT scan."

"How far along am I?"

"Not far, perhaps two weeks maybe three, Obstetrics is not my field of expertise, but it is very early days, I would say just take it easy and when you get home, go and see an obstetrician, who will do the tests needed to confirm you and the baby are both going to be fine?" I grin. Ana does not. Fuck me she is still afraid and it was bravado before. I hold out my hand, wishing I could hold her tightly and take away the worry, but I can't fucking move. He smiles and leaves us to our good news.

"Ana, thank you."

"Hu?"

"Please do not worry; we will be in this together this time. I swear I am wrapping you in cotton balls and will keep you and our baby safe."

"Safe?"

"Yes Ana safe, climb up her seeing as I cannot grab you over there." She comes to the bed and climbs on the bed. "I promise you things will be so very different this time Ana, I swear." She sobs. "Ana?"

"Happy tears, I just realised she could have robbed us of our baby Christian and she didn't. Oh god The sickness the throwing up, you knocked me up again Grey."

"I did, how very bad of me..."

"No how miraculous of my damned implant running out, and you swimmers getting in their like Olympians. I thought we would have at least a year before we hard that sort of news. Christian, we are pregnant."

"We are, and thank you."

"Thank you."

* * *

So okay you were all right she was pregnant... Happy enough for you all? I am not updating until mid week, I have hospital visits and pain stuff to do, so I leave you on a happy note and not on a cliff again... Till later... read and review... Please and Thank you... xxx...


	39. Chapter 39

This story is nowt like fifty shades; I just purloined E.L. James's characters, buildings and some of her other stuff...

* * *

Dreaming of Chocolate and Grey:

Chapter 39:

Happiness and crankiness, just another day with Grey:

So, I'm pregnant, not a question, but a fact. Since the good doctor told my old man the news has and is being a tad excitable. I swear he has ordered a whole bale of cotton to wrap me in too. I have asked just one thing of him, and it's a killer thing too, that we keep the news to ourselves for a few more weeks, I mean the baby is still just a delicate cluster of cells and I have had a hell of a lot of stress to cope with recently, and I do not want to stress any more than needs be in this pregnancy, or should I say more than I already have done in the past two minutes, the poor non-obstetrician had a plethora of questions fired at him, and that was just me throwing the questions, not Christian. He stayed silent, because my questions it seems, are mirroring the worries he had.

The doctor has already said I have had a lot of tests done, tests that I would not have had done had they known I was with child.

How I am with child has also raised its head in the barrage of abuse I gave the doctor, I mean I have six months before a replacement was needed and that was on the short side as it had almost seven months left before its best before date, it had five months short of a year left to live and stop this from happening. Do they fail suddenly, as mine has? He, Christian does not one jot give that it failed or that it seems he managed to impregnate me so damned soon, he is the man who can and did... His quote not mine...

The doctor was rather pleased to get away from my bossy question asking bum, he snook of wishing he had only entered Christian's room to tell me my memory was always going to return, they just didn't know when. He was thanked and I stood in the same spot for quite some time. The as I went to his bedside I saw the sheer joy in his face, he was happy and I felt crappy for being such a Debbie Downer and ruining this for him.

"Christian stop rubbing my belly please, your mother is not stupid." His smile is as gentle, and as warming as his touch on his babies growing space is! I swear this is gonna be a bloody long pregnancy, especially if he carries on being so baby minded, so loving and so thankful. I am being so selfish, but this has shocked me, a lot.

"Can we not just tell her?" He asks me, with that same happy smile he seems to have recently adopted. "Just Mom?"

"No, because then my mother will need to know, and then everyone else will need to know. Can we please just get you sorted out before we tell them perhaps when we see the doctor in Seattle?"

"Okay, but I'm so fucking happy, just so you know. I thought I had lost you Baby, now we are a family, or will be pretty damned soon."

"Less of the potty mouth Grey, your growing family is not to hear you cussing. I am fine, pissed off but fine and happy to be alive, all thanks to you. Thank you for saving me Christian, but look what it has done to you, your act of bravery, it has almost crippled you. That said, I need to go and see what happens next. I mean yesterday I was a scatty eighteen-year-old, if I am reading this right, right? And now I am suddenly back to being a scatty twenty-five-year-old. Who cannot remember yesterday..."

"Thank god your amnesia was just temporary. I didn't like telling you about the past seven years."

"You didn't know everything about those years Christian, so how could you tell me everything?"

"Okay, but Ana the parts I did tell you were bad enough. Has it all come back, the good the bad and the kinky?"

"I think so, apart from what happened after the bitch shot me until I banged my head falling out of your bed."

"You know everything and there is only the gap from the crash to here at the hospital?"

"Everything, yes but why were you worried, was there many doubts I wouldn't get my memory back?"

"Yes, and lots of possibilities, including you not waking up at all. Though what happened, you know when you woke and were eighteen, well that was never floated as an option by my mother and your doctors!" I heard tell when I went to sleep, that he would not be operated on the second time, not until he knew everything there was to learn about my damned condition. A condition I was oblivious to, I am glad I did sleep through his operations.

"Was it bad and was I bad?"

"No, not bad but let's just say you were still into me in a flirty way."

"You see I don't remember being eighteen yesterday? Thank god, was I stalking you again too?" He nodded his head. "Was I a pain, was I very inappropriate?"

"No, you very happy to be married to me and very sweet and shy."

"I am always sweet. So, what do we do about getting you home and sorting out everything else?"

"Everything else?"

"My dead relatives need burying, the concert, the book tour and the rest of the circus that my life has become, oh and my inheritance, oh and the ball will we miss it?"

"Yup, unless they would allow me in with this bed?"

"It could be a talking point and a photo opportunity for the girlies to get in bed with you?"

"Fuck off... Ana don't go there."

"Ouch, you swore again Grey, and no I am not getting lost as you so eloquently put it."

"You drove me to it. Ana, you are the only one ever getting in my damned bed. In fact, get in it now."

"I am not tired, and I have things to do, I have to see if you can be moved, and there can be no kind of bedroom activities until you are up and about again, so get that thought out of your kinky head Grey. You are on a sex ban till the doctors tell me otherwise."

"I just wanted to cuddle Ana. I know my backs a mess, I can feel the pain and I am not stupid, I know they have me immobilised on this damned bed for a reason Ana." He groaned and his face was taught, were those tears too? My god he is in fucking pain. I go for the button to get him so pain relief. His hand grabs mine, which makes him wince in pain.

"No, not that shit Ana, not that shit, please?" I stare, okay not that shit then. "It's what my mother was hooked on, I don't want to take the same stuff, please Ana?" I am stunned. He opened up to me a lot in our talks, but he called his mother a crack whore, but to Christian, drugs are drugs I guess?

"Are you in a lot of pain Christian, if so you need to take it, because this stuff is only as addictive as the person taking it, you are not a stupid man, nor are you without the help of a great family, or a totally devoted wife, we will be here to stop you doing something so stupid and we will not let you get to that point, so press the damned button, please?"

"I have you Ana that's all I need."

"Nah, you need the help of many, you just don't ask for help, but you will learn to ask for help. Help, that if what you told me about your bio mum is true, you need to ask for, you are not fool, you know she had nobody to help her. as you have and besides you are not your mother, you are you."

"I am me and not her, you are right I am nothing like her, she was weak I am not. Thank you Ana for reminding me I am not her, but I am still not taking it, because I don't like how it knocks me off my ass."

"Nah, I think you will find you need to be on your ass." I shake my ass and he laughs and winces. "Oops, too much jiggling is being done there Grey?"

"Stop making me laugh, it hurts when I jiggle."

"I rest my case in regards to the sex ban, because we jiggle a lot when we make babies."

"We must find a way to rectify that problem and soon, because I have needs, needs that need to be seen to, because just seeing you, it causes me problems in the lower regions. I may have a bad back, but it doesn't stop me having a hard on Baby. I have a hard on most of the time, when I am with you."

"I will dress frumpy and not wash, I will become an unattractive slob and not brush my hair, I will become a filthy slob."

"That will not happen and it will not stop my wood from rising." He laughs. "I love you Baby and will love you whether you wash or not."

"Urgh; this conversation took a turn for the worse. I should admit too that I love being clean, and that I have this no stink policy. I hate sweaty, I hate people who smell of sweat."

"We get sweaty when we fuck Ana."

"That is sex sweat, not BO sweat, that is a sexy smell, you me and lust and love."

"Now this conversation has become informative."

"Nah, it's still the worse conversation we have ever had Christian, but it's made you relax a lot, being stupid I mean? Do you need rolling over or whatever it is they do to you?" He has a morphine pump and yet I have not seen him press the damned thing, he hides a lot to ease everyone else's worries. "So, what are you going to do, if you don't use the pump?" He shrugs his shoulders.

"I am thinking about the fluffy stress free cloud I am sat on and meditating it away. I am not in pain, I am just uncomfortable."

"Like crap you are, those are tears of pain and what are you meditating too? Something cringy, because the faces you are pulling are none too stress free Christian!" He takes a deep breath in.

"This is all very romantic Mrs Grey, but yes I am in a little bit of pain, but not enough to warrant using this pump thing, can you see where Mom is?" There was no need to search her out, she was coming in with the doctor and two other doctor type people, I am very technical about doctor stuff, not...

"Christian, this is your specialist and these are the two nurses who will be going to Seattle with you, this is against doctor's orders and is quite stupid of you Christian, would it kill you to stay here a few weeks?"

"Mother, I can be healing, resting and continue to be prodded and poked in my own bed in Seattle, just as easily as I can be man handled here. So, doc can I fly home or not?"

"Your mother assures me she will be with you on the flight, as will your two nurses, this is not the norm and I can assure you it is against my advice, I believe you need at least another week in here. However, that said, you have healed very well, and far better and quicker than we expected. Will you be able to get seats so you can lie down and have room for a stretcher at least?" I am so tired, I am feeling sick and I am worrying. God I want some peace and quiet and soon.

"I have my own jet, with two bedrooms, so yes I have room to lie down." He is being very grumpy and the reason why? He is in pain! I should speak out, because he won't.

"My husband is in pain doctor and doesn't want the morphine in that machine, have you any non-addictive pain killers for him to take, or something less addictive than that pump full of the hard stuff? I doubt his fake meditating is taking the pain away is helping, as he is really only singing kumbaya under his breath, Namaste is an oddly added in lyric I wasn't aware of." I say as I bow my head and smile, smiling as Christian smiles. He grabs my hand tightly, he is in a lot of damned pain; okay one press cannot hurt you Christian nor make you a drug addict. I knew that's what was stopping him pressing the button, the addictiveness of the medication in the pump. I would kill Leila if she were not dead, I swear I would. The doctor nods his head and the nurse goes for something else. Grace and he say something and I watch as Christian smiles, he has one reason to smile and if that keeps him from worrying about the pain and walking properly again, then I guess the Grey Baby is a blessing?

The nurse came in with a tray of stuff, Grace and the doctor smile, he eyes the needle and grits his teeth, he will take it like a man or I will jab his butt with it like a wife possessed. They leave us to it after he has been jabbed in his buttock and rolled over onto his belly; his cute butt is quite pert and just covered with a cotton sheet. I giggle as he gives me a wink.

"Like what you see Mrs Grey, I'd like a kiss please, that butt jab hurt?" I blush as he raises his eyebrows and puckers his lips.

"You two are adorable. I presume you do not mean your mother Christian? Now I need to see to it that Taylor and the gang get everything ready for Seattle. The plane won't ready itself and you need a medical bed and the apartment needs wheelchair access and it all needs some organising." She is such a sweetheart, a fussy mum and lovely lady and she so obviously loves her son, why did he not know this? He grins from the bed and I watch as he twerks his butt again. I giggle again.

"Yes Mom, I meant my beautiful wife, and Mom…?" If he tells her about the baby news I will slap that cute ass of his so damned hard.

"Yes Darling, do you need something?"

"Just to tell you I love you."

"Oh... That is so sweet, whatever you are doing Ana, keep doing it. I am going to ready the plane to get you two home." She leaves after she near hugs me to death and kisses her son. He is with the fairies; whatever they gave him is making him sleepy and funny.

"I nearly told her Ana, about our little secret. Ana I feel funny what was in that jab, what was it?" I look at the chart thing and try to decipherer the doctor scrawl.

"It looks like codeine and a little something to relax you, I think? I am not a medic Christian?"

"My butts cold Ana, you are gonna have to be my sexy nurse though."

"Is it necessary, I mean for me to nurse you, we have the two guys to help? I mean we have the sex ban too, are you seriously wanting me to actually nurse you?"

I will tend to his needs of course I will, but I am not qualified and could do him more harm than good. I will be the chief bed bath giver, that's a given, he won't have men washing him and I won't have women tending to his needs, so we could have several personal nursing problems, because of each other's jealousy issues. I laugh, but because there would be no way in hell he would let a male nurse lose around me. We are much the same in that way. I need to speak to a girlfriend, I need girl talk. I need a bloody drink of wine, shit I drank wine, the baby, thank god that I didn't get too drunk and out of control, I must be careful, I will keep this one safe, I cannot fail again, I will not fail again. I must be good and not do it again…

"Yup, I see a sexy nurses uniform in your future, and a soft calf skin whip for my bossy wife, to whip her crabby husband into shape..." He smiles and I cover his butt, as I do he suddenly snores. He sleeps. I sit at his bedside and wonder what these past few days have been like for everyone else, because for me they have been very, I don't know, freaky? I call Kate as I cannot, it seems contact Holly.

"Hi, where are you?" I hear cussing in the background. it sounds like Ethan. I bet my lot is giving him headaches, because its giving me more than a few of my own.

"Hu, Ana are you okay?"

"Yup, why?"

"Well the last we heard you were a teenager again?"

"You heard, did you, who blabbed?"

"Your Mom, and thank god it wasn't anything too serious, we, Peiter, Ethan, Carrick and I were hoping it was just a temporary thing too, because do you know how much blasted paperwork is involved in sorting out temporary bosses for your finances and for your businesses?"

"A lot, god it is a nightmare, I didn't forward plan for that sort of illness issue, has it been a bad couple of days?"

"Yes, a damned crazy few days. Now, we have interviewed the master chocolatiers and all of them would love to start working for and with The House of D'Acciaio Chocolates, and they are all happy with their placements too, we Ethan and I think you need all four and possibly a couple of regional heads too, its massive Ana, I mean massive and it is going to take some doing. Can you imagine doing that with the eighteen-year-old Ana?"

"I would think it would be hell dealing with her, thankfully Christian only had me at eighteen for a day? Who interviewed them and was it someone capable and all-knowing at least?"

"Ros Bailey, Christian's right arm. She is bloody good at her job Ana. So, this amnesia, it was only short term then, and your memory, is it okay, it won't go again will it, because we have to prepare for that eventuality now?"

"It would seem so Kate, but I forgot..."

"Har-dee-har-har... Ana what happened after we left the concert was madness, Nonno, the lune and the hospital stop. We were well on our way when the crash happened and we couldn't come back, we had to sort out the business and shit."

"I am sure my mess and shit takes a lot of sorting."

"Wait, you do realise how big you have gone right? Please tell me you have all your functions functioning at their usual 130%?" I laugh.

"Yes Kate, I am firing on all cylinders. Now I have help my work load should be cut by at least half."

"You really are cutting back on travelling?"

"I really am. I need to sort out Seattle as a permanent base for The House of D'Acciaio Chocolates. I want it to be the head office and have conference calls with my COO's daily. I want a research kitchen, so I can still create, and a small factory too and a school and the ground floor to be the usual set up. I also want something new in there too."

"What?"

"I want a television studio set up, because I am going to do all our publicity from there, and shoot the specials from a kitchen set, a working kitchen set so I don't have to travel for publicity. Can you source out a television company who would be interested in filming it for me or see if we could buy one or hire the tech people who could do it for me?"

"Oh lummy, that's a hell of an undertaking Ana. Are you sure?"

"If Nigella can do it lovie, then so can I. Besides I cannot bear to be away from Christian for too long and the book tour and studio tours will make the following year a killer year of air miles and separation Kate, this way they can come to me, and shoot publicity and interviews from the studio, perhaps we could ask a local college or university if we could sponsor an internship with Grey Media?" I like thinking on my feet.

"Wise thinking, so Grey Media, are you sure?" I nod my head to toward my phone… Derr…

"Yes, it is a name I have wished I had for years, so yeah, I am Grey all the way Kate. Besides I think he would be angry If I didn't take his name." She sighs, umm, not like me at all, I know Kate and yes I do love being Lambert and D'Acciaio, but I love Christian and have done since I was little, I mean my school books all had hearts with CTG loves ARL in them… I also perfected my Mrs Anastasia Grey signature way back in the day, yup I did all those school girl crush things to perfection and now I am Mrs Grey damned right I am wearing the name, and proudly too.

"How is Christian, and did you both get our flowers?"

"I wouldn't know, I had a lot in my room, as does he, we only woke yesterday and I only became me again an hour or two ago but the room is full of bouquets and baskets of fruit and stuff."

"Okay, we need to chat when you get back, when will that be?"

"Sometime today I think? I have to shut the house down here, though I guess I could keep Nonna's housekeeper on?"

"You could and should, it's a family home with a ton of your family's stuff in it. It is a big home Ana, what will you do with it?"

"Lord only knows, add it to the rest of the barely used houses I have, including the one I knew nothing about in New York?"

"The one Papa Frank let the olds use there?"

"You knew I had one there Kate and said nothing?" I have to wonder why I hadn't a clue? I wonder why they kept it a secret from me? I guess the answers will still be there when I get around to checking it out. I t is strange I didn't know I had it, right?

"You didn't know about it really, why not Ana because Papa Frank let them use it after your dad died and they have always used it?"

"I didn't know about it Kate or I would not have stopped in a hotel whilst opening New York."

" Okay, I guess the answer is somewhere, perhaps your manager of your properties knows why?"

"My what?"

"You have a property manager now, he has a list of all your properties and as such has things that need your urgent attention too. Ethan says you need an estate team and to get selling some of your homes and businesses. Ana, the properties your father and grandfather left you need some major reorganisation."

"Hells teeth, really?" Crap, like I need more chaos in my life. Hell, I guess I should slimline and do what I do best, organise.

"Yup, there are a few nice places that have been added to your property portfolio of dumb ass buys, or should I say which have been added to your property inventory? Ana there are some nice ones, in many far-flung places, your father and grandfather both loved real estate, my dad says if your Papa said an area was a good buy, it was and because of this thing he had, this instinct, he was very rarely wrong, he would buy up huge places, then flip them for the rental market. He also sold a lot of the bigger and expensive places in New York before the price fall in 2005, and made a fortune. He sold a hell of a lot of their brownstones and condos that year and made you very rich, I was ploughing through estate papers when we got back, and it was an amazing read."

"Riveting..."

"It was, not all of us are ace at the cooking game Anastasia."

"No, but you are amazing with facts and figures and getting to the bottom of stuff. Talking of stuff can you or Ethan have my father's safe room taken to Escala? I want to read my father's stuff whilst I am looking after my husband."

I just need a room at Escala to store it in. I think the old sub room will be just the room for changing into my office, once I strip out the beds and the rest of their stuff. I hope he doesn't mind me erasing them from his home? I watch as he sleeps and my heart feels a wonderful fluttering feeling, much like it has felt when I saw him again at Grey House, I sigh, because so help me God I love my husband so frigging much right now, he is both my hero and saviour, he took a bullet for me and that thought frightens the crap out of me, he could be dead if she were as good a shot as me.

"Sure, there wasn't a lot there Ana, I was very surprised actually." Okay the books and stuff, concentrate Ana.

"Apparently so. I don't need the tax stuff and the boring stuff, just the lyrics to his songs and the diaries and letters and juicy stuff?"

"Okay. I can do that, or Ethan can. What do you mean by juicy stuff?"

"There is a supposed very detailed list of who he did and when, not his finest literal work, but I could have siblings out there Kate, he was hardly careful with mum now was he?"

"Are you sure you would want to go down that route Ana?"

"Yes, what he left me is far too much for just one person and I know how easy it was for my father's men to stop woman seeing him again, you know if they did have a problem. I know what I went through to try to get Christian to see me, and if anyone went through that with Dad, then Kate I want to know, that was the hardest part of my pregnancy getting the news to him." I could have tried harder, but after Sasha's fake news I stopped bothering. I should have done as my mother did and cut out the middle men and women…

"Okay, well that makes this easier Ana."

"What easier?" I ask.

"There are several claims your father may have fathered more kids Ana." I am not at all shocked by this. Though I am shocked that he ignored them all, well apart from me. Then again Mum went straight to Frank and Mimi and cut out the middle men. The fixers and the goon's my dad employed.

"Have any claims got merit to them?"

"No, not yet, most wouldn't submit to a DNA test, so they were shooed out of the office, others have offered their samples."

"How many?"

"About a dozen."

"Fuck..."

"He liked to fuck you're right, and with a lot of groupies and famous women too." She laughed and I must admit, that having a dozen siblings, or half siblings was not a prospect I looked forward to, but I laughed with her.

"My mother for one."

"There was no provision made for others Ana, so you don't have to do this."

"I know, but if I have siblings I want to know about them. Have the ones who are willing to take a test go to a doctor of our choosing and get tested."

"If you are sure Ana, because once you open the can of worm's chances are there will be more worms coming out of the woodwork."

"I am sure, I would hate any possible child of my father's not to know for sure if he was their dad or not."

"Your heart is as big as your empire Ana. I will get our man in the know on it."

"For god's sake does your father have a department for all occurrences?"

"Yep, and between the Greys and we Kavagnagh's, we have you covered, if you need a hit man we got you covered, if you need a rival business taking over, we got your back. For anything else you need covering ask Christian, I am more than sure he has you covered." She sniggers.

"Okay, how are things with Elliot?" I do the Kate switch-a-roo.

"He's got me covered ta, very much cocker!"

"Very British of you."

"It is. I speak the lingo if I have to mate..."

"That's Aussie speak there."

"Multi lingual even, how cannie am I?"

"Scottish too. How very clever of you Kate"

"Yup, you learn a lot from Jenny, especially when she has a wee dram or two in her. Where is she?" Good question, where is she? I must ask my mother. I have not seen her since before the crash!

"I will ask my mother and get back to you."

"Oh Ana, before I forget, pretty please with bells on, can I use the house in Aspen for a week?"

"Yes, why?"

"I want to do some hiking with Elliot, he has a place there but it's not finished yet..."

I have only been once since I bought it on a whim, I like it but it stands empty most of the darned time, I need to downsize and sell stuff and fast. I then wonder how many places my husband has? I like the idea of spending at least one winter in Aspen, with the snow, skiing the mountains and use the rambling wooden chalet for a Christmas. I should have at least one winter getaway there, before I sell it. I saw it in a magazine and for some strange reason I bought it, why though was always a mystery because if I must ski, I like the winter snow in Italy the best.

"Fill your hiking boots. I have to be going, Christian is waking."

"Give him our love." I end the call and watch as he moves a little and settles again. He sleeps. Grace comes back in.

"Good he is sleeping... They gave him a powerful sedative and a painkiller, he is not resting that back of his or taking this injury seriously enough."

"Grace, are you now saying he shouldn't be moved then?"

"Ana, he is silly moving, but if he is immobilised, then yes he can be moved."

"You said this was okay Grace, is it that bad?"

"If he is unable to move then he should be fine. As he was before he woke earlier. Something made him wake and that someone was you. You were the first person he asked for Ana, and do you know how happy that made me? Knowing he had someone to wake up for?"

"I am happy he did wake up. I couldn't live without him now I have him. Grace, he will walk again? Won't he?"

"Yes, and because he was in peek fitness and has looked after himself, it won't be half as hard going as some other shooting survivors have it."

"He is so stubborn. He will do as I say too."

"That's my girl, welcome to the Bossy Wife Club. Keep them on their toes and never go to bed on an argument, always dab a little perfume behind your ears at bedtime and always choose your battles wisely, men do not like losing battles, oh and learn the act of letting them think your idea was their idea. That comes with time Ana."

"Is that your mothering advice for me?"

"Yes, and wife advice. Then after he gets well again, perhaps you could work on more grandchildren for me, that's me pleading for them, he may take some persuading?"

"I will Grace, and Grace thank you."

"What for? Being a Mom? It Anastasia, is what I do best."

"Being a doctor?"

"Umm, Mom, Wife, Daughter, Sister and Doctor, I multi task well. I love my children and they have given me plenty to worry about, but do you know what Ana, I wouldn't change a thing, even the bad stuff, because without the bad things and stupid things they did, we wouldn't be us and happy?" Has she had a drink? She smiles. "I mean without the path my youngest son took, we wouldn't have you, now would we?"

"You say the nicest things Grace."

"Call me Mom, and keep me supplied with your chocolates and we will call it even, yes?"

"Yes; now what do we do now, about moving him?"

"We let the medical evacuation team do their thing and watch as Taylor does his, go and get your bags, I saw Holly heading into your room with Sawyer, he is a nice boy too. I am going to find Carrick and Mia, they need to get their things from the hotel and to be at the plane."

"Where is Elliot?"

"He is working on Escala and making it chair friendly, he hated being here and seeing his brother in so much pain and then seeing you asleep, he was a mess, so he went to do what he does best, rebuild and make good things that do not work, but his way is with a sledge hammer and a ton of concrete, whereas Christian destroys the problems he has financially, and without remorse to the problem causer, that is quite scary actually, just how heartless he can be and ruthless, but I think all that is changing for the better, he has happy things to focus on now, happy things and a wife."

"Elliot is so very different from Christian."

"No, he just hides it behind the bravado suit he wears, deep down he is a caring big brother and he hurts when his brother and sister hurt. He just deals with it differently, all three are very different children, sorry adults, and yet are very loyal to the family."

"La mia famiglia, just got bigger Grace." She smiles.

"It did, as did ours, now let's call them in, he has a couple of hours of sedative in his cute butt…" I blush as Grace covers her boy. Can a mother say her son's butt is cute, or is that just a little too freaky? "Ana, I am just repeating his own words, I think all my children are cute though, Sadly I have no actual pictorial evidence of Baby Christian's tushie, as he was four when we were gifted my wonderful boy. The other two were babies when we were lucky enough to get them. Christian, he was and is such a handsome boy."

"I know, his eyes, are dreamy." I gush. "Sorry. I mean he is handsome."

"He is, now here they are. Watch what you are doing, this is a very precious cargo you are transporting. Taylor is everything ready for his arrival at the plane?" I watch as Grace becomes this uber bossy mother.

"Ma'am, everything is awaiting his arrival. Miss Grey and Mr Grey are already there. The staff have readied the bedroom on board. We will be met at Sea-Tac by a private air ambulance. Escala has been readied and the bed has been delivered. Gail has in the supplies you asked for Ma'am."

"Thank you, Taylor. Now please take care when lifting him." I watched as the doctor in Grace fought with the mother within. She fused as they placed him on a board and gently transferred him to the gurney. I made sure they covered him and grabbed his things, only for them to be taken off me by Taylor. He smiled as he took them, okay I was a little nervous as he was strapped in. He was snoring, which was hilarious.

Grace was handed his hospital notes and I took the ones that covered my time in this place. I am nervous, so much so that I almost miss Holly and Sawyer clearing the route and securing the elevator. We ride upwards and not down, which I thought was a tad unusual until I realised we were heading to the helicopter pad. How decadent, I thought, but did not say. I then realised I was being stupid, this was a quicker and easier way of getting him to his plane... Grace pats my hand as she and Christian, Taylor and the nurses get in. It seems we are heading there on the second helicopter that approaches as his takes off. I am left to wonder why I did not indulge these luxuries?

"Ana, Ana wake up…"

"What Holly?"

"You were drifting off again. Are you okay, how's your head, do you need something?"

"No, I am just a little overwhelmed."

"Yeah they like their luxury this lot. Tell me why you are such a meanie and make us drive everywhere?" She sticks her tongue out. "I am spending dad's money on flying lessons, if Grey can fly this battle bus, then so can I. How about it Ana?" I stare at Christian's helicopter as ours lands. Sawyer lowers his head and so do I. I follow the rest of security and get in, we have quite the entourage Grey… I again think but do not say. Surely it is overkill now the ex is dead? We seem to be flying forever, but I think it's more like twenty minutes when we land at the side of the GEH plane. Taylor greets us.

"Mrs Grey, Mr Grey has woken and is a tad…"

"…Grumpy?" He nods his head. "Because I was missing?" Another nod. "Let's settle him down shall we Taylor?"

"Ma'am…" I wish they would call me Ana. I climb the steps and hear him before I see him.

"What's all this commotion?"

"Ana…"

"Yes Christian, it's me. Now Grace is he okay, is he settled, or do you need to jab his butt again?"

"I will not be butt jabbed again Mother, Ana shut up and let me see you please?" I go to his room and he has been placed on his bed. Grace smiles and leaves us to it. I lay with him and he settles. Is this the norm? Is it hell. We are heading home, home to god knows what?

* * *

Well I loved the film, not as long as I had hoped for and plenty was missing but a million times better than number 1...

Read review and tell me what you think is waiting for Ana in New York? Thanks xxx


	40. Chapter 40

This story is nowt like fifty shades; I just purloined E.L. James's characters, buildings and some of her other stuff...

* * *

Dreaming of Chocolate and Grey:

Chapter 40:

Home is the wounded hero: At last…

The words kill, smoother and drug the bugger, are used a lot during the short flight home. My husband is a tad grumpy, absurdly demanding and very childlike, and I want to seriously kill the fucker, okay I love that same said fucker to death, yes hard to believe having said all that, that I love him stupidly, but I do and today I learnt that I am not the most patient of wives. This is in bad taste I know, considering he would have died to save me, but he would drive the devil back to sainthood and the angels would be taking their place in hell, I have had two hours of his trying to try me to my limits, and he succeeded.

Mr Grey has moaned about the heat, the cold, the lack of air, too much air, the water was too warm, the water was too cold, believe me if Mr Grey could moan about it he did. He was, in the end, getting so grumpy he was given a shot in his cute butt to help him relax, besides he had to be out of it for the trip in from the plane to the helicopter. I nearly asked Grace for a shot for me too. Those two and a bit hours, they felt a hell of a lot longer I can tell you.

The guys have manhandled him into an air ambulance, which was ready and waiting for us as we land, and me and few of the security are hightailing it to Escala in a series of black SUV's. I think I need the thinking and alone time, well as alone as you can be with Holly, Sawyer, Jenny and little ole me. Jenny is stopping to help me. We have Gail, but she insisted on coming with me. Who am I to argue with her? Besides I think I may need her as a sounding block in the coming weeks. She will stand nay nonsense, nay jaw wobblin and nay back chat from the jumped up wee arrogant ass of a boy… Her term of endearment for my husband…

As soon as the elevator doors open and we step into the great room, we hear that his lordship is in full voice again. I swear those terms of endearment I used when we were flying into Sea-Tac, may just come to fruition if he carries on moaning. Sawyer and Holly head to the staff quarters and take Jenny to the rooms Gail has readied for her. They are chickens leaving me to it. Grace comes from Christian's room and I smile.

"He hasn't lost his voice yet?" Grace smiles as I ask the stupid question.

"He was worried about you, that's all. He is tucked up in his own bed. I will not tell you where he told those poor nurses where they could stick the other bed."

"He was never going to get in it Grace, we both knew that, right?"

"He will need to be turned and he will need the dressings changed and no matter how much he moans, it needs doing. So be warned the guys will be in to check on him during the night. I will be back tomorrow, I would stop, but we have the ball to plan and my absence has been noticed."

"Grace, thank you for all your help, and yes I have to thank you, without you we would still be in Calabasas!"

"The hard work begins tomorrow Ana, a physio and a specialist will be calling from work. I figured if we got him the best, then the healing won't be as long or tiresome for you. Now if you need me, tell Taylor and he will have security get me here. Better still call me, I doubt I will sleep knowing he should still be in hospital."

"Grace, do not worry, he will be fine. If he as much as gets a chill, a proper one and not an attention chill, I will have him at the hospital before the thermometer is out of his butt!"

"Place it in his mouth dear…" She smiles and I turn red. My foolish foot in mouth syndrome is something the Grey's will have to aware of. I do and say theses silly things all the time.

"Oh god I meant it as a joke, oh hell I am so sorry Grace."

"I think, given his past my son would enjoy your suggestion better." I blush. "Now James is here for me, I will leave you with my son. Good luck. I think you will need it." She hugs me, smiles and kisses my cheek, then leaves. I walk towards the noise.

"Gheeze Grey, shut up, you whiny ass." He is on his belly. He turns to face me and smiles.

"You're here."

"Where else would I be? Hiring a hitman?"

"I was worried, I have a lot to be worried about. Get here."

"Yes Sir…" I take of my shoes, drop my coat and bag on the floor and then do as I am told and head to the bed. "Where is the hospital bed?"

"The guys pushed it into the service elevator, I am not sick."

"It was ordered to help you heal, not as a fashion statement, and you were shot and injured, ergo you are sick. Damn Christian, it's a special bed for your back, it's padded and it is good for keeping the pressure off your back and that wound are free from, you know pressure and if you carry on being a bad patient and a bossy demanding husband then your ass is being sent back to rehab, capisce?"

"This mattress cost the same as a small family car, it has all manner of stuff hidden in it. I honestly think it has everything I need, including a massage and warming thing. The booklet for it is in Mrs Jones house file…"

"You think of everything."

"I have been known to not sleep too well in the past, so this was specially made for me. Now I have you, I don't, or didn't need it. You are my nightmare catcher Baby."

"If you say so. Now, would you like something to eat?"

"Mrs Jones is making me a sub and some soup. Ana, I heard Taylor tell Gail I had been a pain, was I?"

"You have to ask? I mean I thought Freddy could pull some major sulk and moan sessions, but you took the damned award for most petulant traveller."

"Sorry."

"If you take the pain medication, you would not be so, how do I say this without being a bitch? A fucking whiny baby… Yup a spoiled whiny baby… Taylor is not getting fired for telling the truth either and do not play the I got shot card one more time, okay?"

"Okay, but…"

"… I know you only did it to save me, but please do not remind me of it constantly or to get your own way, let's not forget who the fucker who went to kill me and instead shot you was, shall we?"

"No dear…" He looks like I have slapped him upside of his head, and he is back to being the child he was on the plane. Oh god he and I may end up divorced by the end of the week. He smiles. "Sorry!"

"Apologies are not necessary, just watch what you say and the tone in which you say it, please remember they are people not servants and they are here to look after you and think they failed you, do you not think they feel bad enough?"

"I know how bad how Taylor feels, he offered his resignation and I tore it up, I need him now more than ever, and Ana…"

"Yes?"

"Do everything he says whilst I am laid up."

"All the nutters are out of our life, yes?"

"I would hope so, but given out combined wealth Baby, we are always going to be targets. The baby will be more of a target too. I am sorry it is just how it is."

"Okay, but I will be looking at other ways to spend and give away large parts of my father and Papa's money. Nonno he left his fortune to his children, and the land he owned to the boys. Nonna, she died without any money at all, which I find to be a very curious thing seeing how much I gave her and how much I know Nonno gave her."

"Stop worrying, everything will sort itself out, and as soon as I can I will help you."

"Thank you, now how do we turn you?"

"Very carefully, in fact given the precious cargo you are holding, I would like you to ask the nurse to do what he is paid for. Please?" Oh my, is he listening to advice? I call in the bulky guy to shift my husband's ass. He is called Lucifer Eccles and the other is David St Clair, their names make me laugh, Grace had hired a saint and the devil to care for her son, anyhow both are built like wrestlers and both seem more than capable of picking Christian up with little or no effort, they show me how to use the sheet to move him by myself, should I have to, and I swear I nearly sent Christian to the edge and off the bed, when I pulled the sheet too damned hard, he did not laugh. He may even have hurt himself as he rolled over like a hotdog on a BBQ. I am stronger than I look. He grunted and I almost kissed his ass when he said it hurt, and with the amount of times I said sorry, he knew I was, damn I am in for a very hairy ride in the upcoming weeks. The nurses change his dressing and see to his medication, which he takes, they offer to give him a bed bath and are told in no uncertain terms, that is my area of expertise, which is an area that of course I will master. They leave him seated whilst he has dinner. He looks so uncomfortable that I tear up a little. He is putting on a show and I know it hurts.

"Thanks guys, are your rooms okay?" They say they are and head to dinner with the rest of the mob we have added to Escala. Gail brings in a tray and lays it on the side.

"If you need anything ring and I will see to your needs. Sir, Madam…"

"Gail, please call me Ana, I like to hear the change from usual greetings I get at the schools and stores, please?" She looks at Christian.

"Yes, and I would like you to call me Christian, please? Taylor won't hear of the change, but you, you are fine to use our given names Gail, is it alright if I call you Gail?"

"Yes Sir, I mean yes Christian. Ana, if you need anything call me I am just in my rooms. Do you need anything else whilst I am here?"

"No thank you Gail, we will be fine, go and enjoy your evening I can work out where everything is should I need anything." She nods her head and takes herself to her rooms. Wherever they are? The food smells amazing, and it wasn't until I got a nose full of the wondrous smells from the soup bowls did I realise how damned hungry I was. I put the table over Christian, the only medical device he was comfortable with, as it turns out, and he grimaced as I placed the curved pillows under his arms for support, he then fed himself his damned soup, because he wasn't a damned baby, I will not feed him again, though my telling him to open up for the choo-choo, went down like a lead weight. He ate with gusto and watched as I ate mine. My sub was Christian's favourite, a chicken salad with a honey and mustard dressing.

"That was just what I needed, how was yours, Baby?" I wiped my mouth and smiled. "Ana?"

"Sorry I was just swallowing the last bit, it was very tasty. Now how are you feeling?" He blinked his eyes like he was fighting to stay awake almost. "Tired?"

"Yeah, very… Will you sleep with me?"

"Where else would I sleep, besides I only sleep well with you. I need to change. Do you have anything of mine here, perchance?" He grinned. "My, have you made room for me in your wardrobe?"

"I might have. Well not me, but Gail has organised you some closet space, and you know where it is, you have the exact same copy in London."

"I do, what did you get me for bedtime?"

"I didn't but Ms Acton did, I don't know what there is, so go explore and get back to me, please?"

"Okay, seeing as you asked so nicely…" I ran to the closet and it was like Harrods, my hand ran the rail and I almost had a heart attack, there was so much. "Christian, did you leave any of the store?"

"I don't know, you have seen more of it than I have. Get undressed, but put something less revealing on please? The nurse has to wake me and turn me in the damned night and he ain't seeing your butt."

"Yes Sir, I will check out Ana's store…" I find a dresser, and in it are all manner of sexy underwear. Nope, we are on a nookie ban and wearing any of that will lead to us breaking the damned ban. I see nothing but sexy silks, there is a section of lounge wear, so I will wear that. I take a quick shower and dress for the evening, when I get back he is reading and texting on his phone. Typical, he never switches off. I climb on the bed and he continues to text. I pick up my phone and plug it in and do as he was doing, and I swear I did not realise how long I had been answering text's and emails for, or in fact that I was doing until a text came in from Christian… I turned and faced him.

"Christian I am so sorry…"

"Don't be I had just finished, it seems my attention was called for, and I was not the only one in high demand, was it important?"

"Shop refits and authorisation to close some and extend others. I need to set up an office here, I was thinking of the old room at the end of the corridor, the old subs room?" He smiled.

"I had the library made into an office for you, and the subs room is now the library, your office is next to mine."

"My dad's things are being sent here too. I am looking for the possibility of my having a sibling. My father could have had more children out there."

"Do you want to share your wealth with them?"

"If they are his children, then yes, Kate and her father have had enquires over the past few years, from people claiming to be his, from a onetime thing their mother had with him."

"And you trust them?"

"I will put my trust in the good old thing called DNA."

"Why?"

"Christian, I knew how I felt hitting all the brick walls I did trying to tell you about our baby, I wouldn't wish that on anyone. Besides I have enough to give the dozen or so, enough to be happy with."

"You could have a dozen brothers and siblings?"

"That have agreed to the DNA test, yes." He sighed.

"I am glad I only have Elliot and Mia."

"As far as you know!"

"You are right of course, but I have no way of knowing if the man who impregnated my mother was."

"Do you ever wonder about him, your father?"

"No, and she is a distant blip on my radar too. Ana, drop it please, I am glad for you, if you find a sibling, but I have no need to find him or any of his offspring."

"Okay, so does my office have all the gizmos?"

"Yes, it is the same as the one in your office, in London. Exactly the same, in fact I have upgraded my office to match yours. Now, get in this damned bed, the he-nurse will be waking me to turn me in a few hours. Seeing as my wife is a tad too happy with her sheet pulling techniques."

"Hey it was my first time, and I said I was sorry."

"Can we cuddle?"

"Of course, I wish we could do more."

"I bet if we tried we could work something out Ana?" He is grinning.

"I bet we could, but we aren't. not until you have a week of physio behind you, and then only if they can tell me it will do you know harm."

"A week? Seven more fucking days? Ana, are you serious?"

"I am yes. Now, dim the lights. Are you okay sat up?"

"No, I have blue balls."

"What from sitting up?"

"No, from the lack of devotion from my wife."

"If I give you a helping hand and or mouth, what will you do if it hurts you?" He laughed.

"Grin and bear it, so be a good wife and see to my problem."

"You don't play fair Grey."

"Needs must…" I gave my husband a very careful blow job. He may have been in a great deal of pain, but he hid it well. I brushed my teeth and returned to bed, he was sleeping soundly, great at least one of us went to sleep satisfied.

Morning has broken.

I woke with Ana asleep, leaning against my back, at some point the devil named nurse had turned me on to my belly, and Ana had rolled against me, her hair is against me and her hand is very close to the wounded area of my back. I am about to wake her when the none to saintly nurse comes in to help me up.

"Mr Grey I am going to carry you to the shower, the seat you have in there will be fine for you to be washed on."

"Just carry me in and my wife will wash me, thank you."

"I realise this is new to you, but I have been doing this longer than you have been alive Sir."

"I don't care, nobody but she is washing me." Ana wakes as I seem to be getting a little annoyed.

"It's okay, I can deal with washing him, I may need a hand dressing him."

"Him is here and can hear you."

"I know and she was sleeping until you threw a wobbler. Now, shut up can you please take Mr Grey to the shower and I will get the things we need, is there anything that I need to do or need not to do?"

"No, just be careful around the wound, the dressing is waterproof, but the rest of his body needs a really good scrub down, he has been given bed baths up until now."

"I get the ghist, thanks." He carries Christian to the bathroom and leaves him on the shower bench. I grab the fresh towels and the bathrobe, he is in those awful hospital smelling pyjamas, and needs his bits and pieces washing, which given he is so highly sexed we are going to be shifting the morning wood he had. My god to be a man. I strip and strip him before setting the shower to a pulsating throb with added steam, thankfully we have the same bathroom too, thanks to the cheapskate designer. I grab the massive natural and soft sea sponge, pour in a huge amount of aloe shower gel, he has been freed from his robe and is sat looking lost on the shower seat, he looks like a kid at the headmasters office door, and if the tales Elliot told me are true, then his butt has been on a seat like this a lot during his school years.

"So, how do you want to do this?"

"Ana I feel like a fucking useless kid."

"Can you stand?"

"Yes, but it hurts if I do it for longer than a couple of minutes. Perhaps I should let the guy do what he is paid to do?"

"Listen if I hurt you or I annoy you then yes, I will ask for help. How about if I wash your top carefully and the suds will travel naturally down wards? Feel free to help yourself down yonder, I have my hands full."

"I have never jacked off with a woman watching."

"So, you do know how to do it then?"

"Yeah, I know how to, but I'd prefer my wife cleaned it for me."

"You are getting an awful lot of gratification Grey, don't push it."

"I'd prefer you pulled it to be honest with you Baby."

"Let me wash you and then I will see to the monster that is like a rising Cobra. If I sing and hum will it dance?"

"I don't know, wanna try Ana?" I smiled as he moved his dick from side to side, he hums as I wash my way down to the dancing snake. I wash the offered up appendage and it is all done with a satisfying sigh. I gently take him in hand and relieve him of his problem. He may be partially immobile, but his mouth is not. "Ana don't be so gentle, if it hurts I will tell you. Pull harder, yes Baby yes, fucking yes…" I pump his length and watch as his face grimaces, I was too rough.

"Sorry…"

"No, don't stop, I'm coming Ana, hard, coming hard." I dropped to my knees and fellated his rock hard length. I guess we can both get some sort of pleasure from this. I suck harder and harder and as I taste the saltiness slowly being released into my mouth I know he is near. I take him in, in his entirety and as I gag he comes, I suck and I suck until I can't breathe, oh god I want to hurl, I leave the shower cubicle and I throw up, I guess that is either morning sickness or I can't stand Christian's come? I hope it's the first one because I really love his taste.

"Baby, are you okay? Ana, speak to me please, Ana?"

"I'm fine. I am cleaning my teeth, give me a minute please?" I do as I say and then grab his toothbrush and paste. "I don't think your gunk is good for me."

"Sorry, I did get a little overly needy, I am sorry."

"Stop apologising, we are in for a bit of a learning curve, can I clean you up down there?"

"Done already, I at least can do that myself."

"Hey, stop your whining, or that was the last shower I give you, and the nurses can do the next one."

"Thank you. I can't wait to at least be able to stand on my own, you don't realise how much you have to do for yourself, things that others find impossible to do for you and things you feel downright stupid asking them to do. I mean you have to dress me."

"I like that I can do things for you. You will have to be doing things for me soon enough, especially when I get huge and cannot see my feet. Like I did last time."

"How huge are we talking here?"

"Let's just say a tad huge and leave it like that. Please?"

"I'm sorry Ana, really sorry."

"Let's not rehash those times, besides we get to do it together this time."

"I am with you every step of the way Baby, did I thank you today for being perfect?"

"Me, perfect? I think not. God help us Christian but in the past few weeks we have had more trouble follow us than any normal couple have in a life time spent together."

"It should calm down. Welch and Barney are dealing with the others, and you have agreed to more security so we should be fine, after all the biggest problems are dead now."

"Umm, Elena, Leila and Nonna… I have to wonder why they were all so evil and strangely alike, all of them wanting a man or men that they couldn't possibly have, well not in the way they wanted them?"

"If you figure it out let me know. Now will you help get me into something for my physio, or get the he-nurses to help, you are cold and I am getting another damned erection?" I ask Ana. She stares and smiles, I am dressed in a robe and Saint comes to carry me to the bed, Ana is drying off and doing her hair, as the saint and the sinner dry and dress me, and it is the most effective way I know of killing a boner, having two men dry and dress me. Ana struggled undressing me, so I guess I have to grin and bear it, because I will not allow my selfish needs cause her or the baby any harm. She comes back in as they are putting me in a chair, she looks so damned cute.

"Thanks guys, he can take himself to breakfast, he likes his gadgets." I had Mom order me a state of the art chair. Now I need to learn to use the fucker. They stand close as I negotiate my way around the bedroom and out towards the great room. This is like the remote control car I had as a kid. Awesome…

"I think I can manage now, go have breakfast and wait till the doctor and the physio get here please?" They excuse themselves and I have Ana sit on my lap. "It may be a bumpy ride, hold on." Elliot has placed an odd ramp arrangement around the apartment, the steps are now not a problem for my chair and it kind of feels like a ride at the funfair. Taylor and Gail are watching as I take my wife for a trip around the room, her shrieks and laughter are a pleasing thing to hear. She has not had a lot to laugh at lately.

"Enough, please I feel sick. Christian that was fun."

"I love to hear you laugh Baby. Gail, what have you got for breakfast?"

"What would you like Mr, sorry, Christian?"

"I think I would like a full breakfast, I am starving, and you Ana, what do you want?"

"I would love some porridge oats. If that's not too much trouble and if you have them, of course?"

"I will get that ready for you Annie, she likes my oats. If that's alright Mrs Jones?" The Scottish Ninja sneaks into the kitchen. "I dunni wanna step on yer toes Mrs Jones, but I have been making ma Annie her oats since she learned how to eat." Gail smiles.

"If that's what you want then yes, they are in that cupboard there." I see Gail still smiling and hope the Jenny does not step on Gail's toes. "It will be interesting to see how a real Scot makes them. I have heard tell you use salt instead of sugar?"

"Annie would not eat them made wee salt. She wassnie her Papa Frank, he liked them bitter and Annie and her Granny had them tooth rotting and sweet. I don't want to get in the way, Mrs Jones, and if I do, flap yer jowls and I will move outta yer way." She smiles at me. "How are yer feeling, Laddie?"

"I am fine Mrs Logan, it's not as bad as I thought it would be."

"Aye, nah doubt its painful, to hear young Elliot talk you got shot in the ass?" I swear I nearly choked on my orange juice. "I gather, yer didnie get shot there? I will be clipping the wee sods ass for him, yer kin?"

"No Jenny he got shot in his back. He saved my life too."

"Aye Lassie I know, and for that I am praying for a speedy recovery, now oats for ma Annie." I watch as she pours a teacup of oats in the water, milk and cream mix, these are Ana's special treats, a rich and slightly sweet mix. Ana watches as her nannie makes her breakfast as Gail makes mine, they are very adept at avoiding each other. Jenny smiles as she gives Ana her breakfast and gives me a bowl too. I am shocked.

"Yer need building up Laddie. Yer Kin, now Annie Lass I am going for a wee wander around the place, Seattle is a wee bit bigger than Otter Island, but I am thinking of taking a turn in the wheel thing I saw as we headed in, unless you need me to stay?"

"I kin… Have a nice time, and thank you Mrs Logan?"

"Call me Jenny and go easy on the walking, small steps and careful steps, ma Annie won't be too pleased if yer hurt yerself." She takes of as quietly as she entered the room.

"She likes you Christian, and all it took was you taking a bullet for me."

"Yer kin?"

"I kin… Now, eat up I need to use the bathroom, the smell from that bacon is making me want to vomit." She whispers, and heads to our bedroom. Gail looks at me and smiles. I will not break my promise, I will not break my…

"She is not feeling too well, the travel, the lack of sleep and putting up with me."

"Okay, so are we giving the bacon a miss in future Sir?"

"Yes, can you see it is given to the guys, I would hate to waste it."

"I will put it in a sealed container, cold bacon on a BLT should not make Ana want to vomit. It was fine when I was pregnant, it's the smell of the grease that makes her feel sickly."

"How…"

"…She sent me a list of foods she would not and should not eat and I rightly or wrongly guessed of her condition?"

"Rightly… Does Taylor know?"

"I don't know, he doesn't shop with me and I would hazard a guess he does not know? Congratulations…"

"Christian Trevelyan Grey, you promised." Busted.

"Anastasia Rose Grey, I kept my promise, someone sent our house manager a proscribed list of foods and being a smart woman guessed."

"Oh, I am so sorry. Gail, can you…"

"… Keep it to myself? Yes, I would hazard another guess you are waiting until twelve weeks?" Oh god I can't keep it a secret for that long.

"Yes, if his lordship here doesn't spill before then." Taylor comes in with Elliot and my grandparents.

"Christian…" My grandmother has her hankie and is crying, for fucks sake, I'd forgotten how emotional she gets. "How's my boy?"

"I am feeling a little sore, but otherwise I am ready to start my physio."

"Where they the people in the elevator?"

"They will be signing their paperwork. Elliot, thanks for the ramps. They were most entertaining. How are you? Mom said you cried?"

"All lies, I had a cold."

"Thanks."

"I'm glad the bitch was a cack-handed shot and that Holly was a crack shot." I am too. "So Ana, how are you feeling, glad to be back in 2015?"

"Yeah, it was hilarious hearing how well I took it. Mrs Trevelyan, Mr Trevelyan would you like something to eat or drink?"

"No thanks, we are taking Jenny out to see the sights. We thought we'd better call in and see my wounded grandson, and we asked you to call us Grams and Gramps, like the others do. Christian, I am going to hug you now, okay?" Grams was a tad emotional. My grandfather was tearful too, it seems Ana is right and I am just now realising how much my family care for me, me the grumpy loner.

"Yes, but be gentle." She hugged me very gently and sobbed again, they hugged Ana and went to meet Jenny.

"They wanted to stop and watch your first session, but Ma said no, she also told me no too, but I figured I'd risk her wrath to see you, besides I have to talk the Mrs through the changes she wants for Grey house two."

"It will be called The House of D'Acciaio Chocolates, it's my trade name."

"Joking, are you Mrs Grey in normal time and space?"

"Yes, I worked hard to land the man, damned right I am Mrs Grey." As they talked, I watched as the specialist, walked in with my mother.

"Mom, join the party."

"I saw my parents leaving, one day my family will do as I ask. Where they too much?"

"No actually they were rather hands off, at least Gramps was. Grams was a little emotional."

"She was very annoyed they had to leave and come and take my place with handling the ball. Now, this is Miss Victoria Hughes, your specialist and this is Graham Silvers your physio therapist. This is my son Christian. Now behave. Ana, Elliot, you may want to leave them to it?" I see Ana eying the specialist up and smile, she is worrying over nothing. I happen to prefer the brunette I married, the blonde stood before us is just a great doctor. I smile and hold my wife's hand tightly. Today is the first day of rehab and I bet it's going to be a bitching day, Elliot smiles at the doctor, she is so his type.

"No Mom, Ana needs to be in this from the get go, she will after all be helping with my recovery. Elliot too will be needed for the entertainment."

"If you're sure, but behave Elliot, this is serious."

"I'm cool Mom. So Doctor, what sort of equipment do you use? He has a great gym?"

"For this session I will be looking at the wound and assessing with the physio here what Mr Grey will need in the way of equipment. I am sure the gym may have some of the equipment needed but we will also need a few specialist tools and balance bars."

"Ma'am, if you give me a list of the things you think you will need I will have them delivered within the hour."

"Thank you. Now shall we begin?" I guess today is the first steps to getting my groove back, I will ask about resuming marital duties when Ana is out of earshot. She would have my balls in a vice if I mention it to the good lady doctor. We head to our bedroom… Oh well here goes everything…

* * *

Sorry I was late in getting this out, and it is only a small filler. Yup some of you hate the fillers but they make up the story. Now, I am full of the flu still and I feel like crap. So be gentle with your reviews, more later in week, I am busy working on re writes of my books and talking of books I was glad to see the spreadsheet from Ms James, she is ticking off chapters from Darker CPOV!


	41. Chapter 41

This story is nowt like fifty shades; I just purloined E.L. James's characters, buildings and some of her other stuff...

* * *

Dreaming of Chocolate and Grey:

Chapter 41:

My man the beast:

Physio has been sheer torture for Christian, and I see the pain he is in, constantly. Day one was, I thought going to be easy, how wrong was I? Very! The doctor had him lay on the bed, and for the first time since he was shot, I got to see the site on his body uncovered, I swear it looked like a larger version of the burns on his chest. I mean a really larger version. Circular in shape and literally a hairs breath from his spine, and a little bit daunting for me to see. She was happy with it, me I literally puked. When I returned it had been cleaned and the good doctor and the physio were running him through a few simple exercises, and he complied, but he did as he was asked. It seems he should be up and about in a matter of two or three weeks unaided. The other hospital had aired on the side of caution and went to the extreme, had they had him there longer perhaps they too would have seen it wasn't so bad? Mr Impatient, he wouldn't wait, had he waited perhaps he'd have been even quicker in his recovery?

Christian is able to stand with the help of his 'gizmatronic wheel chair' it lifts him to a standing position and a seat belt type band keeps him in place. Apparently, it's a working prototype from one of his gadget companies, money it seems does buy you the best of everything, especially if you are the boss of the company? He assured the physio and the two nurses, that it's being donated to the veterans hospital, for someone more needy of its permanent help, along with ten others when he is through with it.

It seems my husband has a vast need to help guys in a worse condition than him and as the devil and the saint are former medics, he has made two more friends. Friends, whom he gives a shit load of grief to, better them than me I say. The doctor left after Elliot slipped her his number, she shook her head and whispered something to him before she said the next appointment was at the hospital, for further x-rays and scans. She wasn't that bad, and as it turns out likes me more than Christian, my bad for thinking she was a man fancier. Poor Elliot struck out.

Elliot and I then watched as he did some simple lower back movement and with each small twist and turn of his back he swore. A lot. I cried and had to leave the room, he grimaced and carried on. I returned to see him having a massage, he seemed a lot more relaxed and I watched as the physio, Graham, work his magic hands around the area. He left after showing me what to do and the more I did it the better he would feel. My husband is going to have a permanent hard on, and yes, he got one as I practiced. Apparently, this is not unheard of. Elliot had to leave, he was wanted on a job site, but promised to help should we need it. Bless his heart. I returned from seeing him out to hear a conversation that should not have surprised me, but it did!

"So doc…"

"I am a physio Mr Grey…"

"Okay, so…"

"Shoot…"

"Not funny…"

"Mr Grey, are you having trouble asking me whether or not it is safe for you and your wife to resume your marital activities?"

"Well I was going to ask could we perhaps try something along those lines?"

"I would say it is safe as long as you are careful, I mean very careful, with perhaps Mrs Grey doing the hard work?"

"Oh, okay so we can fuck then?" How crass of him. "I mean you know make love?" Better, but only just!

"I have a booklet on positions and aids to help ease the stress on your back, but I wouldn't rush into bedroom acrobatics for at least a week?"

"I don't need the books, in fact I could write you a bestselling book on the subject of positions Doc, and I think I can let my wife take the lead for a week." He went there, he is on a sex ban for a month. No two. Am I crazy? Okay a week, okay a couple of days? Fuck it we got the green light, I am now as crass as Christian, but in my defence I am as hornie as all hell!

"I would think that would be for the best. Now I will be back at the same time tomorrow, please keep the exercising to the minimum, you have filled your quota for today, do not overdo it or you will undo the healing you have already managed and keep the bedroom activity to the bare minimum too." I swear I will kill the man. I head to my office, there is no way on god's green planet, that I am being in the same room as him when he gets out of the bedroom. Taylor is behind me the sneaky fucker. He heard all that too.

"Not a word Jason Taylor, not a bloody word, see the good man out and tell Randy Ass that I am in my office working. Gheeze, he will be sorry when I see him, I mean he really went there Taylor, he went there for god's sake!" I see that odd smile he has and head to check out my office. Gail points to the door behind the ludicrously modern mid room wine cellar. It shines bright and is almost a piece of art. It is filled with some damned expensive wine too. Wine, which I will be forgoing tasting for quite some time. I am busy beavering away when I hear him come into my office.

"Ana, guess what?"

"You are an ass?"

"What?"

"You asked if we could fuck…"

"You knew I would. Besides it's not fair that I am the one getting relief, when you so need it too!"

"Listen buster I managed for years not having sex, a few weeks would not kill me."

"My balls would be blue."

"Oh and when have I not seen to those damned balls of yours?"

"Ana, don't be mad at me."

"I'm not mad at you, I was, but I'm not anymore, thanks for asking, I may have need of those notes he left you, seeing as I am working that body for the next week." I point towards him my finger flicked up and down and he smiled. "Now, if you are in here for anything but work related business then I suggest you leave and see to your empire, because mine is a mess, I swear I have never had more than a week away from this and I have a ton of messages and legal stuff to plough through, is that door way an adjourning door by chance?"

"Yup, it used to be my games room, but that is now in one of the rooms upstairs. We can talk and stuff."

"Work stuff for the rest of the day, boring but essential, do you need to sleep after your therapy?"

"No, I am going to join my grumpy wife and do some work. Is that okay?"

"Yes…" He wheeled himself in through my office and into his. "Leave the door open please?"

"Miss me already?"

"Yes. Now work." I ploughed through the mountain of requests for places at the school and smiled as I sent all the requests to Ramón. He will be surprised I am giving him the power I always kept, back. I am delegating. I also look through the contracts for the COO's, I want a Ros of my own. I hear his lordship ripping someone a new a-hole, or they were an a-hole? Boy he gets angry.

"Your worker bees make more honey with nice stuff than they do having a nasty bossy worker bee, Grey…"

"Honey metaphors, shut up Ana, please? This fucker has cost me millions. I asked him to look at the ship yard not agree to our fucking buying it. He is a prick and no longer works for me."

"Did you ask him not to buy it? Or was he using his initiative?"

"Neither, he is an asshat."

"Okay what's one of them when they are at home?" I ask…

"A stupid or contemptible person, have you not heard that before?"

"No, but I have heard of, and used terms such as dumb ass: an a-hole, an imbecile, a fool, an idiot, a cretin, a moron, a halfwit, an ass, a dunce, a dullard, a simpleton, a nincompoop, a blockhead, an ignoramus, a clod and perhaps an ass wipe, but never an asshat, I will bookmark that for future use. Now is it a bad deal asshat?"

"I don't know I am looking it over now. I swear you take your head out of the game for ten minutes and you have spent ten million on a shipyard that makes fishing trawlers and not yachts, and that is why he is a fool, and all with my money Ana."

"A boat is a boat, a ship yard is a ship yard, correct me if I am wrong, but don't ships, whether it be yachts, trawlers, paddle boats or cruisers, don't they all need a building place to make said ships right, a boat yard or trawler yard is surely the same damned thing a ship yard Unless it's a submarine and then I am not sure what that is, I mean I made a mistake of saying boat, when I should have said ship to a British Naval officer in Plymouth when I picked up my yacht there. I mean if you want more confusion, I have just found out I have a dozen barns as part of my acquisition of Hyde's. What the hell did John Hyde want with a dozen barns, now that is nothing at all chocolate like, at least you can build something floaty in your new investment, what the hell do I do with a barn, bread my own cows for milk and butter, do you think he was doing that?" I am ranting, because I do not know what the hell I bought, which is not like me at all.

"Where are they?" They could be on the fucking moon for all the good they will do me.

"Er, everywhere, I mean everywhere in Great Britain. Two are in Hampshire, two in Kent, one in Lancashire and the others are scattered around England, Ireland and Wales, oh and one in Oban, very to near Otter Island actually."

"Google is your friend, see where they are, was he expanding to perhaps real estate, look at planning permissions before their particular councils?" I type in the one in Lancashire and I see the huge old barn. Wow its mega huge.

"It seems they are huge and could be perhaps in ideal locations for restaurants and or cooking schools with accommodation, this one has planning permission for just that? I guess I could sell them all as a job lot, I am not opening a damned restaurant chain or opening cooking schools, chocolate is my master. I am downsizing not making more work, oh and Satin and Steel are now under new ownership, and we now have privileged passes for life." I see the gleam in his eye.

"I do well with my restaurants Ana. I am also pretty damned sure our lifestyle before we met up and married is in the past, besides we have the room here, if you feel the need, I mean if we feel the need?"

"I guess we could have the red room redecorated? Red gives me a headache. Now, I am pretty sure I am meant to be downsizing my empire, not adding to it, besides I have my damned finger in too many pies. But thanks for the feedback. Now look at your fishing trawler empire and choose a new colour for the room up there with no view."

"I actually think he brokered a good deal. I may have fired him for nothing. I am easy with whatever colour suits you Baby." He is crunching numbers and multi-tasking.

"So, give the man a call and apologise, you are getting good at it now."

"Hu?"

"Sorry, you made a mistake, you are rehired and I am sorry for losing the plot, sort of like that, or failing that get Ros to fix it?"

"I will man up when I do some more reading and Googling… We work well together Baby."

"We do? I mean we do…" He reads and types and cusses and finally he smiles. I watch him work for a while and see the pain in his face. He has over done things. Again. Gail comes in and tells us lunch is ready. I am starving too. We make our way to the kitchen, and Christian sits at the bar stool, and is very proud of himself for doing it unaided. I am sure the Saint and the Devil will be flying home sooner than expected.

Unexpected bed buddies:

Ana and I had a very productive half day in our offices. I made the best decision having the place altered when we were away. I love the room with a view I have now. We have eaten a very nice pasta dish and Ana has asked _Ramón_ and Jose to send her some of her chocolate making 'stuff' to test out some new lines. Gail is more than happy to share her kitchen space with an expert chocolate maker. Who knew she was hooked on the damned things too? I needed a nap, my pain pills are kicking in and they are making me a little drowsy. Ana and I head to the bedroom, before dinner. She has already said it is for sleep only, so my card has been marked.

Waking later after just napping, I argued for more and got told to bog off? I think we each need a few more weeks of getting this language barrier down pat. You'd think neither of us understood plain English. Apparently American English is not the same, nor as good as British English? I would much have preferred her to fuck me, now we have the green light, but I wisely say nothing, I will not push it or I will end up with true blue balls for sure. Ana has vacated our bed a while ago, her sides cold to the touch…

"Mr Grey, your mother is here." I nod my head and Taylor helps me to my chair. See I can accept help.

"Thanks Taylor, is there anyone else with her, only there seemed to be a few voices?"

"Your father is speaking to Ana, about some legal issues, she has with her own attorney, a Mr Pieter Hyde?"

"Is it serious?"

"It seems the police in Switzerland have found the body of Jack Hyde Sir."

"Can anything trace back to Sawyer?"

"No, he is good at his job. However Jack's brother George, he is throwing wild accusations around, about Mrs Adam's involvement with his brother, he has copies of messages sent between the two of them and Mrs Adams was in Switzerland at the same time he disappeared."

"Has she been informed of the accusations?"

"Yes, and she recorded everything, and she had a cab waiting for her, luckily for her the cab had a camera inside the cab and she can clearly be seen in light clothes, all free from blood."

"How did Sawyer manage to you know not get covered in it?"

"He disposed of few clothes he had on afterwards, he left no trace of himself on the body." I now envisage Sawyer naked, whilst garrotting a guy, great! "They are also looking at the father and son team, Daniels Frost junior and senior. Also they are following a lead into a Russian cartel, whom he owed a lot of money too, and a few wives husbands. They are just going off what this George boy is telling them."

"It's going to be fine then?" He nods.

"Yes Sir… Barney reached out to his friends and they have helped remove all the data he had on Mrs Grey. He was blackmailing her Nonna, to keep quiet on what he knew about Ana."

"Really, why would she be bothered by the baby and what they did the one time, she must have cared for her a little?"

"No believe me she didn't, and it had nothing to do with you, her child or anything else concerning saving Mrs Grey's honour. If I told you, you would not believe me, believe me, I would have killed Vita, had she not died already, when I heard what her Grandmother was truly capable of I felt sick to my stomach for Mrs Grey."

"Vita?"

"Yes. Mrs Vita D'Acciaio."

"Do I want to know?"

"It's hidden for now, but once it's out there it's there for good. Barney and his friends have added a tracer to the files and there is a virus attached should they manage to open the files."

"Spill Taylor, what are you not telling me and what is so despicable that Ana will freak out?"

"Her grandmother was the one providing the staff to Jack Hyde and Daniel Frost's factories, she also had a silent share in the house of Hyde, she was not best pleased when she lost a lot of money when her granddaughter bought the group for the poultry sum she did, and even more so when Jack Hyde kept her share for himself. She was also selling Mrs Grey's secret recipes to Frost and his kid, she had piled all her money into the Polish and Romanian factories, she was the money man/woman behind the Frosts interest in the bootleg factories. She was going to ruin Mrs Greys business, she was at the house the last time to find Mrs Grey's journals."

"Fuck…"

"Christian, watch your mouth. Taylor, is he behaving?" My mother couldn't wait, she had to walk in and see me. Did she hear any of that?

"Yes Mother, and I have been good with my physio and the good doctor and my nurses too. Mom, can I ask you a serious question?"

"Yes, but let me put you out of your misery, you are healing fine, you are in no danger from spinal damage and Victoria is amazed at how lucky you were."

"Thanks Mom, but its concerning Ana…"

"Is she pregnant…" Fuck, I should have expected that.

"It's about Vita… I found things out that will hurt her..."

"Never lie to her. She has an amazing support network and the help of many fine minds, both legal and professional. What did the old witch do?" I told her all Taylor had told me. She was shocked. Though not as shocked as Ana was listening to me tell my mom that shit. Taylor had snook out, and left my rear unguarded.

"Nothing she did surprises me anymore. Thanks for asking for advice Christian, thank you for caring. I am so glad my journals are under lock and key. Another thing I have to thank John for. I wonder how much more she was willing to do to hurt me and why was she such a good actress, I mean the brain tumour wasn't there from the age of twelve, so why now and what more could she do to hurt me?"

"She is dead now and cannot hurt you, other than the emotional things she put your through." My mother calms her new daughter and Ana sobs into her chest. "We are family Ana and anything concerning you concerns us. She seems to have been quite a sick woman, mentally I mean? There may be some underlying condition that made her the two very differing women? Perhaps you could ask her doctor? Perhaps the boys hated her for a good reason and it wasn't just you she hated. Ray truly hated her, and Marco too! Families are ever so complicated Ana at the best of times, then if you through in madness, and other things…" My mother stares at me. Yes, like an out of control freaky kid who hated to be touched by his loving mother and father. "Who knows, but perhaps there is a family condition and you may need that if you want to start a family Ana, it's bad enough we don't have Christian's medical files from before we were blessed with his arrival." She smiles, my saviour and my lover hug each other tightly, I think a tear falls from two of the most important women in my life, the one who saved me and the one who changed me. I am one lucky bastard.

"You are going to be a Grandma Grace. Please be better than her, please never lie to me or to the baby?" I smile, she has let the cat out of the bag.

"Ana, Christian? A baby?"

"Yes Mom a baby, due in just over eight months, this really is an early reveal."

"I can't keep it a secret for too long, but I will try, a baby?"

"Don't, we will tell everyone, I am not having secrets rule this marriage. My family have a lot of those and I fear more are to come. This is one less secret. Though we are not going public, as in out there public."

"Ana and I will deal with that later, but for now, just family please?" I ask.

"I am going to be a granny, oh god I mean I already am, to an angel, but you know…"

"…I know what you mean, I feel the same, I am terrified too. In case it happens again. It can, I just worry it will happen again Grace and that would kill me, not twice." I grab Ana's hand. It is clammy.

"It will be fine Baby."

"Yes, of course it will, I know a wonderful observation. Dr Green…" Thank god she didn't recommend the doctor my subs use. "We can get you a hand held Doppler too and anything else to make things easier for you to get some help in coping with the stress this will cause you. Dr Green is a very calming and caring doctor and she specialises in difficult pregnancy's." I relax and change the subject because she is ten seconds from crying.

"What did Dad want with you Ana?"

"I have a leak in my finances, or rather my father's finances, Ethan has found small amounts of money is being syphoned off his royalties, and I have no clue where it is going or to whom, he is on it and Kate has her head in all manner of paperwork, if she can't find it, then I am sure Barney's friends could help."

"Ethan screwed up?"

"He didn't miss two cents missing from the thousands he got in royalties and interest monthly, he thinks my father was paying someone for something dodgy, I hope it wasn't drugs or blackmail? I won't know, not until they have looked through the paperwork in the lock up. Their paperwork didn't match his. Everything they did was checked double checked and more. Pieter is using his contacts in Switzerland, where the bank account is."

"All roads seem to be leading there at the moment." I say.

"Yeah, I know, I have been asked to provide the police there with a log of my movements and I have, Pieter says his nephew George is trying to overturn my buying his father's company. He is desperate for cash, that's all. He hasn't got a legal claim and he knows it, but if me or my family did anything to get it illegally then he could have a slight chance of gaining something, I know I didn't but did Vita?" Good point.

"We need to get there is what I am hearing?" I ask Ana.

"No, I have a feeling the answers I need are in New York. In an apartment I had no clue Papa owned, or if it was Papa's it could have been one of my dad's places?"

"Ethan will be on it."

"Ethan and Kate knew we had it, they just presumed I knew about it. Nonna went there, I seem to remember she said she stopped with friends. I am not even sure if Nonno went with her? Why can I not remember? Is it the amnesia Grace?"

"I hardly doubt it Ana, perhaps you went with them at some point and have forgotten?" She shakes her head.

"No, I have never been to New York with any of my grandparents. That I would have remembered, Nonno and Nonna didn't even mention it when I opened the branch in New York. They even let me stay in a hotel!"

"We could take a trip there, I have the jet."

"You also have a wound on your back, I will get Ethan to go check it out."

"Ana, somehow I think you need to go and see what they were keeping secret there. I can stay here and you could go with Sawyer and Taylor…" As we are speaking Jenny comes in the room. She has her head bowed down.

"I would nay go there Lassie, not alone. That place is evil, evil and dark. Yer Papa never knew what went on there, and I only wish I did nay too Annie."

"Jenny?" Ana says quietly. "Please tell me what I will find there?"

"Yer Nonna was a madam, like a whore, she was nought more an 'ole slapper. I only found out when your Papa said me and the girls could stop there, when we went for Christmas as his last treat for the girls." Girls? "He loved ma wee lassies and their pa and when he knew Sandie and Jimmy had not long left, and they were dying he asked her what she wanted, and one of her last requests was to see that big ole tree in the centre there and see the thanksgiving parade at Macy's and skate with ma Jimmy one last time, and so he made the trip happen." I never saw Jenny as a mom, but she mothers Ana to death.

"Christian, Jenny lost her husband and two of her daughters to cystic fibrosis. It was way before I arrived on the island, Jenny here helped run Otter Island, then when their youngest daughter Susan passed too, I had just been taken to live on the island with Grammy Mimi and Papa Frank, Jenny then helped raise me."

"Forgive my intrusion Mrs Logan." It explains why they are so close, Annie is as good as her daughter.

"Nay laddie, I am happy to talk about them, I was just telling you what we found when we opened the door… A woman greeted us. She was as shocked to see us as we were to see her."

"Who was she Jenny?"

"I couldn't swear by this, but I would say some relation of Nonna's they looked alike, and both were mean…"

"Jenny, you and Nonna never got along."

"Now you know the reason, she had a secret life the ole whore. Besides she was trying to teach this ole woman how to suck eggs, I have more parenting skills in ma wee finger than she had learned in a life time. Shows with how the kids despised her, all apart from the wee milksop of hers Sonny! The miracle boy and baby of the family? He was there with her, she was as shocked as hell to see ma family and me, at the door."

"Who, Nonna Vita?" I ask.

"Aye, are yer not listening ta ma tale Laddie?" She stared at me. Okay I will shut up. Ana smiles and grabs my hand. "She was with a strange gentleman, he had hold of the wee baby Sonny he looked like your Nonno, handsome and foreign, he said enough for me to guess the bairn was his though."

"One of his brothers perhaps?"

"We never got introduced. I would kin he was. I don't speak enough of the language. They apparently were staying in their cousins place. It seems Papa Frank had forgotten his Italian family were there and he had double booked us. All was cleared up and we went to stop at a pretty hotel, a real swanky place, the big man saw to it we had the coins to pay. Then years later imagine my surprise to see the whore turn up on Otter Island demanding to see you. I hadnie set eyes on that floozy for near on fifteen years, but sure as kershanky stinks, she was the woman in the house in New York, only older."

"So Papa Frank was related to Nonna?"

"Both Nonna and the man holding the wee bairn I think, they looked alike. I never asked not fully, you know Papa Frank was Italian, right?"

"Yes, I knew that, but not that he was related to my supposed grandmother?"

"She was a distant cousin, but he was more like the man in looks and everything."

"I am confused now. How come I never knew all this, I knew he had a brother, but he died in some sort of mob hit back in Italy, they never spoke of it? Oh crap, does that mean Uncle Sonny is my grandfather's nephew?"

"He could be Annie, you never knew she wasn't your real grandmother, and this is surprising you Lassie? If you only knew but the half of what that woman did, it would shock you, I could tell you tales that would even make this laddie here blush!" I am as they say as confused as fuck.

"So how do you know the house here is a dark place?"

"I went to New York when Annie here sent me to live with the witch and her Papa. Whilst she had yer wee bairn. I was curious about the place and went for a look see. I still had the key, in our rush to leave the house I forgot about handing it back. I took it with me because I am a wee bit of a nosy ole crone." I laugh. "When I opened the door, there were all manner of naked people up to no good. She was there leading the freak show. I thought she was on a trip to see you Annie, that's where she said she was going, she even put your Nonno off going. He was under her thumb, weak and did everything he could to keep her sweet. Poor man. He hadn't a clue she lead this life, if he did know then I would say he was one of the freaks too."

"Freaks?" Ana asks. "What were they doing Jenny?"

"Sexing with each other, without a care in the world, it was like watching a randy bunch of rams and a field full o tups in a fank…" What the hell?

"They were at it like mating sheep in a holding pen, she means." Oh… Not a pretty picture a group orgy.

"Was the man there, who could be Uncle Sonny's father?"

"Nay, I know Papa Frank and Mimi went back to the old country afore they got you, even your father went. It was a big thing the head of the house being cozienostratted." I laugh, she means being taken out in a hit. I must have Welch work on this, it's fascinating. Ana looks lost. It seems Nonna may have been into something kinky, I want to grin, but this shit is serious. I hope to hell there isn't anything to back this up at the house, apartment or whatever it is. Ana could have inherited her faux grandma's brothel. I had heard tell of one, but never in a million years did I figure the rumoured den of vice was ran by her grandmother faux or not. I do know Elena was a paid up member. I refused to go, it was bad enough I fucked Elena and she was old, but these were geriatric swingers. Oh god I have to admit to Ana what I do know. It's an ultra-secret membership process, much like the golfing resorts, only passed on by true believers to other true believers. Their screening is far stricter than getting a membership of the Otter Island golfing retreat, Papa Franks place. Dad and gramps got their membership because they represented Papa Frank in some of his real estate deals. Old and respected golfers were only asked to recommend and put up serious golfers for membership consideration. Elliot and I got ours through knowing Papa Frank personally. I had heard they were like a big ole boys club, but as yet I am none too sure how getting on the waiting list for membership is achieved, I know black balls are used, and that no advertising is ever needed to fill the rooms and the course to be filled constantly. I am drifting and Ana is sobbing, what did I miss?

"Jenny, did you tell anyone?"

"Who would I tell Papa Frank, who did nought but dribble and sleep and who was not the same after the stroke? Nonno, who would be heartbroken? No she knew I knew what I knew and it killed her ta be nice ta me."

"I have family photos in London, we could look at least confirming who the man was, and see if it was in fact his brother Davide? I only ever thought the rumours of Papa Franks parents being in the Mafia were Papa Franks jokes about being Italian. Crap and I joked about not being a stereotypical Violin case carrying bunch of Italians, Christian, were my family Mafia?" She laughs, and I mean she laughs.

"Baby?"

"Oh god something else to make my week, my uncle, my family are Mafioso, the Sicilian Mob the Cosa Nostra, Baby Grey, you best not come out with your own violin case or I am out of here toot-sweet. Grace if you think the lunes we had in my family before were nut jobs hold on to your hats Mother-In-Law, because this ride just got wilder." She is rubbing her belly and laughing, whether in hysterics or hilarity at the news, I am puzzled by it all. She once told me they were not Mafia, when all along they are. Hilarity I think?

"Annie?" Jenny says aloud.

"Oh yes, I am pregnant everyone… Surprise…" And there she blows, Hurricane Ana lets the room know she and I are pregnant. We are adding into the Mafia family. I jest but this shit just got complicated. I wonder if a little research is needed? A film marathon is needed, I feel a Godfather night is needed. I joke to myself, but we need to know what that New York place has in store for us?

* * *

And my story got a little mystery added into the mix… Nonno the Madam, and into OAP Kinky Fuckery, with Elena as a paid up member of the Pensioners swinger club… It seems she was into old and wrinkled bits and bobs too lol… Read and review and tell me what you think is in the apartment waiting to be found and who is the thief? It also explains where all Vita's money went… And the miracle child Sonny, is he Nonno's, or this dead uncle of Ana's dad? And to think I was keeping this one simple lol… Laters: I am now working on one of my books, see you at the weekend. Ciao for now…


	42. Chapter 42

This story is nowt like fifty shades; I just purloined E.L. James's characters, buildings and some of her other stuff...

* * *

For some strange reason my chapters are all messed up and I am missing some and doubled on others luckily I back up my stories and have had to re-post from 28, it was a night mare hopefully they post this correctly...

Dreaming of Chocolate and Grey:

Chapter 42:

 _ **(It's a tad longer to explain the fox I threw in the chicken coop, some what... lol)**_

A Spiders web? Try a tarantulas web and a hornets nest:

I heard all that from Jenny, and still I was lost in the giant maze of a mess, that is called my fucked up family! When did everything go from me hating my mother for no reason, to loathing my Nonna, for not being the nice little Italian grandmother I thought I knew and who I loved dearly? Grace is seeing to Christian's medication as I head to my office, she is going to be a wonderful granny. I use my interactive computer table and conference call all the main players, and four of my six screens are all live and I see the faces of two of my uncles, my mother and Ethan. I am pacing and they are watching.

"Bambino?" Marco says.

"Ana?" Uncle Sonny says.

"Ana? What is the matter?" My mother adds to the many Ana's being called out.

"How many of you have been to Papa Frank's apartment in New York?"

"What apartment?" They all say.

"I want to know how many of you went inside Frank Lambert Seniors, New York home?"

"Ana, I have the place Papa Frank gave me when your father died, I told you this..."

"Did you let Nonna Vita stay there?" I watch their faces, as does Ethan.

"You have to ask Ana? No, I did not, my brownstone has never had that woman through its doors, why?"

"All in good time Mum, do you know if Papa Frank had anymore properties there Mum?"

"He never said he had. He stopped with me when they came to New York, after Mimi died though with updates on you and pictures for my collection, he said he came to sort out some estate business he said with Eamon Kavanagh, but I never knew of anything else, and the property is in my name Ana, he did it all legally too. I signed all manner of paperwork after I came out of hospital. Too much to tell you what it was I signed."

"Okay, I just needed to know if you knew of a secret house he had?"

"Marco, how about you?"

"Nope, I stop at the suite you have at the Peninsula. Have you got property there Bambino?"

"Yeah, but a property nobody knew about. I am just curious that's all?"

"Uncle Sonny?" He looked at the screen and he had beads of sweat on his top lip. Interesting? "Uncle Sonny?"

"What Ana?"

"Did you know Papa Frank had a house or an apartment in New York? Ethan, can you tell me where it is and what it is, an apartment or a house? That could help jog someone's memory, please?"

"Sure I have the file, and it's a nice little place, and by little, I mean huge, it's address is 309 West 71st Street. Value as of six months ago, approximately thirteen million and change."

"Ana why do you want to know about this house there?" Sonny asks, he knows something.

"So you knew he had one?"

"No, not really, but I know we, Mama and me, we stopped in a really big house in New York, Mama used to take me there when I was a kid, to see my father. I stopped there a few weeks ago, and when I am in New York, I stop in the basement apartment, which is connected to that same address, which Ethan has just mentioned, I thought it was okay to stay there and use the basement apartment, Mama let me have a key for it, but she said her friend owned it, not Papa Frank?"

"Your father?" His siblings ask. I am on a roll, when Christian rolls in behind me.

"Yeah, I had a different father to Ray and Marco and obviously, you too Carla. Only I was sworn to secrecy."

"Why?" I ask, "but more importantly why did you not tell anyone?"

"Mama, she said Papa would be angry if he knew I wasn't his too and kill me and her." Oh hell.

"Sonny, why did she lie to us all, and make you lie?" Marco asks.

"She said my real father was assassinated and she didn't want any of his enemies finding out that I was his only son. She said he had bad men wanting to kill him, and they would kill me too, I was a kid and afraid so yes I said nothing, I didn't want to die. Then as the years went by, I forgot about him!"

"Is that what she told you, that he was your father and that he'd been assassinated?" Marco shouts.

"No, I heard it from him when we visited him, he told me I was his boy. I was only a kid, a little kid and confused, but it was Mama who scared the crap out of me a few years later, by showing me a picture she had of this body after a car wreck, she told me he had died, and if I said anything I would die too, that was the last time I asked about him and why we had stopped visiting the man who said he was my real Papa."

"When was the last time you saw him?" I ask.

"It was a long time ago, a really long time ago I was about four, perhaps five. I think? Mama and I did a lot of travelling when I was little because she could because I had no school, we'd meet him in all sorts of cool places. I guess I just went along with her, why are you asking all this Ana, is the house mine?" He smiled.

"As far as I am led to believe its part of Papa Franks estate. Do you know if it was definitely the same house, do you have photos Ethan?" A picture of a large house flashed on the screen. "Is that it?" He saw the house flash on his screen. "When was the last time you were there, when you were five?"

"Yeah, it's the same house, and no I last stopped there when I did the network for the New York store a few weeks ago, why?"

"It was a house, a normal house and not a brothel?"

"Yeah sort of, I stopped in the lower apartment, the one I had the key for, keep up Ana, I only went in the top house when I was really little. Old guys live there now, and it's not a brothel, it's a residential home for elderly New Yorkers. Ana, you are worrying me, did someone die there, one of the oldies in the big house?" He asks. Is he for real, is he acting dumb or is he dumb? Nope, he is really good at his job and that networking thing he does and the computer thingy he is shit hot at, it takes some brain power, so he is acting dumb, but why? What does my uncle the turncoat know? I knew he was under Vita's thumb, and the spoiled baby of the family, but this, this is very strange!

"No, but I have it on good authority that Vita, she ran some sort of, and for the want of a better word, a brothel out of the house. I just don't know why Papa Frank let her stop there? I also would like to know if Nonno went there too?"

"A brothel?" Marco looks as shocked as I was, and he can be read like a book, he knows nothing. "Really, there's a shocking surprise, the holier-than-thou bitch, she was a madam at a brothel?"

"Yes Marco, an exclusive brothel." I hear Sonny mutter something. "What was that Sonny?"

"Ana, I never saw her there doing anything but talk and laugh there, and I can assure you even a five year old would know if their mother was doing rude stuff with men, right?" Umm, I caught Granny Mimi and Papa Frank' wrestling' a time or two and laugh, I guess that's an I don't know then, and I laugh!

"I guess so, did she come to New York recently? To see you perhaps?" He nods his head.

"Yes, she called whilst I was stopping there, when I did the refit! Ana, I had the damned key and it is near some nice clubs, but yeah Ana, Mama turned up, and she was a little shocked to see me, but thinking about it, she said she had come to see me, but why be shocked to see me there, if she came to see me?" Even he is questioning Vita, now!

"She came to see you in New York over seven weeks ago?"

"Yes, she let herself into the basement flat, she said she didn't have the key for the big house anymore and besides it was a flying visit, she said to see a show and see some friends and I wouldn't know she was there. I was working hard to meet your strict targets my dear niece. She didn't bother me much, in fact she only changed clothes and slept in her room there for a couple of nights. How did you not know you owned it Ana?" Good question, how did I not know?

"Ethan? Can you answer that?"

"Not really, the property is listed as owned by a shell corporation, but your father Frank once had a lot of property in New York, but as far as my father and I are aware neither he or his father owned anything like a shell corporation! They are used when hiding illegal stuff, he was too honest for that... He left you his entire estate Ana, as you know they both did, but this, this was not part of the real estate properties he left you. We were not aware he had any New York properties left, and forgive me but didn't we look when you wanted the store there?"

"We did, so how come I do own it, do I own it even? I am confused?" I ask poor Ethan. He taps away and huffs and puffs.

"Okay, that's strange, a Davide Lagardia owns it Ana, he and his younger brother were partners in Lagardia Brothers Real Estate, a company which is still ran by Davide Lagardia." Ethan informs me.

"I thought I heard Papa Frank once tell me he had a much older brother called Davide, who died in an accident, perhaps a mob hit before they came to America, but he had never spoken to me sober about. Papa Frank told me a little about his big brother when he'd had too much to drink after Mimi died. I didn't heed his drunk talking, and now I wish I had."

"Kate has been on this like a dog with a bone. Ana, they or he pay state and federal taxes, they pay their full whack to Uncle Sam year in and year out and have done for over fifty five years, never missing filing and always pay quickly when the bills are sent. Nothing is amiss with the company, apart from the lack of personal information on the owners. Francesco and Davide Lagardia. Do you think Ana, that they were your grandfather and his brother? Could it be that Davide is still alive?"

"Mum?" She was on her laptop and from the look on her face she was searching for stuff. She and I only learned of the other crap a couple of weeks ago, and now all this shit? My head is throbbing.

"Ana, my place is on the same block as this house, and I have the deed to it. Ethan, can you check who Frank bought the house from? Let's face it, I hardly knew your grandparents or your father, I was a groupie who got lucky, I am a fool Ana, I had the man and didn't ask for anything more. They were nice people, loving parents and despite their wealth they had simple needs, you'd never know they were millionaires. They never discussed their finances with me Ana. I know that they offered me a lot of money to stay with them and raise you on Otter island, but it was hard enough seeing you every day when I woke up, but to stay with them, it would have been like never escaping this chest crushing pain I had every time they spoke of their boy. I had to escape before the pain at losing your father killed me."

"I know Mum, I am just asking because I didn't know them as well as I thought, and Papa, he never spoke of his family much, only that he loved them and that they were all dead."

"I asked about stuff when I was having you and he was the same with me, he just said there was no diseases or madness in his family, and that was it. Come to think of it he was very cagey about his family. Your father and I didn't talk seriously, I mean, we did, about his dreams for you, but I know he never asked his father about his grandparents either, that's why I asked Frank." Okay, my mother the misinformed stalker!

"Was there something dodgy going on Ethan? I mean I thought you and your father looked after all their interests? I have had no complaints until this New York house made me sit back and think, and then the missing money from the royalty checks, something or someone is up to no good, and unlike Harry Potter, I do not own a Marauders Map. Though right now I could do with one."

"My father and his father were and are not dodgy Ana, and they represented your grandfather well Ana, and all above board. He gifted your mother the places he did legally, so she would not face huge tax and inheritance bills, that's the only vaguely dodgy thing he did, look out for Carla." Ethan was pissed off with my comments, well join the fucking club, I thought, but did not say. "Carla, the house is yours, free and clear and was indeed bought for one dollar from Lagardia Brothers." Ethan informed her.

"A dollar?" I said, shocked by the dollar price tag. "My grandfather, Papa Frank bought her a house from these dodgy brothers for a dollar and that's not dodgy? Really?" He tapped away. Why was he in the dark about this?

"One dollar. Yes." Ethan stated again. "Bought from the Brothers Lagardia many years previously." I shook my head, a dollar? Like two bloody English pounds? Really, there was nothing dodgy in that?

"Holy moly…" I heard Christian say.

"Indeed." I heard Ethan state.

"Is Kate there, I have a question?" I asked, because it was her who said Papa Frank owned the house and told me Nonno and Nonna stopped there, and that was before learning of Jenny's info. I need to speak to Jenny again too, and Sonny.

"Yup I am here, what can I do for you?" I see five heads working on the screens before me, I have room for one more… Come in Papa Frank, can you use it as a portal from the other side, please?

"You said Papa Frank let the olds use the place in New York, yet Nonno never went there, how did you know Papa Frank said they could use it. Because I was surprised he had a place there after our look see for business properties there, and you said after my dad died, he let them use it, who told you this?"

"Nonna Vita, I saw at a New York Gala I was at and I asked her where she was stopping and she said 'at a little place Frank lets us use' I just presumed it was his, but I have searched high and low for the paperwork and it's not with anything he left you, nor in any of the stuff your father left you and what's more my father knew nothing about it or about your father or grandfather owning it, he thinks something is off and he is having Carrick look at all their files for anything mentioning these brothers. I am digging though the boxes again and our files, and will not stop until I get to the bottom of this."

"So presumption was at fault? I thought I owned it, because you presumed Papa Frank owned it, because of Vita told you, but he didn't and I really don't? What a surprise, and yet again Vita is messing with us again from the damned grave? So how does Vita end up having Uncle Sonny here with another man, possibly and I say possibly my great uncle on my fathers side, and did she know Papa Frank before my mother had me and if so why not say something? If in fact Papa Frank had a brother who is still alive and called Davide? Again nobody knew about it, not even my gullible Nonno? Worse still, why did you not say anything Sonny?" He was deep in thought and sad. Was this an act, we all knew he was a mama's boy. He and she had this odd bond, could this be why, he knew?

"I loved Papa, he was my father and Mama, she was very scary when I asked her about my supposed real father, this Davide guy. So after a while I stopped asking and we stopped going to stay at the big house too. It was all confusing Ana. You all knew what she was like. You thought I was spoiled, but I was afraid of her, and that dead body in the car, I still have nightmares about it. Mama, when I mentioned anything to do with this man, who was the one who told me I was his kid, not her, when he did that she swore at him and they rowed, then she gave me stuff to shut me up. I only did what she said and kept it secret, now they are both dead and I will never know the real truth."

"Santino, you are the biggest dick head I know…" I shout, if he were here, I'd slap him stupid.

"Ana, Baby, he is still your uncle. Calm down. Sperm donors are not necessarily good father material, take it from me Ana." He too looked sad, does he consider himself just that, a sperm donor? "He loved Nonno, but can I ask are you for real Uncle Sonny and have kept this all inside since you were little, and or did you, and are you playing your family? Your father was sure you were his, because he told me you were his last little miracle, so it seems both you and Carla, were not his and we are having to figure this crap out to save my wife's sanity?" Sonny had a tear in his eye, as did my mum. "Then again, he did know about Carla's true parentage, he could have known Ana, he really could have and he loved your grandmother enough to have died without her?" Cheers Christian, remind me again how gullible Nonno was!

"I loved Papa, way more than Mama, and he loved me, and whilst we are chucking out secrets and playing detective, I have another confession, had she bullied me into becoming a priest, I would have played the real daddy card, so I was just as cunning as her. On a lighter note, for me, if he was my father does that mean all his property and shit is mine?" He laughed as he said it. I guess he is, if he is this guy Davide's child and not Nonno's!

"I would guess if this Davide is still alive and paying his dues, then they must be his, besides, we only have Jenny's word for it that he looked like Papa Frank, some Italians do look alike, very Italian, just as some Chinese people look alike, we generally do not see more than we need to and let's face it the last thing Jenny saw at that house, was a group orgy for the over seventies? So, if he is alive, then we have to find him and your answers Uncle Sonny and if he is your father then take it up with him. Jenny could have forgotten things, her husband and child were seriously ill after all and she really never said anything to anyone, including Papa Frank, who I know was not into double booking anything, he was a sharp as a whip?"

"No, she knew things about Mama, they hated each other and I mean hated. Jenny was paid from the estate for looking after you and latterly Papa Frank, so my mother couldn't fire her, she wanted to but Jenny won every row they had." Uncle Marco said. "I remember the rows they had, all the time. I guess the snide comments make sense now! Jenny has never lied Ana, never. It's where you get it from, this truth wins out thing, she wouldn't hurt you like this, or us, she was and is amazing. I liked her better than Mama, I still do."

"Okay then, so we need information on Davide Lagardia then folks. I need to know if they changed their names to escape the mob and if so, why that was? Are they mia famiglia, or are they who they say they are, and not one in the same or rather two in the same? Fuck, you know what I mean." I shout my orders to the happy hackers to find me my answers. Ethan was beavering away, as was Kate. I was using my friend Google and failing to find anything on them, either of these brothers. Ethan sighed.

"Thank god, there is a record of your Papa Frank, or as he was called then Francesco, and his mother Marie, his father Francesco and his younger sister Rena, coming through Ellis Island in 1939, from Scilly, no brother is listed as arriving with them, and your great grandparents were not that old, not for your grandfather to have had a bigger brother killed driving a car, he'd have to be a lot older to drive a car, which would have been impossible, because his parents were pretty young and in only in their late twenties, so perhaps they left behind an uncle or cousin? The Lamberti's, they were awarded American citizenship in 1942, when your great grandfather wanted to join the armed forces and help with the war in Europe, the family changed their name when they got their American passports, to Lambert, they dropped only the last I, and your Papa Frank chose to be called Franklin, to help him fit in at school, so they were almost hiding, but in plain sight though! The sister Rena kept her name, as did Maria."

"Why?" I asked, as I searched that name too.

"It sounded more American I guess, let us not forget the majority of the Italians, in Italy and here too, were thought to be on the German side in the war as they were welcomed into Italy by Benito Mussolini, and people wanted to hate anything taking their men folk to war! Though there were some who were not, your great grandfather was one of those, he supported the rising resistance, but your great grandfather, died in the same war a couple of years into it, he was killed in Normandy in the D-Day landings in 1942, he didn't see the Italian resistance rise to rid Italy of their corrupt and fascist government and rid their lands of their invaders, enough of that before I bust a blood vessel! Anyway the family then had to manage the family restaurant without him." I never forget Ethan is a political sciences graduate and I never get him started on politics, so I keep silent. Kate hit us with some more news.

"All was quiet for a few years, then when your grandfather was twenty five he seemed to land on his feet and made his fortune in the property market, buying low and selling high and at the right time too."

"We know that, he was good at it too and your grandfather and father helped him." I said as I got up and paced.

"Yes, he met my father at university, and they became friends. Dad said he seemed to remember he had inherited some family money and invested it wisely. He had no reason to doubt him, because he really did start off small and one sale funded another, he made that inheritance work for him, he supported his mother and sister and the families failing business, until they died."

"How did they die, he never spoke of his family having a restaurant, were as Granny Mimi, she never shut up about the Mackenzie's, so much so I can tell you what the fist clan meeting was about, and near on word for word? When I started cooking and catering, he said it was a family tradition and I always thought he meant I was following in the D'Acciaio families footsteps!" I ask. Kate is tapping the keys and sighs again.

"According to my father it was a robbery at the families restaurant, which his mother and his younger sister ran in Brooklyn. Papa Franks Pizza's. Yes Ana, it was called Papa Franks Pizza's! The police shot the guy who killed them, when he ran out of the store with their takings, when they got inside they found he'd shot your relatives and three of their customers in a hold up on a busy Saturday night, and all for a thousand bucks five people and the robber died. Back then a thousand bucks was a lot of money, I mean it's a lot now. There are some very gruesome pictures posted on the polices archive files. Death on line! According to the files, your grandfather was working at bettering himself and was working for a real estate agent in his break from university, and wasn't there, if he were, you would not there Ana. If he saw those blooded bodies, then it's no wonder he never spoke of his family, in fact he said he had none when they drew up his will after Mimi died."

"He shut himself down?"

"He embroiled himself in Scottish life, he had already met Mimi, his one true love when she ate in their families pizza place whilst on holiday, they married around the time of the shooting and had your father a couple of years later!By this time Mimi had had enough of America, and Papa Frank he hated America more, and so they moved to Scotland. According to my father they very rarely left the island. They never left the island for more than a week, however a quarter if a century later, when they went to join your father, in Los Angeles, taking your mother with them, so he could be there for her, and be there for your upcoming birth Ana."

"You know a lot more of them than I do Kate, how is that?"

"He talked to my grandfather and father and when I asked my father he told me. Weird I know, but Dad and me, we talk about all sorts of crap when I unearth stuff and I ask questions. My father said he was a very private man, whose son made that privacy near on impossible, especially when he made it big. He was very proud of his son, but not the people he brought into their lives."

"What else do you know Kate?"

"That we have all your Papa Franks finances on computer and not just for seven years either, his financials go back six and a half decades, and I cannot find a link to this Lagardia family, not yet, but gimmie some time."

"I know he really hated his fans and I think he wished he had never allowed his son to go to Birmingham to study, but again had he not, then my being here would have been history too." I sigh as Christian grabs my hand and I sit back on his lap, he holds me tightly and I sit there, puzzled and flummoxed, the fog is still foggy and my head is getting muggy. "Thanks I needed that. How are you?" He smiled and kissed my neck.

"Intrigued by this massive secret, here let me bring in Barney, please?" He added Barney to the conference call, he was showing off with my cool desk. He called it a mission impossible desk, me it is my lifeline to Australia and Europe now. I may have to add to the number of screens too…

"Has he got friends in all the low places?" I ask.

"You have to ask? Hi Barney, I have a request." I see Barney and smile.

"What do you need Boss? I see there is a lot of chatter in Escala, have I something to worry about? Hello Mrs Grey, how's the head?"

"Hurting right now and it has nothing to do with the accident, but thanks for asking. Barney, what can you find out about a hit taken out on either a Davide Lamberti, or a Davide Lagardia. My family, the Lamberti's arrived at Ellis Island in 1939. If the hit was taken out it was in Sicily and around that time. Also is there any way of seeing where this shell corporation who own Lagardia Brothers Real Estate, is based?"

"Sure, let's start with the Lagardia Brothers, shall we? First names?"

"Francesco and Davide, it seems they are two very common names in my family?" He works like a master of the keyboard and as the key strokes mesmerise me Christian kisses my neck. "Stop that, its distracting Grey."

"I like distracting you, you need to eat too."

"I am not hungry just yet, perhaps when we know more. When will Uncle Ray be home?"

"He will be home already, but he will be jet lagged, let them call you, because if I heard right, your Uncle is not that well-travelled or bothered about anything Vita related?"

"True… But he will have to be read in on the Sonny thing. Sonny try to remember anything you heard to help Barney, please?"

"Sure, but I was a small kid when I saw this Davide guy and they didn't talk a lot around me after he told me he was my father. I do remember going to Rome and eating gelato at the coliseum with him. I think it was him?" He was no help at all. "He looked like Papa Frank, I remember that much, he looked like Papa Frank!" He sighs and kept muttering, 'he looked like Papa Frank!'

"The Lagardia, who was killed was called Davide, though he was not the right age to be the same man who now owns the Lagardia Real Estate company, he would now be well over a hundred, but this man did have a wife and four children, his eldest son has the same name and his year of birth is about right for the man we are looking for. He came here with his mother Sophia, and younger brother Francesco and his twin sisters, their names are as clear as fog, I think they were called Vella and Valentina, but they arrived five years after your family arrived Mrs Grey, not at the same time. So I would think they were not one in the same, nor brothers, in fact I'd bet my dinner on it actually, but as I do not have Davide's mother's maiden name, I cannot say for sure if they were or are related through marriage to the Lamberti's, or Lamberts as they were by this time, however I will dig deeper, because I see the look. I will find out her maiden name and try to find out, let's not forget they were from Italy and we are in Seattle and a lot is lost in translation and time and a war and shit, please?"

"What? So they are real people the Lagardia Brothers, and are the ones who own the real estate company and this big house Barney?"

"Have some patience Mrs Grey, you are beginning to sound a lot like the Boss Man. Had you waited I would have told you there is nothing out of the ordinary about them and yes that was the house they lived in when they came to America and it is still in their families name. They were a very wealthy old family from Sicily, their mother Sophia, she had a plentiful supply of her families old money, they came here after her husband Davide senior was killed in a car accident, and yes, the police ruled it an accident, because witnesses said he skidded to miss a child who ran out into the road chasing a ball. Though he was a banker, for the some of the 'families' in Sicily, and I wouldn't read a lot into that either, all the families local banks eventually lead to Switzerland and other off shore banking groups, and no I cannot get into their bank accounts Mrs Grey, there are too many to make checking them an option, but if you find me a name I can check further, I think?"

"Did he steal their mob money?" Christian asks, what the hell?

"No, checks were done at the bank Sir, and all was in order, it really was an accident."

"What about the Brooklyn restaurant, Papa Franks, where my great grandmother and my great aunt died, who financed their start up and why was it failing in the end?" I ask, I am now not convinced Jenny got her story right, at all.

"Okay any help on this Ethan?" Barney asks.

"On it… It was mortgaged to the hilt, and when Great grandfather Papa Frank was killed in the war, his pension didn't cover the mortgage and insurance refused to pay out. They struggled by with the help of a loan from… Let me check if there was a hold or lean on the Pizza place… Holy moly, Sophia Lagardia. It was an interest free loan to a family member, her sister. It seems you are in fact related to them. Sophia died of a heart attack at the wheel of her car, which was around the time your Papa Frank was in his mid-twenties! It seems she left her sister their restaurant free and clear from debt, and gave Papa Frank his own money, for your grandfather to start up his own real estate business as her sons had done when they got here. It's amazing how the files on this secret family are opening now we have a little more information, and a little more time Anastasia…" I gave him my best fuck off look…

"What? I need answers. So there is no dodgy dealings with the Mafia then?"

"No, just two sisters who were close growing up, and forced apart by their father, one was cut off from the family fortune, perhaps when she married a pizza boy, the other married well and got a lot of her families money." Kate says, wow I forgot the sniffer dog was still sniffing out stuff.

"Paff and phooey. So it's not a mob story then?"

"Nah Ana, just the usual family squabbles over dough, I mean money, not great grandfather, Papa Franks Pizza dough."

"So I have a blood link to the guy who still owns the house then?" I sigh… "Forget about it, it's been a long day and I for one am knackered, thanks for today and sort of sorting some of it out. I am not Mafiosi, just a girl born to be a baker or pizza maker, with a hidden family, and that makes me happy."

"Ana, what about me, Uncle Sonny? Who is my father then?"

"Their son Davide? I will get DNA tests done on you and Marco and see if you are full or half-brothers, let us not forget the number she did on me not too long ago and what she did, I mean they did to hide my mother's parentage! Vita, she could have been fooling this poor guy into thinking you were his kid, especially if there was a lot of money in it. All will be clearer with some food and sleep. I hope?"

"Cool." He says.

"Ana, we will keep working on it and see were the brothers and missing sisters are."

"Thanks. Christian and I are going to eat. Did I tell you all I am going to have a baby? No, well I am, Mum you are going to be a Nonna. Kate a godmother and Ethan a godfather, shared duties with dorky Elliot."

"If it is all the same to you darling, the baby can call me Granny, like Mimi. I maybe Italian, but there is no way I am sharing that title with Vita. Really a baby? Congratulations, oh and I don't knit, or do granny things like Mimi and the witch or Dear Jenny, but I have a very good personal shopper who can fill my grandchild's wardrobes for me with knitted baby goods." She smiles, I like my mother, is that wrong of me after hating her for so sodding long? Nope, it's cool.

We have some answers, but not all of it…

My father comes in with Mom, it seems he is as happy to hear our news as my mother is about not having to keep it a secret. Taylor is lurking at the office door. His smile says it all. All we need to tell now is the dorky brother of mine and my excitable sister and the rest of her uncles, and Holly and my grandparents, shit we still have a lot of people to tell...

"Sir, congratulations, however, your dinner is ready, your parents are stopping to eat too. Gail has made enough. Mrs Grey, Ana, I am to tell you Jenny is with Mr Grey's grandparents. Enjoying their company for the evening. She has tried calling you, but she had no luck."

"My phone died T… Thanks for that everyone, now either work or not, but if you are working, then eat. Kate close your mouth, yes, I am having a baby Ethan, and its only early days. Really early days, so keep it under your hats. Now thank you for everything you have found out for me, and for the more you will surely find. Goodnight, because this new Mama has god-da-eat." The screens shut off one by one, including the teary one of Mrs Carla Adams. My very shocked mother-in-law. Granny Carla…

"Congratulations Son. Annie, are you okay?" Annie? He did call her that at the castle, but here it has been Ana, he always liked Ana. I sigh and wheel Ana and I to the table.

"Carrick, I am shocked, as I told Grace, we weren't trying to you know, add to our numbers not quite so soon, we are still in shock and getting used to it."

"All will be fine Ana, I guarantee it. Dr Green has said it will be her pleasure to see you Ana, and is awaiting your call." My mother gushes, she seems happy not to keep our secret. I have an inkling my father already knows, he hasn't got much of a poker face.

"Sir, dinner will be served in ten minutes, aperitifs are on the lounge table, and as tonight is Greek Night at Escala, I have made a platter of Greek mezze, there is also a bottle of wine chilling, and juice for you Ana." She smiles and heads to her kitchen.

"Thanks Gail." Ana says. "I love Greek food. Christian, are your legs not feeling my weight?" She jumps off my lap and smiles.

"No, Ana I am fine… Dad have you seen this chair in action?"

"I saw the roll around the ramps, what else does it do?" They watch as I demonstrate the standing frame, I rise from seated to standing with ease. "That is going to be of help to many people. When does it go into production Son?"

"This is a last phase prototype, and I have been given the honour of trialling it. The first production models are as we speak on the production line. The first batch of a thousand has been sent to several Veterans rehab units, and then ten more and this one, are going to the hospital where my nurses work."

"A thousand?" Ana asks. "I thought you were donating ten?"

"Yes Baby, a thousand, and if they need more I will provide them. I am also having smaller ones made for several of the children's hospital, here and around America."

"It is good to give. Now, do you want a glass of wine? Can you have wine Christian?" She asks,

"No, but pour Mom and Dad a glass I will join you in a juice." We head to the lounge and Ana picks at the plates of food, I pick up a breadstick and snap it in half and dip it in the Tzatziki. "Breadstick, Ana I used to call you breadstick did I not?" She smiles. "You were very stick thin and I would tease you about it."

"You remembered and yes, yes you did. I hated you for that and for teasing me about my spots and braces on my teeth, you were horrid."

"Yet you still liked me." She and my mother blush. "Admit it, you did and I bet you have my teasing you on camera, do you not?" She laughs.

"You took photos of my boys Ana, those I would love to see."

"I have videos, not photos Grace, taken when they came to the island. They are in London. Grace I will have copies of them made for you."

"You have videos of Elliot and Christian?"

"Yes, Papa Frank bought me a hand held recorder, it was quite a lot less bulkier than the old one I had of his, that was very old and on a funny reel thing. He upgraded me as I got older."

"I remember you terrorising my sons with it. You would hide and torment them. We never saw the boys more relaxed, than they were on the island. You would love it Grace."

"Um, I am not the right sex to be granted access to it. But I would like to see my boys having fun, thank you Ana." We eat, we drink and we talk, whilst Ana regales us of her time on the island. I love that I own it.

"Dinner is served." Gail informs us.

"Thanks Gail. Are you joining us?" Ana asks.

"No, but thank you for the offer, I have prepared dinner for the staff and the rest of our guests, I will eat with the staff, but thank you Ana."

"Okay, well I will see to dinner, you enjoy a night off. I am sure between Grace and I we can serve the rest, and Christian can wash the dishes." She looks as shocked as me hearing that nugget. "You do know how to work the dishwasher right Christian?"

"Yup, I ask Gail to do it." Ana thumps my arm. "Ouch, it was a joke, I don't have to ask, she clears them for me, without asking, but yes take the night off Gail. Please?"

"There is Lamb Stifado for the main course, with wild rice and fresh steamed green vegetables. There is flat bread and more sauces, as you can see. For desert there is a non-Greek chocolate cake. Mr Grey, sorry Christian here, is not too keen on the sugary desserts the Greeks favour. Now if you are sure I have a stifado with my name on it?" She smiles.

"As my wife said, yes take the night off and thank you Gail it smells delicious." Gail leaves us to dinner. My parents have never stopped for dinner with me, or for that matter, or my shame, eaten any sort of meal at my dining table.

"You are deep in thought Christian, what's the matter?" My father asks.

"Yes you look very sad, when you should be happy." My mother states. Whilst Ana strokes my leg, soothing away whatever trouble I feel, how does she do that, know when I need reassurances? I shake my head in disgust.

"I was such a shit son. Can you ever forgive me?" My mother smiles. My father stops eating. Ana, she laughs as a shallot falls from her fork.

"Way to kill the mood Grey, why the face of doom?"

"Ana, this is the first meal my parents have eaten here." She looks at Mom and Dad.

"Okay, but you do eat together? I mean, you do Sunday lunch, you eat in restaurants and I know Grace throws a mean terrace supper together, yes?" My mother laughs.

"The less said about that soiree, the better, had we not got it on security footage and had half the hospital not asked me for advice on pool soup, I can honestly say I would not have remembered half of what I did." They laugh about it now.

"Well, when we get to house hunting, which we have to do, because I will have nightmares about our child's lack of a safe, outdoor play space." I hadn't really given much thought to that. Besides we have nearly two years before that is an issue. "When we house hunt, we will look at houses near you, and have you over all the time, I used to love my family dinners, they were loud and happy times."

"I guess that's the plan. Anyway, I am sorry I was a bad at being family social. I intend to change. Or try to be more social with you both, I mean it has only taken me, what eight years to break bread over this table?"

"It's fine, children, as you will soon find out, need you less and less as they grow, that's why you teach them the things you do, so they can be independent. It's what a parent does, now eat your lamb and stop being so forlorn Christian, please? You have nothing to be sorry for, we each have things to learn and with time comes wisdom and you learn, some do it far quicker than others, whilst the more challenged of us, take a little while longer. You just needed to learn a different way. Now eat, because I see cake with my name on it, in my future." She smiles and kicks my shin from across the table.

"Oww…" I say loudly. "What was that for Mom?"

"Not inviting us sooner… Eat." We are finishing the meal with coffee, or tea in Ana's case.

"So, what did you learn?" My father asks Ana and I.

"Oh, stuff, I mean, I think I mean, no I know I am related to the man, or men who own the house, but I am none too sure were Vita fits into it and why Sonny thinks he is not Nonno's son. Though she has history and he was very acceptant of her past bad behaviour, I just don't know. Anyway that will be solved when Taylor's people get my uncles DNA tested. Then and only then will we know what we are dealing with." Ana tells them about what they have found out.

"So the house? Jenny and Vita, the man, and the houses true usage is a big mystery?" My mother asks. "Can I throw a thought into the ring?" Ana nods her head. "Have you asked the players you can ask, why did they not say they each knew each other? Jenny knew Vita before Carla started seeing your father Ana. Why did she not tell your Papa Frank? Then ask Jenny, why did he send her and her family to a house that was not his? Why did you not know this uncle and side of the family existed, perhaps something went on to split the close sisters and seemingly close cousins up?"

"All questions I have asked myself. I wish my family would stop adding more chaos to my life and cut me some slack, hell cut me a hell of a lot of slack. I think once we find out who the Francesco's and the Davide's are in this story, the puzzle will unfold. I mean I am glad I am not Mafia. I am glad I do not have the problem of owning those properties in New York, too. If I can find one of Vita's siblings willing to talk to me, perhaps they can tell me why she was so cunning and evil."

"You employ some of them Ana." I say. I remember the mia famiglia speech she gave me.

"Yeah, that's a slight lie, I only employ my grandfather's family. Her family tended to take a wage and not work for it. She said they didn't need to, I could afford to help them out. I mean how stupid was I? Don't ask, remember back then I loved her so damned much I did everything she asked of me, I gave her what she wanted and without a second thought too, I mean it's like she was two different people. Grace do they do checks to see if I carry a faulty gene? Like a paranoid gene, or a multi person disorder thing?"

"Why?"

"Because nobody can be so very different, she loved me I know she did, she loved me until, sodding hell I don't even know when she changed, but thinking back she did change, perhaps because I needed her advice less and lesser, and seeing her like she was at the end, it has me worried. Confused and worried. I am missing something. Something really bad?"

"More Bad Ana?" I ask. "As in what?"

"I don't know, if I did I wouldn't be as confused as I am right now. Something is off, really off." I wonder if Ana has missed the obvious thing I picked up? I will ask her later, right now I have a pain in my back…

* * *

I left you a clue in there, re read it a couple of times it gets less complicated when more pieces of the puzzle slip in to play… I would like to thank you all for the pm's and the reviews all it takes is a its good it's bad or a smiley face to make me happy… Read and review please and make me happy lol add a smile to the box below or a frown… Tata for now x


	43. Chapter 43

This story is nowt like fifty shades; I just purloined E.L. James's characters, buildings and some of her other stuff...

* * *

Dreaming of Chocolate and Grey:

Chapter 43:

Who Are the crazies in my life?

We saw Grace and Carrick to the door, after we'd had a wonderful night, they left when Grace noticed Christian was flagging. They made their excuses, seeing as the ball is up and coming, they have had to cancel one because their son was shot, cancelling again was not an option, though they will not lose any money, both Christian and I will see to that. I'd promised to keep them updated on Christian. He is a tad cranky, sleep deprived and in pain. He rolls himself to our room and the saint and the sinner, got to love those names for two very patient nurses. A grumpy Grey is not a good patient. He is forgoing a shower, he wants the itchy dressing changed and he needs sleep.

I have a shower and change into my loungewear, when I get back to the room, Christian is out for the count, if I were not pregnant I would take a couple of those pills to try at least to numb this constant throb in my head. Alas, I will try to sleep without help. I climb in bed and Christian doesn't even move. I turn off the lights and try my best to sleep, but sleep is not coming easy tonight. Is it any wonder when my family is a mess and is causing my husband to possibly regret marrying me, I mean his past was a corker, but mine? Mine is a doozy of a headache.

I decide, after an hour of tossing and turning, to head into my office and try to get my head back in the game. Chocolate, books and my business, this I understand and this I am good at. Not all this very confusing family stuff. I mean hearing all these names is like reading a Italian phone book, confusing and really stressful. I turn on my desk and head straight into my emails, there are hundreds and I hammer out deals, order more stock and sort out my new COO's, there is some confusion as to what I expect. I expect them to be me, and yet I have not seen any of them nor have I given them any guidance at all.

I have decided that they will all meet me in one week, in New York, In one week I will be there to sort out this shit-fess-mess and confusion that Vita has left in her wake. In one week I hope Christian is at least okay to fly, if not I will be spending a couple of nights in the Big Apple on my lonesome. I best tell Kate. As I am picking up my phone to dial her, I get a spooky request for a chat with her, its 3 in the morning here, New York it is 6, she is either just coming in from a night out or she can't sleep either? I accept and see her goofy face staring back at me.

"Holla Boss, what are you doing up at this time of night?"

"What are you doing up at 6am?"

"I was on a roll, and have yet to sleep. So are the night terrors back?"

"No, I haven't had any for a while. It's just I can't sleep and settle, not with all the mess this has caused."

"All will be fine and dandy with the world when we sort out a few niggles we have got at this end. Don't worry we will get to the ass end of this."

"Do you mean bottom of it Kate?"

"Do you not say that in England?" I laugh.

"Possibly, but not me personally. Why?"

"I am embracing all things British at the moment. So, I have more family names and places for your perusal. I have sent you an email, and though it is not all there, takes some understanding the major players are missing and we, as yet cannot connect A to B, yet!"

"Okay I will check it." I open it and its long. "What are all these names, Kate, there are a lot?"

"That is your extended family, as I said there is a lot... There are a few pesky things we, Ethan and I, cannot fathom out, and so Barney is digging deep for you, he hoped he would be able to crack the Vita Code, as we are now calling this fiasco, but the gaps are kind of hard to fill."

"I like that, wow there are a lot of relatives, but then again Nonno and her had lots of brothers and sisters between them, as it seems does this Davide Lagardia."

"They did, but we are missing paperwork because their records office or town council buildings were bombed during the war, and after it people had to re-register their births deaths and marriages, and would you believe lots of people didn't bother, so that is a bitch to sort out, and it is why I will be sleeping instead of going into work. If that's okay boss?"

"Hu? What yes, yes okay. I will be over in a week, I have to have meetings with my new COO's I sent them all a get your ass to New York e-mail. So can you reserve the Peninsula for them."

"Will you need rooms too?"

"No, I think we will be stopping at Christian's place there."

"Good, anything else Ana, because sleep beckons?"

"No, I think we are all good. Did Ethan find out where the money is going?"

"He is sure it's a private account in Switzerland. He is working, or rather Barney is working at hacking the account to see whom is richer by three million pounds…"

"Three million?"

"Yup, and the kicker is your father signed away the percentage from that album to that account number, but there is no name attached to it. So technically it isn't theft."

"So it is not being stolen, he knew where it was going?"

"No not stolen, gifted. It looks like your dad was paying someone on the down low. Perhaps his drug dealer?"

"He didn't have that bad a habit, he was a social weed smoker and occasional white powder monkey. I doubt it was for that. Is it defiantly legal then?"

"It would seem so, perhaps someone wrote a song on the album in question?"

"Perhaps? I will read his diaries, perhaps there is a mention in them? When are you sending them?"

"They are being couriered there tomorrow. Now I really have to go, your family tree is doing in my tree, night Ana."

"Night Kate, and Kate thank you."

"Laters…" Laters? What the hell is she spouting Elliot's lines at me for? Her screen clears and I ponder the email. What the hell it looks like she really has copied an Italian phone book into an eight paged email. I do have a big family. I need to speak to Uncle Ernesto, he and Nonno were the closet of the brothers, perhaps he knows stuff too? I know I need to speak to Vita's family… If they will talk to me after I cut them off…

I look at the screen and decide to do my family tree, and try to at least make headway into this mess. I am sure there is an app on this monster table, but I am not breaking it to find it, Uncle Sonny or Barney will have to give me lessons, I want to look like Tom Cruise in Minority Report, not like the two Minions who fight over their computer and their computer skills. I am told I am useless, and I guess I am? I like good old fashioned pen and paper. You lose stuff on computers, well I do. I grab a journal from the stack Christian has so kindly provided, a new one and begin my quest to fill in branches. I sniff the book and smile, it's such a unique smell, and makes my heart sing.

"Damn it my pen, where is my damned pen?" I look around and I rifle through the desk drawers and they are stocked with everything I would need, my god he thinks of everything, I even have personalised pencils. I have not had my name on a pencil since I was in junior school. These are particularly nice they have Grey on them. I bet they are his… Phooey…Now, do I need to do me? How do you do a tree? A proper tree. I go on line and it looks easy enough. I start with me and work backwards. Simple… If only that were true. I look at what I do know, or what I think I know and begin, Kate has found out a hell of a lot.

 _Anastasia Rose D'Acciaio-Lambert: Fathers side..._

 _Franklin Lambert (formally Francesco Lamberti) Father… Married Carlotta D'Acciaio and had me._

 _Frank Lambert (formally Francesco Lamberti)_ Papa Frank _: Mimi Lambert (formally McKenzie)_ Grammy Mimi _... Had my father and_ _Rene Lambert (formally Lamberti)_

 _Francesco Lambert (formally Francesco Lamberti) Great Grandfather. Maria Lambert (formally Lamberti, maiden name_ _Benedetti)_ Great Grandmother and mystery number 1, how is she related to this Sophia Lagardia?

I ponder my paternal line backwards and it's not that complicated, well apart from the name changes and the added new family members, who are part of the mystery of breaking the Vita Code. For starters, my great grandmother Maria Lambert, is the younger sister of Sophia Lagardia, and I know or I think I know, that she is the king pin, and she and it are where the link to this mystery begins. It was strange too, that they have the same maiden name as Vita. I wonder if that is a coincidence? It is a common surname in Italy, like Smith, is in America, England and Wales. I guess? After my great grandparents things get a little monotonous, I mean I have a barrel load of Francesco's in my past that's for sure. I decide their past has nothing hooky in it. For now. This next bit should be good, it should and will be a confusing as anything, They have big families and this is where the crap-fess-mess is!

 _Anastasia Rose D'Acciaio-Lambert_ : Mothers side:

 _Carlotta Rose Adams, nee D'Acciaio. Silvers, Rossi, D'Lucca and Lambert._ The three between my father and Bob where fools and people I have never met. Thank god. Now I know the sort of back history with Nonno, and his brother. So for now I will go with what I know. I know who Nonno and Vita were, I need to suss out their brothers and sisters. I need to cross wires and hope to find a link, if I find one that is?

 _D'Acciaio's: Nonno's brothers and sisters:_

 _Salvador Raimondo D'Acciaio: Married twice. Nancy Ferrari, died giving birth to their son, still born named Raimondo. Second wife: Rose Benedetti, died in childbirth, leaving one daughter Carlotta Rose D'Acciaio._

Kate has found no records for Carla's adoption. Name on birth certificate as father and mother though is Nonno and Vita. I also tear up a little writing that Salvador's son was still born too, it seems I did have something in common with my real grandfather. Sorrow.

 _Santino Marco D'Acciaio: Married Vita Benedetti. Four children: Raimondo, Marco, Carlotta and Santino._

 _Ernesto Davide D'Acciaio: Married Marie D'Acciaio: Maiden name, D'Campo. 1 child due soon._

Playboy and the families best wine maker. We always joked he and Marco were and are birds of the feather. Still he is settled now, I love this man, he is so funny and so like Nonno, other than he had a wandering eye and hands! He will help me they had no secrets the two of them.

 _Viola Marie D'Acciaio. Married to Jesus. Now Sister Mary Luke._ Silent order and is of no use in helping me with my problem, besides she hasn't been around much since she became a bride of Christ!

 _Eleni Elisabete D'Acciaio:_ Spinster and in a secure facility, so Kate's notes say, but not whether she is an inmate or patient? I read the notes and she is in an asylum and has been for many years, I am not sure why, but I had heard she was childlike, from my uncle Marco. So that too is not that hooky, well not really? A tad confusing but not?

 _Benedetti's: Vita's family._

I read the email to find and search through the many Francesco's and Davide's and come across a birth certificate for Francesco Davide Benedetti he has both of the names of which there are a mass of. His parents are the same as the ones on a certificate for Vita, so ergo her brother… I hope? Then I wonder, did the crazy and oddness in the family comes because their parents are cousins, perhaps?

 _Francesco Davide Benedetti: Married Isabella Benedetti._ My great grandparents. They had six children.

 _Davide Benedetti:_ Died unmarried, killed in an reprisal by the Germans for the assassination of several SS men, according to Vita he was an innocent killed by the bastard Nazi's and it was another reason Vita hated Uncle Marco, he dated a German. That fact would be easy for them to check into and to make sure this is not the Davide we are searching for, but he is the right age!

 _Paulo Benedetti:_ Unmarried, but I know I met him once, when I was about thirteen, he had worrisome eyes? Isn't that strange that in my twenty five years on this planet, I visited them only the once? He was really odd, silent and odd. It seems odd is a thing they all had in common.

 _Vita Viola Benedetti: Married Nonno: S_ he is a mystery, odd and a tad dead to me, my would be Nonna.

 _Violeta Marie Benedetti: Twin sister of Vita._

 _Rose Maria Benedetti: My mothers mother and my grandmother, obviously Ana! Second wife of Salvador._

I knew she had sisters but these, they were twins? It seems I do not know my family at all. Another mystery or two here, because it seems she, Violeta, she vanished off the face of the earth around the time Uncle Sonny the mamas boy was born. Violeta disappeared whilst on her travels, nothing has been heard from her in years, their parents were dead and my great uncle, with the shifty eyes, Paulo, reported her as missing after she failed to return from a year long trip to New York, to visit relatives, she is still listed as a missing person, in both New York and Italy. Now I know she was not mentioned by Vita. Why, because I could have thrown money at finding her? Is that the reason, so I wouldn't poke the hornets' nest? I guess I should have questioned them more on my family's roots? That's what years of obsessing over Chocolate and Grey does for you! I sigh and carry on with this monkey puzzle of a tree.

 _Silva Benedetti: Died a spinster._

She held a torch for Nonno and loved my uncles and my mother as if they were her own. I wonder if she ever really knew the evil that lived within her sister? Perhaps she did, and that's why she went to help Nonno? Hoping he would see what we all know to be true, she was a conniving witch? So my only hope is Uncle Ernesto and a silent nun, I am screwed?

Great, now on to those mysterious Lagardia's, who have given me the headache to beat the one Vita gave me. So what do I know, apart from my great grandmother Maria was Sophia Lagardia's sister? I doodle and run a line between the two sisters and check Kate's e-mails. They didn't go through Ellis Island, they were American through marriage, Davide Lagardia senior was an American/Italian banker. Born in America, interesting. So he had dual citizenship like me, so it seems did his children. I start scribbling, and doodling in my book, my absent minded scribbles are my way of thinking.

Davide Lagardia Senior. Married socialite, Sophia Benedetti. It seems somewhere in this crazy family soup I have added in a few more family members to the pot! Damn why did I not go on more trips to Italy, instead of spending summers with Papa Frank and Grammy Mimi? The reason for my staying at Otter Island is shouting out for me…

"Ana, where are you Ana?" I leave my detective head in my office and go and see to Christian, the saint and or the sinner will have been in to move him or check on him. I usually go for a drink… I grab a water and sinner is coming from the room.

"Mr Grey is awake, he wanted to know where you were. He won't settle Mrs Grey."

"Thanks. I have his water, go to bed he will be fine."

"If you are sure, then goodnight." He heads off and I head in, he is on his belly again and looks as rough as fuck. Gone, the usually stunning good looking model and in the bed, is a beardy, grumpy and worried man. I climb on the bed and kiss his head.

"What is the matter?"

"I woke up and thought you had left me. Ana I thought she shot you and I woke up and you were gone, the bed was cold and you had gone Ana, where were you?"

"I couldn't sleep, you were so tired and looked cute to move so I didn't. I got up and I did some work, until I felt tired enough to sleep through a hurricane, now I am knackered. How about we get settled, did you have a really bad dream?"

"It was like a slow motion picture show, I remembered every damned detail of my throwing myself toward you, it was like an epic Matrix scene. I think I pulled my back too. The guys say it's fine. They gave me more pain meds. Ana, it scared the crap out of me, I really thought it was real."

"Shush, I'm here and never leaving you." Laying on the bed facing him, our eyes meet, blue to grey, and my hand ran through his copper curled hair. "I am never leaving you Mr Grey."

"Good, because if you did I would hunt you down. Ana I really think you were sent to save me." He yawned. "Love you…" Those were the last words I heard, until Lucifer's coughing woke me. Christian was showered and had changed into a leisure suit.

"Morning Beautiful…" He looked different, more confident? He was sat on the bed smiling. "Ana, I showered by myself. The guys say they are leaving today, Taylor knows my medication times, you can massage my back, Mom is here should I need her and these guys are fed up of me already."

"Really, you are better? I mean well enough to go this alone, or rather with the help of your family?"

"Yup, it could have been so different had she shot my spine, but she didn't and that is why I am healing so well, being in peak condition has helped me too. I promise you I am working hard on building up my fitness with the physio, because I think we need to be going on our delayed honeymoon Mrs Grey and soon. So get up and join me for breakfast, please?" I watched Lucifer leave. Really, he doesn't need them? As if to give me my answer, he gets up from the bed unaided, he sits in the chair and as he rounds towards me, he slaps my ass. "I have blue balls woman, that situation you can help me with later. Now, get up Baby and stop looking so hot."

"Hot, are you mad, I look anything but hot, but thanks. You go get your first coffee of the day and I will be in shortly."

"Good, and your dad's stuff came, Kate has sent it."

"Oh goody, I need to check out them boxes and diaries."

"Ethan said they found the missing funds, only they are not, what did that mean?"

"Apparently not, they are no longer missing, but they were hidden well by my father, who had signed the release for the small percentage of one album's sales to be forever paid into a numbered, but unnamed account in a Swiss bank, it was it seems, in his will that it continued even after he died. It is all above board and correct. I just need to know who the three million has gone to, they have been getting it for a long time too."

"Interesting and curious. Up and at em then. I have a mad workout to do, and then breakfast with my wife, and then mysteries to solve. How did you go last night?"

"I am still confused as to where the sister's fit into this, obviously, they are sisters, but how, how did they end up married to both sides of my family and how do they fit in? I cannot fathom that out… The paperwork is missing or hidden in the vastness of the Italian mega sized families, though we know they were siblings, had they not got the same maiden names on the property lean papers and the reason for the loan was to help out her sister, then I would say they were just people sharing the same surname… I have had sleep, so it may be easier through refreshed eyes."

"You think?"

"No, but it helps me to think positive thoughts on the matter, I think? Now go exercise your butt off, because we are going to New York in one week. I have employees to run through their paces and I need to see if we can get in to see the man in the house, whilst we are there too."

"I am going to be right there by your side Ana," He lent in and kissed me. "Every step of the way." He rolled off and I stretched. God last night was like the old days, beavering away all night. I laugh, old days, those old days were less than a month ago. Thanks to the help of my senior staff my house of chocolate has not melted into a pool of sweet chocolate disaster. Perhaps this has helped me release some of the power, some of the tension and it has given me the space to be me again and not just the mad Queen of Chocolate? We can but wait and see.

In fitness and in health. Try in madness and confusion.

I showered after my work out and cannot believe how the physio is helping me gain back full control of my lower back and body. My legs are already working better. After lunch I am going swimming in the pool, with Taylor. My nurses said their farewells and are heading back to La. I am sure the bonus they got for putting up with my cranky ass was worth it? It was a four day excursion and not the six week battle they thought they were facing. I garner strength from that. I am healing well. I am getting stronger and the pain meds are not used nor as strong during the day, I still need the stronger ones when I sleep, but that is better than having them four times a day. I feel good, really good.

Ana is in her office pouring through her father's journals and paperwork. To find what the Kavanagh's and Barney cannot. They left his personal stuff to Ana. They are it seems, riveting! She has been reading them all morning. Tears were cried, tantrums were had and fraught calls were made to the band, especially Uncle Wolfe. Holly has oh shitted and oh fucked a lot too… I did go in and was waved away, Ana informed me she was fine, her mother is flying in to help her sort through this. They do share an interest in finding these things out and together it a shared endeavour, challenge or whatever they see it as. I think it is a voyage of discovery and will be a bonding time for the both of them.

I work in my office and hear her oh fuck a few times. I want to help her, but she insists I work and run GEH, but like my wife, I too am learning to delegate, though I am not as willing to give it up as Ana seems to be, control that is. Not my business, our businesses that is. Ros is calling me on my new next generation computer table. I had to have one when I used the one Ana had in London, gone are the keyboards and monitors and in is the future. I am seriously investing in this technology.

"So how are you, Boss Man?"

"Getting stronger Ros. The guy I fired for buying the trawler yard, Hugo Bass?"

"Yes, do you want his balls in a bag or his head on a platter?"

"Neither, he is to be given a raise and to become a major team player on the acquisitions team, I fucked up, I missed something he did not, and that something means the shipyard has the potential to make the company millions."

"He did that?"

"No and yes, I don't think he knew exactly what I do, that new European laws on the actual seaworthiness of their trawlers comes into force in the New Year, and they are decommissioning the older and unsafe trawlers and giving the owners grants for over half the commissioning of a new trawler or trawlers, Plus the yard is on some prime costal property, that alone could work well for me, there is a hotel not far from the city with an added bonus…"

"…Don't tell me, a golf course on it?"

"You have to ask. It looks like we are going to be acquiring a reason to be paying England a visit."

"We?"

"Ana and I. You are needed to be bolstering my kids inheritance."

"Kid… Inheritance?"

"Yes my wife and I are having a baby. Ros, you are the first person I have told our news to, before Ana has."

"Wow, you are quick worker."

"It seems we are! Now I have sent Bass a grovelling email, because he won't answer my calls, make sure he knows I am sorry and find him a good office. Also look at hiring more people to help you. I do not want Gwen to feel like a GEH widow, get the best and get whomever you want."

"Wow, you need to get shot in the ass more."

"Elliot?"

"He may have said it was a butt shot."

"He is a fool. I was…"

"… I know shot in the back not backside, but wherever the nutter shot you, she must have loaded the bullets with something other than buck shot, to make a drastic change Boss."

"Ros, I can assure you facing death, not being able to walk, and losing Ana and the baby have made me prioritise my life, and none too soon. So get on it Ros, and Ros?"

"Yes Boss?"

"Thanks for the help. How does a pay rise and a bigger slice of the pie sound?"

"Like you need to get shot more often…" She laughs that throaty cough of hers. We end the call and I get back to my table. Ana is still cussing with Holly. Is it bad, and dare I ask her what has her so riled? I head into Ana's office just as she is throwing one of the journals at a poor vase of flowers. Oop's, perhaps I need to make myself scarce? I work, keeping one eye on her office and the other on the net, I used to get such a buzz from finding the next great find, but now? Now I get a buzz from hearing Ana cuss in Italian and work like a woman possessed. She is a fucking turn on and tease… My wife is in Domme mode and I love it.

Mother fucker… Or is that my father, the fucker?

I get to my office after eaten a delicious breakfast made by Gail. Christian and I had a quiet breakfast, eating, staring and kissing, he is looking a lot more GQ, than he was earlier. He is more relaxed now the nurses have left. He feels less, err, less of a weakling I guess? He didn't really utilise them, and apart from turning him and changing his dressings, besides he only needs the minimum of personal care, I shower with him and can give a bed bath if I have too, besides he hated another man caring for him, it's a man thing apparently? Gail said when Taylor broke his arm, he was the same, they are like wounded little boys. I agree as my little wounded soldier finishes his breakfast, he forgoes the chair and with my arm we walk gingerly to his gym, where his physio, Graham, is setting up and Taylor is to be his walking buddy, he doesn't want me to see him in pain and though I love him dearly for thinking about me, I am strong enough to see him grimace… He needs to know I am capable of being there for him.

Heading into my office I see Holly sneak from the staff quarters, I wondered where that door led. It is hidden behind the kitchen units, I know there is a security suite who must also have a doorway to their rooms, because I do not see them marching through Gail's kitchen, not if they know what's good for them… Back to Holly, and I don't have to guess whose bed she was warming.

"Hi, need any help Ana?"

"Yes, a little, how do you fancy helping me read my father's journals?"

"Not much, it's going to be full of his drunk ass sexcapaids and I'm not being funny, though I never met the man, he is still your dad and sort of my dad's brother. Why?"

"Here grab these from just before I was born, I have a feeling the money person is in these, they are the only things Kate and Ethan did not look through, as they were personal."

"If I read anything slightly within the realms of who-ie-irk-ish, I plead the right not to look. I am not reading dad porn for any sister. You got that Lambert?"

"For god's sake Holly you read gay porn because there are two guys in them."

"Hu? I didn't order them, they came to the house, Marco didn't cancel his subscription. Waste not want not, and they have some good articles in them." I shake my head and I empty them, box by box. I haven't even got a clue as to when the payments started. I call Ethan.

"Silly question Ethan, but when did this money start being paid to our Switzerland ghost?"

"In 1988, why?"

"I need to start looking at 1987 then, I have to see if he wrote a song with someone, or you know struck a deal with someone. I need to see if there is a name attached to this money."

"He started paying it in to that account in June 1990. Three months prior to your mother having you, before that he paid cash for personal expenses, no name, just made large withdrawals at the same time each month."

"Is it my mother?"

"No, I ran her finances and she took nothing from your father, she only took the homes she did from Papa Frank to appease his need to thank her for you. Ana, I think I can say your mother was wronged for so many years, so how about you give her the benefit of the doubt, and believe that she is not lying to you? Ask her see if she knows anything. I will keep looking at ways of getting the balance in the account, at least."

"Don't tell me how you are doing it, I do not want to know. Thanks Ethan." I call Mum. Bob picks up. "Hi Bob, is my mum there, please?"

"She is on her way to see you Ana, she left in Christian's jet earlier. How are you and your husband?"

"Me, I am fine and Christian is getting stronger by the day. How come you are not coming too?"

"I have a work commitment and your mother needed to be with you. She wants to help you and she needs it just as much as you Ana, she was lied to for far longer than you, she is not as strong as she makes out she is Ana, believe me, she has never stopped loving you."

"Thanks Bob, I am slowly realising that there are some horrid lies behind almost everything in my life. She has every reason to want answers too. Thanks Bob, I will have her call when she gets here, and Bob?"

"Yes?"

"Thanks for being there for her and me."

"My pleasure, besides I love your mother and she loves me, and in turn we both love you. So get your families mess all squared away and come to Anastasia, and spend a while relaxing and seeing why your father loved the place."

"I will. Do you spend time at the New York house, can I ask?"

"No, not a lot. I had my own place there, and your mother only took the house to stop Papa Frank worrying about her. She spent most of her time between husbands in Anastasia. It is where she feels closet to your father."

"You are very considerate Bob."

"I am not stupid Ana, she has had a much publicised past, most of it is crap, but then again who doesn't come with attachments, the biggest is the love she had for your father. I trust your mother, and trust that she will never lie to you, she doesn't lie, okay? Listen, I have to go, my publicist is calling and he is a strict disciplinarian with my time." We say good bye and I put down the phone. My mother may know who this person is, she followed him enough. I pick up the journal for 1987. I scan the pages and he is in London, in the home I have there. He and Uncle Wolfe have had a row. I cannot see why. I flick through the pages and see he has a fellow songwriter stopping with him. Sandy Smith… I Google her name, and she is called Sandra Jones-Smith, she was a backing singer and now she is listed as a composer, a pianist and classically trained opera singer. She is single, but she has a son. Edward Smith, born in 1987, father unknown. There are no pictures of her with her son and no record of a death of the son either. Who is this Sandy or Sandra, she does have a very common surname, typical? She does have a webpage and a Facebook page. I peruse them and I find out she is talented and looks okay.

"Holly is there anything on this Sandy Smith?"

"I know a Sandra Smith. She used to sing backup with my dad and yours, back in the day. I last saw her when I was about ten, her and her son, we were on holiday in Spain and she was at the same place, my dad looked shocked to see her and as I was only interested in swimming and was a little brattish and I wanted to swim, so they didn't talk much, in fact if Edward hadn't asked who we were I wouldn't have remembered her, so fleeting was the 'chat', she told him she used to sing with my dad a long time ago and he and she left us to my swimming."

"Her son?"

"Yeah, he is a bit older than you and me, three or four years older, and he has downs syndrome. We didn't see a lot of them after that chance meeting on the beach, she was a little strange, besides I think dad said they had left, when I asked him about them, the day after we got there."

"How come I don't know about him and Spain?"

"I don't know, perhaps because his mum is a little reclusive possibly? They live in Wales somewhere. She writes stuff and has a few classical records out there, good ones too."

"Does Uncle Wolfe have any contact with her?"

"I don't think so. I only know about her because I was in meetings with the olds and rehearsals, you I seem to remember dodged those bullets. The band asked was she returning to sing backup and Dad said she had refused the offer due to work commitments. Why?"

"I need some time Holly, to check her out, but I have this feeling he, this Edward, he is my dad's son…"

"Fuck-a-duck…"

* * *

SOOOO… still working on the big New York reveal, but it seems like Ana has an elder secret brother… read review please xxx I am sure all will be crystal clear when Ana meets Davide… Like a mud pie lol


	44. Chapter 44

This story is nowt like fifty shades; I just purloined E.L. James's characters, buildings and some of her other stuff...

* * *

Dreaming of Chocolate and Grey:

Chapter 44:

Ready or not, here we come?

Christian has worked so hard this week, he is an amazingly driven man, and was totally focused on getting rid of the chair, and he did, some days he looked like Superman and others like a man challenged and hurting at every try and turn he took, and I swear when he works out in the gym I melt, and those days are the best, quelle surprise I have a new found love for the gym, because in the days where desperation and frustration at his inadequacies takes him to a dark place, and he takes it out on me, and it then turns into a playground for mad passionate sex, and he claws back a win.

For me it's been amazing to see him fight to get back to where he was and so quickly. We have been home for ten days, and are finally heading to New York today. Three days later than I had hoped for, but Christian had work problems and I had Grey House Two problems, my second, third and fourth floor kitchens were a fire hazard, or they were, until Elliot sorted out the fire chiefs concerns, he has an amazing team working for him and he now has Marco by his side, who has also been here for four days, his designs for our new American head office are amazing... The shops and café on the ground floor mirror the rest so are an easy fix and considering the enormity of it all, it's a blessing they are so easy to install.

My empire is expanding at the rate of three stores a week. Three complete stores and an added café in the stores that were once the House of Hyde's, they are now The House of D'Acciaio, am I ecstatic? You bet I am. Over worked? Not as much as I was, thanks to Christian, his staff and my uncles, who pull me out of some damned fine messes and The Kavanagh's, well let's say they are worth their weight in gold. Now I have the added help of GEH too, so I am spoiled in the choices of whom gets to help.

I love Barney, he is odd, yet so warm and friendly and all-knowing and a weaver of tales on both the dark and white web, his friends are so helpful too, and all they ask is the currency of chocolate, cheap at half the price. Welch, he's damned fine at his job, and security is great in all my stores, and he and Taylor have bolstered my personal security by three more, a woman called Samantha Prescott, a former army girl, who will step up more when Holly leaves for her stuntwoman chores. Ryan and Reynolds are now mine and I have the old two, a tad in love with themselves two, poor Sawyer is hooked on Holly. I sigh. I love my life or some of it is blessed.

Mum is with me too, she and I are sleuthing it out to find out if these secrets are going to be my family's darkest secrets? She was not happy to read the journals pre her fascination with him, and the green eyed monster was out, so she was banned from reading them, however she was pleasantly pleased to find out once his parents told him he was to be a dad, he stopped all his fooling around, and he embraced the thought of being a father with open arms, which had both my mother and I in floods of tears. He loved us both. I gave her the journal he had of their time together and I really think, had he been alive I would not have been an only child. Speaking of which, none of the dozen 'Lenny Lamb Kid's' who took the DNA tests, are my siblings, and for those twelve people they now know they are not Lamberts. I am his lone child, for now.

Mum arrived the day I found out about Edward and she immediately called Uncle Wolfe. As I suspected he knew the tale, but could not tell me what I wanted so desperately to know, was he my brother? We have not been able to get in touch with Sandra Smith, she is like a ghost in the machine, and is still as mysterious as her story is to me, though Uncle Wolfe knew something, it was something though he said was up to her to tell me, so what was the tale to tell? Mum called him a lot and begged him to tell me, she knew that Sandy was a part of the band and that was it, she didn't think there was anything sexual in their past, and the journals back that up. I begged Wolfe to tell me if he was my brother, so did Holly, she even asked was the boy Edward, her brother? He didn't like that one bit and said no, and told all three of us angry women that it was not his tale to tell and he wouldn't be telling it us. Holly flew back to England to grovel, so hurt was he that she would think so little of him abandoning any child of his, he cried real tears yet still would not tell us about Edward.

I am still no closer to solving who my ancestors are either, and how they are related to each side of my life, fraternal or maternal. I have tried to fill in those blanks, as have my team. I mean, I come across as though I have done all this alone but really, I have to thank the bloodhound Kate and dark hacker Barney and his friends. They have found a plethora of 'family' distant and not so distant, but where they fit in the good lord above only knows. I am seriously considering inventing a name for our second child, such was my hatred of this repeat name use within my family, I have three Santino's, two of whom are alive and kicking and Nonno, so as much as I would love to honour him, his name I will not be using. The repeated use of these family names are the confusion in this. That and knowing where the cross happened, how did the D'Acciaio's team up with the Lambert's?

DNA tests are costing me a fortune, but they it seems are needed. We have had quite the week for those expensive test results, what with many results we got back from the DNA place, from the none kids to the 'just whose is whose kid' my uncles? Those we had heard a plentiful supply of 'what the fuck.' I myself am not that bothered by it all anymore, somewhere in my head I have calmed it down to I know who I am and I know the family I have are just that, my loving family. None shared DNA did not make them any less family. They though needed the confirmation and what a bloody lot of confirmation was had…

Uncle Sonny, as it turns out, was lied to, we all were. He was Nonno's actual son, so why did she lie to him? What had she to gain from this horrid deception, and has the secret died with her? When I called him with the news, he was overjoyed and confused and so were the rest of us, because the tests proved he was Vita's son, but Uncle Ray and Uncle Marco were not? My two eldest uncles are full brothers, their DNA is a perfect match to each other, Sonny is only their half-brother, they share Nonno's paternal genes, but unfortunately the maternal gene Sonny has is not the same. I swear we all nearly busted a few blood vessels over that nugget yesterday. Nonno had three boys and we were at a loss to know who had borne Ray and Marco, because it seems it was not Vita, who was supposed to be the mother to all three. How I wish she was alive just so I could flay the skin from her bones, that's how angry she has me. My mother as it turns out is a cousin to her brothers, so at least she knows her story is true, Poor Mum, how she wishes Nonno was her Papa.

I called the only man I could do to help me figure out this shit-fess, Uncle Ernesto. He is as shocked as us, he always thought that Vita was a psychopathic bitch. One minute nice, then in the next as nasty as they came. He however thought the kids were all his brothers, including his angel Carlotta, he didn't even know about my mother being Salvador's child and that hurt him too, and as he didn't have a clue to the secrets his brother kept from him, he suggested asking his sister Viola, or as she is now Sister Mary Luke, if she knew anything? Apparently, Nonno went to see her often, he also remembered Vita going to see her too. He wasn't sure why but she had. I am told it's not a prison nor a silent order but it is a place of contemplation, where people go for seclusion and solace when they have reached a certain point in their lives, and they need a spiritual healing and or need to atone for their sins, and I can go and visit her if I wish. So perhaps she confessed her sins to the sister-in-law who is a sister? I may stop in Italy to see the mysterious Nun in the family. One way or another I am going to get to the bottom of this, and soon.

My head is filled with worry, and my poor husband is killing me with kindness and attention, he knows the signs and gives me either space, or his attention and time, he is very generous of his time and with the belly hugs and rubs. I swear he will wear away the skin protecting Grey Baby Two, we are working on a name for our son. Christian says he is a boy, and I agree. I am spoiled and worshiped and sexed into oblivion most nights, and back to sleeping soundly once more. The nightmares stop when his arms engulf me in their warmth, which would then lead to hours of gentle love making, comfortable and emotional and much needed. I have no complaints in that region of our life, Christian insists it was a motivational tool in his rehab, getting back to our having full and active sex. Such a chore it was too.

We are New York bound today, and I cannot wait to get answers to the questions we, or rather I need answers to. Marco is staying put to get Seattle's newest head office underway, because I need an empire to run that is near, I am having some major chocolate making withdrawals symptoms. This is the longest I have been away from my empire. I have created more new lines, but in Gail's kitchen, she is very tolerant of my outbursts and I am always apologetic, she is like Jenny, silent when required and good with the advice, when needed. Jenny has been rather silent on the New York house and I have to wonder why, but she repeated her story and nothing had changed.

Escala is drowning in the smell of chocolate and baked goods, and security are training more, or so I am told. I hear my mother shouting, she is as excited to see New York as am I. She is trying to keep busy and is helping Gail. Poor Gail, my mother is a talker and is easily distracted, she can be doing one thing and suddenly she has a thought and off she goes and writes about whatever it is she thought of. I am getting used to her quirks, they are not irksome but funny to watch, she is a writer after all…

"Ana, how much do you need to take with you?" My mum asks, she is packing for me. Gail is packing for Christian, a task she knows well and she enjoys.

Normally I have a go bag packed, but since that first time here in Seattle, and meeting Christian again, I have been a frigging mess. I was so organised and in control, in what personal life I had, and in work I micro managed every last detail, everything my top people did I questioned and double checked. I was an utter control freak and now? Now I am not, though I could do with getting a little more focus in my life, perhaps when this mess with the family and my would be could be brother is sorted I will know more and be settled and less fought? I mean I can't be any worse than I am now, can I? No, I now willingly accept help, because I am not the mistress of any universe at the moment, though Christian would beg to differ. I am his mistress, in the red dungeon room. I swoon, last night was amazing. I tingle thinking about it. "Ana…" For god's sake. My mother has stopped me from rerunning last night through my happy head.

"Mom, pack enough for a week, pack three suits, three cocktail dresses and several day dresses and casual clothes, and my jogging stuff. I need to get back to running. Please."

"Ana, what about underwear and you know those things and do you want these toys packing?" Lummy, mummy, she has found the stash.

"I will pack my knickers and crap Mother, and the toys are…"

"…Your business. Now, I need to finish off my own. Bobby says he is sorry he cannot come. He has just arrived in England, he rang earlier, he was just confirming his accommodation is still okay, and that we are meeting him there still, we are, aren't we?"

"Yes, he is being looked after by Jenny in my house, so yes we will see him besides we have to bury the families ashes."

"I know, but I am not sure I want Vita with your father and his parents. Nonno yes, but not her."

"I was thinking the same thing Mum, don't worry."

"What did the boys say?" She asks.

"That we are to flush her down the flusher, even Sonny agrees with the idea."

"That would work. Any-who, you are all done except the what not's and playful stuff." She glides past me, she is an amazing person. I never thought I would ever be as close to her as we now are. We are like a proper mother and daughter tag team, we talk for hours, we look at photos and pictures, and we read books in our library and yes, my husband has all her works on his shelf, he is a massive fan. She smiled when she saw them, all first editions, and all are well read. He was embarrassed for a second. She is so good and knows when to step back and to step up, so much so that I am falling in love with my mother and as stupid as that sounds, I do love her. She is an amazing woman. She hides nothing and she tells me anything I want to know, and spares no details. She cannot wait to see my father's room. She tears up a lot when she talks about him. I smile to myself and wonder what the hell to do with Vile Vita? I can honestly say, just for making me hate my sweet, yes sweet mother as much as she did, Vita is going to have a fitting send off.

"Ana, get packing Jason and the rest are waiting for you, where is Christian?"

"I am here Carla, what can I do for you?" He saunters in from his office.

The great room looks like Grand Central Station. It is an epic task getting me, my husband and our family and staff organised for a month long trip to New York and Europe. We have set aside a week in New York, the rest is allocated to Europe and Australia. I have never been so disconnected to my business as I am right now, and ordinarily I would be losing it, but I seem to be able to let my dire need to control everything, and delegate more.

"Are your gadgets packed?" She asks him, and he grins. My mother doesn't notice, but Taylor does.

"Yes I have, but our plane has all the gadgets needed, and our home in New York is equally fitted out. Carla, please relax we are okay. Please take a minute and drink this tea." He is so calm, so elegant and so fuckable, for god's sake I am in hormonal sex overdrive at the moment. I am ready to sex my husband into oblivion at the drop of a hat, a bend over in the gym or when I do a walk past his office and hear him tearing his employees a new one, everything he does makes me weak at the knees and require a change of underwear. I swear the man does these things on purpose. I take my seat and the drink he offers me, as the bags disappear down the service elevator.

Last night my mother attended the ball for us last night and today she has spent the morning telling us of the grand masked ball, so security had a late finish and an early start, she laughed and said she felt like a movie star.

"Christian, you are such a good boy. You were missed at the ball, news of your heroics had the gathered ladies and other guests speculating as to how your injuries are, and I have to say it was all Elliot's fault, was such a goof ball. He told everyone and anyone your butt is healing just fine and that your wife is tending to it just fine, when I do believe one or two of Mia's little girl friends were asking about you and offered to help."

"He is milking my ass being shot, I will have to think of something to repay his embellishment of my injury. Now, Carla are you all packed?" He says as he drinks his coffee, me I watch as they chat. My family. My husband and my mother, and right on cue I have the dreaded onslaught of tears. "Ana, Baby are you okay?"

"Here take this Ana…" My mother passes me a pack of tissues. "It gets better, what started this lot of tears?"

"You are drinking coffee with me, I have Christian and I have you and I may have a messy life, but I have you two, too!"

"Okay, one I am drinking tea, and two, your life is not messy, its straight forward. You know who I am, who your father was, and who your uncles and their children are. You damned well know your Nonno loved you and you were worshiped by Papa Frank and Granny Mimi. Your husband here and his family are in love with you, so please stop worrying about the other incidental people in your life, because that's what they are incidentals. Ana what you have should be family enough."

"Well said Carla, but, and this is the thing with our Ana, she needs clarity for her to function normally. Clarity I hope this trip will bring. Now how is the next book coming?" He changes the topic of conversation.

"What mine or my mums?" We laugh. "I am starting the launch off in one month, when we launch The Chocolate Kitchen, we go live at the same time. One of the bigger syndicates have already bought into it for the first season and have covered the cost of setting up the kitchen studio." I am thankful Kate is good at her job, she is loving it just lately and is beavering away at many things for me, that girl needs another holiday.

"My wife the television star, what next?" Christian sips his coffee and I watch as his lips kiss the mug, oh my word, hot flush alert…

"Oh I don't know, how about being a mum and wife?" I say and smile.

"That's so sweet, as to my book I am in sore need of a break, Bobby and I have been touring with our books for twelve months now and we need a break."

"How about you use one of our many hideaways?" Christian asks her. "Bali, Bora-Bora, the Caribbean?"

"Thank you. All nice places to be I am sure, but I love sitting on the porch of my home in Anastasia and just writing there. Anywhere I hear the sea and the birds and the pretty sounds of nature is a pleasant writing nook for me, I especially love the rain on the tin roof there too, sometimes when I sit and listen it's like natures throwing a free concert and when it starts, sometimes hours pass and all I have written is a few words, but the nautical symphony and Mother Nature make for a good and calming effect on me, the whole place draws you in and it is so relaxing and better than any rehab clinic. Ana, you have to come and see it. You will then realise why I love it and why your father bought it. It truly is a peaceful place to be." Christian passes her a packet of the tissues too.

"We will Carla. We will. Now we need to grab our gadgets Taylor is waving." I see him and Gail smiling. I insisted she comes with us. I would hate a month away from Christian and so she is now a fixture should Christian and Taylor's trips last longer than a week. Though that is still up for discussion as I will need her as the pregnancy continues. She is to be my nanny, not the baby's nanny, but mine. I am not having one for the baby, I am going to relish all there is to see, hear and feel about our baby. This is proving a great motivational tool of my own, my letting loose on the reins of my company, to give more time to our baby.

We head in a convoy to Sea-Tac, where our bags are loaded and everyone takes their seats. I am sort of nervous about this leg of the journey, but excited too. I may have a family who love me, but I have issues that need answers, because as Christian quite rightly says, I need clarity. My mother is seated with Gail, they have a very nice friendship going on and I like it. Mum needs friends she seems a little too wrapped up in Bobby, dear Bobby. He loves my mother that's for sure. This is the longest they have been apart and though he hates it, he knows I need her more, and she needs me too. I like him too.

Five and a half hours flight time… It goes particularly quickly this time, not like it did the last time I was in the jet, doing this same trip after signing the paperwork for Otter Island. Time seems to be hurtling past the window. I am kept fed and watered like a plant. Christian makes me eat, and my mother and Gail see to it I am hydrated. I swear I am not stupid enough to put the baby in any dangerous situations. My eyes are a little heavy, I sit back in the chair and close my eyes for a second…

Wake up Sleepy head…

I watch as Ana sleeps, her face is a picture of perfection. She has been my damned rock and her helping me has only hastened my recovery. During the excruciating workouts and learning to get past the fear I have of collapsing and looking like a lesser man, she has been there, kicking butt and motivating me. Dangling the sex carrot before the ass she married, it became her daily chore. I swear looking at her some days was enough for me to run faster and get my fill of those promised rewards. I even took the lead last night in the red room…

We had had a day from hell, my guy in charge of new contracts at the new fishing trawler yard, had found another company was undercutting us, and I was fuming at their audacity, I wanted those contracts and was willing to get them at any cost, even if it meant making a loss. Ana stepped in and stopped me making an utter mess of it. She pointed out, quite matter of fact-ley, that if we couldn't afford to take the loss, how could a small yard afford to do it, and if so, how? My head was not in the game, the old me would have already asked that question and had several answers before me already.

"Sit back and wait for them to fail, then get them, their company and those contracts when they go belly up, and they will."

"Normally that would be my thinking and I would, but now I hate this thing about people trying to beat me."

"They think you are weak because of the shooting. News of your speedy recovery is not as newsworthy as your heroic shooting. So whilst you are in New York do the leg work with the press and be nice. Wait and watch and patience will win the day with both the press and your competitors, you Mr Grey are sorely lacking in that department. Slowly, slowly catchy monkey!"

"It's actually softly, softly catchy monkey, but I get it. Now stop trying to teach me to suck eggs Baby."

"Oh that sounds like a plan, and incentive for later, I have the toy you like and a new egg all shiny and new and ready to tease, with ease? Now take it slow and soft, and watch as your competitors lose to my husband." When she mentioned the toys I knew she meant the ring of doom thing she had, and I swear I came a little just thinking about it. My wife the prick tease, she knows how to use and work her role of Domme and I like it. I love submitting to her, just as much as I love her submitting to me. We are simpatico in everything we do and that's even down to filling the dishwasher, how domesticated am I? Very. I have gone from a feral, shit anywhere, street smart moggy cat, to a house trained kitten… I purred as she watched from her office.

"You are having your bad pussy versus good pussy day dream, aren't you?"

"Yup. Go to work I am catching monkeys here. Go and do your chocolate thing, I need to work and claim my soft and slow reward. Laters…"

"Umm, if you are lucky." She winks her eye and bites her fucking lip, and cue the tent action in my pants, again… Perhaps that doorway needs a door? I can't concentrate, especially when she doodles and chews her pencils as seductively as she does, and then she does the hair toss thing and sighs. I swear she is a very pleasant distraction.

She left her office with her little journal, great the house will be filled with those enticing aromas in an hour or two, my mouth salivates, I am after all married to the Queen of Chocolates, lucky me. I worked hard all day doing just as she said, I pulled back from the hostile takeover and I let them think I was out of the race, I sat back and now I wait.

The Coping Together Ball is tonight and we could go, but I am not ready to face the many questions just yet and Ana had persuaded her mother to go in our place. She eagerly said yes, which meant a night in for Mr and Mrs Grey. Just what Dr Grace ordered, because I had been a good boy and got all better. I swear my mother is as happy as all hell to be a grandmother. She has been my angel again. I have a blessed life and I intend to be more grateful for what I have and do more for others, as Ana quite rightly said, our children will want for nothing, so we are looking at setting up some sort of charitable foundation which we will fund and run together, as yet we have yet to find the cause both of us want to chase. Though the one that helped Ana, 'S.A.N.D' is richer by ten million, it is not the one solely for us to give our patronage to. We want to look at helping homeless families and veterans. Somehow, I seem to be favouring the vets, and Ana the families. Perhaps we can combine the two? Either way we will be helping the homeless and hungry. We cannot forget the hungry…

Ana finished in the kitchen and I had finished with work. Gail and Taylor were having the night off before we travel to the Big Apple tomorrow, Mom had invited them to be a guest on the family table, which Taylor seemed to be very emotional about. Gail has left us a Mexican feast, and it smells amazing. We sit at the breakfast bar and eat and drink. I am having a beer, Ana insisted. We talk and we talk, something I am finding I really enjoy, discussing my day with the woman I love, even if that woman has been a big part of it, it is still good to come home and talk to her. What the hell sort of life did I have before Ana? Fucking boring as fuck, that's what. How and why did it take me so long to realise this? I am deep in thought…

"Earth to Christian, I asked did you fancy a trip to the red room?" The what?

"Did I hear that right?"

"Yup, you have been a good boy, why not?"

"Why the fuck not indeed… Though my carrying you up there…"

"…Hey I know you can do it, but I would prefer I was waiting there for you, Come up when you have readied yourself… Wear the ripped jeans and nothing else…" Oh hell yes… "Come with a smile on your face and a need to please. Please?"

"Get you beautiful ass up there and assume the position."

"Yes Sir… Do the dishes first though." And my dick twitches… I watch as she leaves me to my last nacho. I am eating a chip and sucking off the damned cheese, whilst my woman is waiting for me. I clear the damned plates, did I say I am under her thumb and partially domesticated? I am, because if she has to clear away my shit I don't get rewarded, my how the tables have turned, and not one fuck do I give that Elliot thinks I am under her thumb, because I am and as an added bonus I know what she can do with that thumb and I shiver.

When I got to the room, she was naked, her hair was braided, she was kneeling down and her palms were up turned. Ana the submissive, my dick thinks his all his Christmases have come at once. I say nothing and head to my chest of drawers, I retrieve the blindfold, the nipple clamps and a larger butt plug, having claimed her other virginity, she now enjoys anal play. I didn't like the idea of her doing that to me, my bad experiences with Elena were always taunting my thoughts, and played on at the back of my damned mind, but with Ana, it is an amazing treat, a pleasure and one I need. I smile and have a wicked thought, I am going to take Ana on a trip like no other, one of sensory and sexual over lode. I take out the new Ben-Wa-Balls. I grab the remote control and select a play mix I have always wanted to fuck to… I stare at Ana and she has not moved a muscle.

"Ana, get on the bed." She rises slowly and seductively gets in the middle of the bed. I select four red bundles of rope and she smiles. "Did I say you could smile?"

"No."

"Good, now lie still." I grin as I tie her wrists and ankles and loop the rope through the anchors on each of the bed posts. When I have finished she is open to me and I can only imagine the pleasure I am about to take from my wife. The blindfold is placed over her eyes and as I do I lean down and kiss her, she returns the kisses eagerly. "Good girl, now suck on these carefully." I insert the balls and she murmurs something illegible. I take them out and kiss her again, and my fingers find her entrance and move slowly within her folds, she is clenching the ropes as I slide in the balls.

"Oh god…" She mutters.

"God has nothing to do with this Baby." I slap her pussy and begin the sudden onslaught of making every inch of her body sing. The nipple claps are next and slide easily on her erect nipples. She ouches, and I grin again, as I pull them. Again another murmur is heard from her lips and I kiss her again and bite her lip as I pull away. "Silence, is the name of the game Ana, silence and enjoyment."

"Yes Sir." I press play and as I do, I kiss Ana again.

"Ana, you will not hear anything but the music, relax."

"Okay, Christian, be careful. Do not hurt yourself. Please?" I kiss her again. With her soft lips against mine, I place the head phones in. The first track is a haunting piano melody I wrote when I was in a particularly dark place. Ana smiles, she likes the piano, I turn it up and watch as her body undulates, she hears nothing, but I see the show her body is putting on. She likes my piano playing abilities, I grab a small suede flogger, to tease and tantalise, I do like that word. Seduction is another word I have become fond of. As the music plays I do nothing but run the suede tendrils up and down her body, the music is loud and I barely hear her soft moans, but hear them I do. I flick the tendrils against her breasts and she is silenced, the music melds from one song to another, and as they do I change my implement of 'torture', she has come, and apologised as she did, but my god it was a wonder to watch, the balls and the feather were a killer combination for her. Next the fur glove, I run it up from her ankles between her legs and watch as her body feels the softness of the fur, again she moans, deeper this time and I have the biggest hard on ever.

"Christian, fuck me Christian, please…" I should punish her as she does me, but hearing her beg turns me on more.

"All in good time Mrs Grey, all in good time, now shush, I do have a wonderful ball-gag I have yet to use." I don't, because I know she hates them. I know this will rile her and why I said it I do not know, because she will cut me off if I as much as try to silence her. I like her biting my shoulder and she likes biting it. She screeches out in annoyance, as I knew she would.

"You know I hate them. You do and we will not revisit this room for a long time, hard limit Grey, hard limit." I smile, what she doesn't know is that all the gags and things she hates have gone.

"Would that you could banish sex from our lives Baby. Now shush." My music plays on and I use everything I have to tease her more. When I know she is near to calling a halt to this, I quickly pull off the nipple clamps and my mouth suckles on her reddish purple nipples, Ana tries to raise her legs and arms but is tethered, I suck hard and climb onto the bed. My kisses head to her pussy, and as I near I pull out the balls and hear her scream in delight, not wanting to waste a drop of her, I suck away her juices and as I do she groans like a woman possessed, is she possessed? I think the lady doth protest too much. I slide up her body and kiss her, she tastes herself on my lips and devours mine.

"Fuck me Grey or die…"

"Ouch, was once not good enough for you Baby?"

"Christian, I, I…"

"…Shush, I was joking, Ana. Can I release you without you kneeing my balls?"

"Please, please untie me and let me play Christian?"

"With me or yourself?"

"A little of both." I untie her and watch as she takes off the blindfold and sees the mess I have made with our toys. "You really are a messy boy… Now did I not tell you to fuck me, and hard?" We fucked like lovers who had been starved of sex for months. I swear if I were to go a full month without this, my balls would shrivel up and die. Afterwards, Ana and I watched the sun come up from the terrace outside of my room. Sleep, who needs sleep? My wife, that's who, she is wrapped tightly in my arms and I am feeling blessed and in need of a holiday. A holiday alone with my wife. The upcoming month will only make things more hectic for her, and we have to think of the baby, the tiny thumb sized baby she carries. I am going to make sure she has the best care and attention and that she gets to hear our child cry his first breath…

"Mr Grey, we are coming into land Sir." I wake, when did I go to sleep? Ana yawns. It seems the lack of sleep last night had caused us both to crash. Hard.

"Ana, do you need anything?"

"To pee, I need to pee now and oh god I need to puke. Shift." I move as quickly as she does and as she throws her head over the toilet, she lets loose with the puke and as she does I grab a washcloth and her hair tie, I place the cloth on the back of her neck and scoop up her hair and place it in her band, to stop her hair falling in the path of the vile stuff she is shifting. Her vomiting stops and she then turns quickly and pees, I didn't even have time to turn around, as she finishes she sighs.

"Oh god I needed that. That is the only time you see me do that to, oh hell I feel so much better. Thank you…"

"Morning sickness?"

"I am afraid so, welcome to unplanned parenthood. You have just witnessed the first of many pregnancy horrors Daddy."

I grin like a fool, as Taylor tells us we have to take our seats. My wife may have puked for England, but she called me daddy and it made my fucking day. Now to get her some peace and clarity, I hope.

I am working on four things at once here, my books, my fan fic and getting better oh and organising my damned files on here. Busy busy, busy, no rest for the wicked. So read and review and tell me what you think is going on lol because I am winging it here lol…


	45. Chapter 45

This story is nowt like fifty shades; I just purloined E.L. James's characters, buildings and some of her other stuff...

* * *

Dreaming of Chocolate and Grey:

Chapter 45:

Hello, and you are? Part One?

We are driven to Christian's place, and it is huge. Why does he have these vast buildings and not use them? My mum is stopping with us. She for some reason does not like the house that Papa Frank gave her. She assures me it was a home she never wanted. It is rented out to her publishing house and they pay her a huge amount of rent for it. Money, she set aside for me, like I need it. No rows were had when I said thanks, but no thanks. She sponsors a children's holiday camp, with proceeds from the sale of her books. I told her to add the fund to that. She smiled and said she would transfer it in my name. What, I do not need even more money I will not spend. Though this shit-fess Vita Code is costing a small fortune. Gail and Taylor see to the bags, though I have told her she is not working on her trip she is on holiday.

Mrs Travis is the welcoming committee, she is Gail's counterpart here. I don't ask why Gail does not follow him around like Taylor, but it would be cost effective having her do so, would it not? I am hungry and thirsty and as if she reads my mind Mrs Travis offers us a belated lunch. Christian leads the way after the introductions are done. She is a little older than Gail and more, I don't know matronly? My mother is taking in her surroundings, as am I. It's very imposing, grand and old, nothing like Escala at all.

"Christian, this is very similar to my place."

"Your place here is a double fronted brownstone, with five floors and a basement?"

"Yes, it's huge and far too big for me. I rattled in the place. I think I have only stopped there about a dozen times all in all."

"Why have it then Mum?" I ask.

"I shared it with Papa Frank, he came occasionally to stop with me, after Mimi died. I told you this yes?"

"Yes. Some of it."

"He bought it many years before, as we know from this Davide guy and his brother, he didn't stop there but he used it as a base for his East coast properties. Then after your father died he sold all of them off here. He did well and as you know gave me that property. I took it but only to shut him up. Besides the others were bigger and swankier and I was a mess at the time and running here seemed like the answer to my problems. I got back into modelling for a while, but the temptations were too, tempting. So I packed my things and chilled in Anastasia, got better and tried to move on. I think that's why I despised this place, because my old life haunted me. He brought me here, your father, that night. You were conceived in the house after a concert, we were brought back here to party with the band, and well as they say the rest is history."

"It was my father's home?"

"No, no he had a key, he had free use of the place, and he and I we…"

"I get the picture, so the concert was here?"

"Yes, did I not tell you, did you not read about it or hear about your whore of a mother from Vita?"

"No, but then again, I gave you that years journals, I did not need to know about my parents wild night. And do not call yourself that ever again. Do you hear me Mother?"

"Yes Anastasia, I hear you."

"So that's why you hate the place really?"

"Yes." That solves the mystery of her not using the place. It is the place her threw her out of, alone and pregnant. "I guess?" She holds my arm as we enter the dining room. Okay, this is very classic and nice. Christian is speaking to Mrs Travis and smiling.

"Are you ready to eat Mrs Grey, Mrs Adams?" She asks.

"I am famished. What are we having Mrs Travis?" I ask.

"Chicken Pot Pie, its Mr Grey's favourite, or I have cold cuts, salad and fresh bread, if you would prefer something lighter?"

"Oh, I like chicken pie. Mash and gravy too?" I tell her.

"Is there any other way to have it, with seasonal vegetables." I have died and gone to heaven. I love having people cook for me.

"That sounds like a meal and a half, could I just have the salad. Please?" My mother asks. I stare at the room and there are three place settings on a massive table that comfortably could seat thirty folks.

"Christian, is there somewhere, err less imposing to eat?"

"We have the kitchen, why do you not like it Ana?"

"I feel like I am in an episode of Downton Abby. I'd like to eat in the kitchen, is that okay?" I ask and he smiles.

"Mrs Travis, we would like to eat in the kitchen, is that okay?"

"Certainly Sir. The staff are seeing to themselves. In the staff quarters Sir. I have put Mrs Adams in the Yellow room. Your rooms are ready Sir and I have taken the liberty of stocking the shelves with the things Mrs Jones said you liked Mrs Grey, if there is anything else you need just ask." I definitely like having staff. Jenny is family and tells me to get my bum to the shops if I want special soaps and stuff. She does not spoil me. We are taken through to the kitchen and I think I have mild kitchen envy. The place is pristine and huge. After we are seated Mrs Travis serves up a meal fit for a king, and I eat my fill and more, she is a good cook too, does he have an army of great home cooks on his books? I am stuffed full to bursting and as she clears away she offers me a dessert, I couldn't eat another morsel, could I?

"No thank you Mrs Travis, I am full and can I say your pastry is amazing?"

"Mrs Grey, thank you. I would like to take the credit, but its store bought pastry. My hands are not up to making my own anymore. Mr Grey here though insists on keeping me on."

"Mrs Travis and I have this dance each and every time we come. I like your cooking, and you love your home here, why rock the boat when this one is not sinking?"

"Mr Grey Sir, thank you." She clears away and I see the smile on his face, who is he kidding, he didn't have a heart? A mean man would have replaced her and he didn't, besides the pastry fooled me. I smile and give his leg a tender rub.

"She has arthritis and needs help, she is a very nice lady and this house is her home."

"She needs help."

"She has help. The house is used by family and clients. Now, do you want a cup of tea Baby?" I nod my happy head.

"What are we doing today Ana?" My mother asks. Christian smiles.

"Like you have to ask Carla? Mrs Grey here, nosey and annoyed Mrs Grey wants to go see the house and this possible great uncle of hers, yes?"

"Yes. If only so I can relax and put some names into those missing slots and you know find out what the hell happened?"

"Well we will have our drinks and go and see if he is in, shall we? We have the rest of the day. He may not be in. Carla where is your home? We never asked?"

"Its 329 West 71st Street, just up the road from this house of mystery. The whole row is the same, all the same, with mirrored properties either side of each other. The letting agent has had an offer to buy it and now I know Ana does not want it, I think I will sell it. Is that okay Ana?"

"What, sell it? Yes, do what you want with it. We have no need of more worry do we Mum?" She agrees. I did wonder why she kept it, if she hated it, and what a surprise it was for me. I do not need more, I want less, a hell of a lot less. We finish our drinks and Sawyer brings around the car. I am a little excited, okay I am mega excited.

When we get there I see what my mother means, the houses are identical, a grand row of twenty or so double wide brownstones, it is a tree lined street and quiet. On the other side of the street are far less imposing structures, ugly in comparison to these. Modern throw ups and not my idea of an inviting place to live. I guess they are rentals, as the place can command top dollar rents here, it's a stone's throw from Central Park and thus the city centre too. I watch as we pull up outside the house. I have the key from Uncle Sonny to the apartment he has here. We do not know yet how Vita got the key and why she had it, I guess in this imposing house I will hopefully get some answers. We get out of the car and my heart is beating ten to the dozen. Christian helps me up the steps and my mother is flanked by Taylor as Sawyer stays by the car.

"So, here we are."

"Indeed we are." I ring the bell before I chicken out and get myself the hell out of dodge. I need answers, though I have my family and love the ones I have, I need to know who I am, and who are these people and just who this Davide Lagardia is. I ring again. As I step back a gentleman answers the door.

"Can I help you Ma'am?"

"I would like to speak to Davide Lagardia, if he is at home. I am Anastasia Grey and this is my husband Christian Grey and my mother Carla Adams."

"Can I ask with what it is in regards to?"

"I think he may be a relative." He does not seem as surprised to hear that as I thought he would be. Strange?

"How so?"

"His mother was related to my great grandmother and it is a recent discovery, one I would like to know about. He may know me better as D'Acciaio, or Lambert? My grandfather's names? My great grandmother was called Maria Lambert, Maria Benedetti as was."

"I will see if he will see you, he is a little unwell. Come this way, could you please wait in here?" He shows us through to another grand room, much like Christian's place. I shuffle and wait for a reply. Christian and my mother are silent too as we await an audience with this sick man. We seem to wait forever too. Eventually he comes back into the room and nods his head, we are to follow him. Oh my god, he is real Davide Lagardia, is here and is willing to talk to us.

"He is, as I said not very well. He is in his quarters."

"What is this place." Christian asks.

"Sir?"

"What is the house used for? I see a lot of security and numbers on doors."

"Mr Grey, this is Mr Lagardia's family home, some years ago he returned here and had three of his homes converted into this, what you see before you. It is now a retirement complex, a place for him and his friends to live without the stigma of it being called a care home, it is a care home, but different from the run of the mill care homes. Did you not know this?"

"No, we were led to believe it was a private club."

"Some forty years ago, one of the other properties on the block was. Please, this way and be mindful of his time, he loves to talk and though he is old, he is as sharp as a tack but sometimes he forgets he needs his rest." He cares for the man, that much is evident, I wonder what his role here is, perhaps he's his butler?

"We won't keep him long. I promise." I say as he opens the door for me. I walk in and who do I see sat in a chair, Papa Frank... I stumble and fall forward. Christian catches my arm and I stare into the eyes of my Grandfather. Fucking hell… I stare…I know I cry… I look and I continue to stare. He is here and alive. What the hell?

"Hello Anastasia. Carlotta…"

"You know me, I mean us?" I say. "You actually know me, are you my grandfather, you were meant to be dead, are you not dead?" I sound like a lune. I feel like an idiot, because lord that was a stupid something to say, I was there when they cremated my grandfather so he cannot be Papa Frank, can he?

"I actually do, but I have never met you before. Please sit." I stare and sit, he really is my Papa Franks double. "You didn't know about me, not I gather from the look on your surprised face? I see you were not expecting me to look like my cousin Frank?"

"You look like him, yes, sorry I was shocked for a moment, oh heck you do look like Papa Frank."

"We are family, so yes we look alike. We were often taken for brothers, but we weren't, just cousins. He was a fine man, and I was proud to call him family. Please sit down Anastasia."

"Cousins?" Christian asks.

"I presumed you knew? My mother Sophia and his mother Maria were sisters."

"How I mean you will need to explain that because we cannot find the connection, other than a lean on the restaurant your mother helped save?" Christian asks, as I continue to stare, he is Papa Frank, he is…

"Papa Franks Pizzeria?"

"Yes, Papa Franks." I say. "You knew of him too?" He smiles at my question.

"He made the best pizza's according you your grandfather Ana. Sadly no, I never met the man. He died before our families found each other." The gentleman who showed us in coughed.

"Can I offer you some refreshments?" He asked and awaited our reply.

"You will be here a while, because this is quite the tale young Anastasia?" I nod.

"Tea would be lovely thank you, and please call me Ana." The others nod too and the man who showed us in nods his head and leaves.

"That is Fredrick, my assistant. He runs the house for me. He is my personal assistant and my right arm."

"Is this place a care home?" I ask. "Or something more, selective shall we say?"

"It is a retirement complex, where my friends and family come to stop when their families have had enough of them. As you can see I have a very large family of many friends." He points to the grand piano and it is filled with photos of people, family, friends and some of whom look like Papa too. "I own the whole block, apart from your house Carlotta."

"My house? Oh yes, my house. How do you know my daughter and I and please call me Carla, only my mother called me Carlotta, who wasn't really my mother, but my aunt, we too have a long story, a story that my daughter and I would like some closure on, please?"

"I am family. We are family…"

"How come we did not know about you? Yet you knew about us?" She asks. "And how come I am living in a home my father-in-law bought from you for a dollar?"

"Argh, you know about that then?"

"Well we do now?" I say.

"He won it off me in a coin toss challenge. He and I were fierce competitors in everything we did, and he got the darned house from me for a whole dollar, he loved getting one over on me back then."

"What? He was a your competitor?" I ask "So it was not a family business then?" He smiled.

"When we, my brother and I came back to live in New York, we or rather I took over my father's vast property portfolio, as you know, or actually you may not? Well either way I will tell you a little of my past first. It will make more sense later.

My father, Davide Lagardia Senior, was an American banker, but his father and mother were real estate magnates. Senior, he was their only son, who married a beautiful Italian lady, whom he went to live in Sicily with. His new bride, she was a devoted daughter to her mother and though we returned here and often to see his aging parents, we could never stay here very long because my mother refused to leave her mother for long periods of time, they never stopped away for long, she was always on tenterhooks with worry when we did leave Nonna, as her father was not a good man and was never there for her or my mother when she was growing up, and as such they were very close. Very close." He sighs.

"I know Papa Frank made his money from real estate, though I presumed he was part of your property dynasty?" I say and I continue to stare, they really do have the same face and eyes, eyes that seem to search your inner soul. My heart flutters and my eyes begin to tear. Papa Frank is back.

"No, we always thought he would take over the family restaurant, but he wanted different things from life, and unlike his sister and mother, he was not a born cook, he helped them out, but he loved coming to work for me. He was very good at finding property, very good, better than me in fact." He sighs again. "I miss him every day. He was more like my little brother really, he and I had a very competitive streak though." He winked.

"How did we not know about you until I thought I owned this place?" He laughed.

"It is a rather unusual tale, and unless I hadn't seen and witnessed it for myself, I would not have believed it Anastasia." The drinks were brought in and we took them from the maid. "What do you actually know of the family?" He asks. As Fredrick passes him some pills and water, he takes them and smiles. "Fredrick, thank you and I will call if I need something. Actually, could you get me my family photo album, the two heavy ones from Sicily and the larger one from here, the one with Frank and I in it?" He nods.

"Sir, I will endeavour to find them." He heads out and I can't wait to see them.

"What was the question you asked me Papa, I mean Mr Lagardia?"

"I asked you Anastasia, what do you know of my family, your family and call me Junior, I know I am as ancient as the trees, but it gets confusing, as we Italians like to honour the people in our past, so I have always been called Junior, my father was senior? I am family, you could always call me uncle?" I smile.

"Uncle? I like that, though I do have three, but I can always add in another." He nods and shakes his head.

"Now, to get to our unusual family tree, what do you know Ana?"

"My great grandmother, was your mothers sister, though we cannot figure out how that works? There is no paperwork for my grandmothers family, and not a lot on your grandparents at all, hence our not being able to connect the dots?"

"I see, so you do not know my grandfather was a bigamist?" Hu? "I gather from the looks I am getting this is news to you?"

"Just a little, how I mean obviously, I know how, but why?" I stutter. That, I wasn't expecting.

"How and why indeed. My grandfather had two wives, my mother only found out she had a sister at their shared father's funeral when she, your great grandmother, Maria turned up to bury her father too. Neither family knew of the other family. His lawyer sent a letter and the tickets back home to your great grandmother, Maria. She went back to Sicily, she thought for a funeral, only it was not for the funeral, but to meet her sister. Her older half-sister, my mother Sophia."

"How, I mean how did he do it and why?" I ask.

"I never got to ask him. He was an evil man he really was, and even as a child I hated him, he was not at all a likable man, my mother was not upset at his passing, but she was delighted to hear and see she had a sister."

"How did he do it, did they really not know about his dalliances?" He laughs at my question.

"No, as I said each sister was unaware of the others existence. My grandfather, Francesco Benedetti, was a banker and travelled the world. So Sophia and her mother Aida, would not see him for months at a time. This was not unheard of back then, as travel was mainly done by rail and sea. He had business dealings both here in America and many other places and neither wife knew about the other family."

"Oh lummy. I thought Nonno's family, the D'Acciaio's was a mystery and then there is Vita's Benedetti links."

"My distant cousins, again there is a connection there too. I was as surprised as you to realise our families rather unusual history and coupling."

"How, I mean how is it that both my great grandmothers were related?"

"Well you know how the sisters were related?"

"Yes, now I do. I am still unsure of it, but they were half-sisters same father different mothers."

"Yes, my mother was raised with wealth, whilst your great grandmother Maria Benedetti, was raised in poverty almost. We never knew how he could do that, and it was something my mother hated her father for, depriving Maria's mother of financial support, she tried to give Maria money you know, but she was too proud to take what was my grandmother's money, her father died a penniless good for nothing, and left nothing but debts, the wealth was my grandmothers. However my mother invested the money offered to her, for her sister's children."

"My grandfather, Papa Frank, he made his own money, his father died in the war and left them poor and destitute."

"He was a poor baker yes, but a good man who loved his family. We could not have helped them any sooner, because we did not know of their existence, not until the funeral, but with the money Sophia had invested for her, your great grandmother Maria was not poor, far from it, the 'loan' was her own money given to her by her very loving sister, she did not know about her sister and her husband's failing business, until long after her husband had been killed.

When we first turned up here, they had a strained relationship, your grandmother, sorry great grandmother, was a very hard lady, though she never turned us away, but neither were her arms open wide, she could not forgive what her father had done and my mother was sad about that. When Maria found out about her father's double life, she hated or envied, though hate was all we saw from her for a long time, I will say she envied my mother for having a life she could have had, and hated her own mother for not knowing and their father for being a rat. She was a very headstrong woman."

"I am sure she was a confused woman, and a woman struggling with everything after her husband died?"

"She was, she loved her husband very much. She need not have struggled, she just wouldn't take what she had not worked for, I mean the 'loan' was only agreed upon when the restaurant hit some financial problems. My mother had to all but beg her to take it."

"So they did speak again?"

"Yes, she started to thaw towards my mother when sometime later we lost my father in an accident, and my mother decided on bringing my brother, my sisters and I to live here, here in his house here, this one. She had no family left in Sicily, her mother passed two weeks after my father, and things were not looking good with the war in Europe and news that the Germans and Italians were to become bed buddies reached the ears of my mother, and her friends told her it was not safe for her to be there, especially her being a half Jewish, very rich widow, so when her mother died my mother decided to sell up and escape whilst she still could, and wanted to get to know the only family she had left. Her sister Maria, who as I said, was warming to having a sister."

"Oh lord…"

"Yes, though there is more. There was a third wife, a wife that neither Maria or Sophia or my grandfather's lawyers knew about. My mother and her sister in fact died not knowing they had more siblings out there. I only found out about them, when they came in search of their father, they came here from Sicily and Italy to try answers as to why he did what he did."

"Your grandfather and father both were American?" Christian asks.

"My father only, my grandfather was Sicilian, and it seems a Sicilian who travelled a lot."

"Was he powerful?" I ask. Still not convinced there is not a Mafia connection somewhere.

"My father was a banker, as I said, who met and married my mother here in America and in mere days too." He smiles. "They were here on a business trip. You see my great grandfather had died and left my grandmother his business, but not wanting her father to take over, my mother and hers decided on selling the banking group, before he took over. They were here sorting out selling her father's banking business to a banking group here, and my parents fell in love at that same meeting. It seemed that money attracted money, power and all the trappings having it brought... My father was a good man, he worshiped my mother and loved we four children dearly. My grandfather was not such a good man, he died a bitter lonely man, with two known wives and god knows how many unknown ones still out there, and he had children with each, my mother was an only child, your grandmother had a brother and the other, is a mystery to me. A confusing mystery."

"How the holy crap does that work three wives?" Christian asks. "Having one is expensive enough." He smiles.

"He told my grandmother Aida, that he needed to travel the world a lot, for business, but in reality, he only travelled to differing parts of Italy, and though he had money, he did not have as much as his wife Aida had. He could only maintain the lavish lifestyle he had with one family, the other wives thought he was a poor travelling salesman, and though he gave them financial aid, it was not a lot, not compared with what my grandmother had, which was silly because she had more than enough, he could have given each of the other wives more."

"It's expensive having a wife." Christian jokes. Junior, ha Junior? He laughs.

"I wouldn't know I have never had one."

"I guess your grandfathers past did not enamour you to the state of matrimony?" I say.

"I have never met the one, and I didn't look, not after my first and only love chose another, nobody came close, nobody." He sighs and looks sad again.

"So how many wives and children had he and have any turned up here with their hands out?" I say changing the darned subject.

"We don't know, but we think, no we know that he was a serial adulterer, and that there are more wives out there. I know there are more children, because occasionally I have one or more turn up here. Fredrick warned me more people were here to claim their money."

"We don't need money or anything, only clarification. This other wife the third one, what was she called?" I say to him, biting my tongue hard...

"Isabella Benedetti, I believe you know this name, well from the look on your face you do?"

"My great, great grandparents were called Benedetti. Isabella and Francesco Davide Benedetti, I thought they were cousins, were they?"

"They were distant cousins, he married a girl he was distantly related to, like he needed to keep it in the family. As I said he was one hell of a sick bastard, as were a couple of their children too." I needn't ask which ones, they are all strange. Vita and the rest. "Though I have my doubts the children were all my grandfathers, as the dates do not add up. You see I am, or was virtually the same age as the eldest one of the third wife. I know he wasn't my grandfathers, because he never left my grandmothers side for those first three years, for fear of annoying her father, the money man."

"So, Papa Frank and Vita, were possibly related, as in really related?"

"I never had them checked, the third lot of children, because some of their paperwork was missing, and this DNA testing is a new thing. It all came down to paperwork and a vague blood testing thing. Birth certificates and marriage certificates, all easily forged. Most were lost in the war and it always seemed a little hooky to me. So I never paid them a penny, besides my family money came from my mother's family not his, so they had no claim on my mother's millions."

"So why help Maria out, and not Vita?"

"My mother knew, she said she did not need tests done, because they looked alike, they were the same in most everything they did. Even their children looked alike. As you know Frank looked like me, she said that was all it took for her, seeing me and Frank together. They shared so many qualities that they just knew. Besides Maria's mother was a good catholic girl, who loved my idiot grandfather for some reason and they had photos and paperwork to prove this. My grandfather even had photographs done of Maria and her brother Aberto, who died when he was a teenager, but the third family had nothing near as convincing as photos. Just stories told to them by others."

"Oh lummy." I say again. I drink my tepid tea and sigh. "I thought things couldn't get any more complicated. And what do you know, they could."

"Why is it complicated, you know who you are, do you not?" He asks. Where have I heard this before? I smile because my mother is smiling. Okay they are alike the two of them, in their thinking and I laugh.

"We thought we did, my mother and I."

"You are who you are. You look like your grandmother Ana, and Carla, you are the reincarnate of her."

"You knew my real mother. Rose?" My mother asks. "How? I mean you knew her? I have only just found out about her, and my father Salvador."

"I did, we were neighbours growing up. Though her father was not a rich man, but he, Francesco Benedetti and his children, were producers of some fine wines, and their land and vineyards, they stretched for miles, and we lived in the grand house next to theirs. Her father hoped that in marrying his children off to friends with money, it would help them expand and get rich. It did, but at such a high personal cost to the brothers and at least two of the Benedetti sisters and me."

"You knew my grandmother, my real grandmother?" I ask.

"I did, I also knew your real grandfather and Santino, your Nonno? I went to school in Sicily with Salvador D'Acciaio, he was a friend, I actually considered him my best friend, so I knew all about his brothers and his sisters. They lived in the next village, so they and the other sisters and brothers would be regular visitors at both our house and Sal's family home. One weekend I was there at Sal's, I had been here for a while and we were celebrating my return, when suddenly his father made the announcement that there were to be several marriages, and he did it without warning to any of his children, at a family party, there were many people there, the town had turned out in their hundreds for this grand announcement. I was there and did not see this coming. I don't think none of the poor D'Acciaio's did."

"That part was real then, Nonno told me theirs was an arranged marriage."

"It did happen the way I said, and it was horrific to see my friends face, Salvador was to be married to Nancy Ferrari, a quiet woman, pleasant, from money, and an only child. Her father and his were business friends. He though, was unbeknownst to me, seeing Rose Benedetti, who was heartbroken. Then came Santino, but was the only one who was happy, nay he was ecstatic, he was marrying a woman he had been smitten with for years. Vita Benedetti."

"I know, he told me as much."

"Then poor Rose's arrangement was announced, she was saddled with a man who she had never lain eyes on, he was a mistake that thankfully she did not have to marry, he wasn't as cash rich as he said and disappeared, Salvador always said he thought he was swimming with the fishes. Never proved, but it was never disproved either. I would have married her in an instant and given her father the huge dowry he wanted for his girls innocence, had I been asked." He says the last bit in a whisper, the poor man was in love with my grandmother.

"The Cosa Nostra?" I say in a whispered breath.

"Yes, it could never be proved, but my suspicions were that he was something to do with it, I also think there are many bodies hidden in the Benedetti vineyards." I gulped. "Anyway, Rose was jilted, and by this time I was back here licking my wounds that the girl I fell in love with Rose, was not only in love with my best friend, but was by this time living with him and his wife in London. He was a wine importer and getting richer by the day. The whole thing was so sad to see, I could have made her happy, but she chose him, then Nancy passed, and I attended the funeral. I had hoped Rose would return home with me, but she chose to stop there. I never told Sal I loved Rose, had I done that, he was friend enough to have not stepped on my feelings, but I never said anything. Though I did tell Rose I loved her, alas she was always smitten with Sal." He sighs.

"You loved my mother?" My mother asked. "As in really loved her?"

"Yes, but she had eyes only for Salvador."

"So did Vita."

"I know, so did most of the village and the next, he was a handsome boy and man. Rose, she spent a lot of time with him and Nancy, both of the twin sisters did. After Nancy and their son's death, I was sickened how quickly he turned from the friend I had loved, to the unrecognisable fool he end up as. I then learned of his marriage to Rose and then of her dying whilst having you Carlotta, that Via took over her role. That it was the darkest day in my life, but I was more annoyed he gave you away to that woman."

"Vita?"

"Yes. She is not a woman to be trusted, do not trust her, either of you, she hates you both." He really did know Vita then?

* * *

Sorry for the delay, I am posting this chapter in two parts and there will probably not be one for ten days as I am having a few medical things done this week and I fear the weekend will be spent in my bed feeling crappy, so enjoy part one… two is being posted too. So read and review and tell me if you love or hate it?


	46. Chapter 46

This story is nowt like fifty shades; I just purloined E.L. James's characters, buildings and some of her other stuff...

* * *

Dreaming of Chocolate and Grey:

Chapter 46:

Hello, and you are part Two?

Of course he doesn't know the witch is dead, and, why would he? I see real fear in his eyes, real fear. I smile, as you do when you are telling someone of a person's death? I have a feeling he will take this news well though…

"She can't do us any harm, trust me."

"Why?"

"She died, a few weeks ago."

"Good, she will be warming in hell for what she did to Rose, to Nancy and to my sisters." He took that well and added yet more mystery to the darned tale.

"Your sisters?"

"Yes, Vera and Valentina. My twin sisters, they did not like it here, they hated it in fact, so much so they returned to Italy after the war ended. We heard from them for a few years and then nothing. My brother and I we searched for them everywhere, and we did that for many years. The house we had purchased for them had been sold and their bank accounts were empty. We drew a blank for many, many years too."

"Many years? You sound like you have found them? Yes?"

"Yes and no…"

"Hu?" I say. "How is it yes and no?"

"I know they are dead, I just don't know where they are."

"How, how did they die and why?"

"I met her murderer. She came to this house many years ago, her and her sister and their elder brother Paulo, posing as the suppose heartbroken hearted fiancé of Vera."

"Okay, why did Uncle Paulo, The Phsyco, and his sisters turn up here and why?"

"I can hazard a guess because they thought we were siblings? But I would also hazard a guess that we were at best distant cousins, the Benedetti's are a huge family, a really big family actually. I don't think there is a village or town in Sicily or Italy that hasn't got several Benedetti's related to us in it."

"Really, they are that big?"

"We have many, many distant cousins Ana and some are very alike us, eerily so. I didn't know certain things, when they came here with their sick brother, that first time, but they had got their feet under my sisters table."

"Then why not report them?"

"Because when I found out what had really happened, after that first visit from the trio I had them investigated, and thoroughly. I knew them of course from back home growing up, and I knew Vita was married to Santiono. However I couldn't find her sister, the one who I think did the deed, Violeta, she was the one who did the planning I know she did. She told me what she had done when she returned without the other two in tow and began to tell me of their past, my sister and her, and how she took their lives over, how weak they were and how grateful she was for their allowances. I asked how she did it."

"Took over, as in…"

"Yes Ana, as in Violeta, killed my sisters and took over their lives. Occasionally getting in poor Vita to help her pull the wool over people's eyes, when the other twin was needed. She told me she wanted money, a lot of money, and then and only then would she tell me where they were."

"Wow, really, she admitted it? Did Vita have anything to do with their, their disappearance?" I stutter as I ask.

"No, Vita was too sweet for that, she was too easily lead by her sister, but even in her darkest days she would never have killed a living thing, she even saved spiders for god sake, so she would not have done that, not Vita. Her sister, I didn't doubt for one minute had that capability, she was evil. But what did I have, my suspicions and the word of a mad woman?"

"Violeta, she was reported missing by her brother, she is still missing."

"She is missing? When did this happen Ana?"

"The report I read says she was reported as missing by her brother Paulo, around forty years ago, when my Uncle was very young, and she went missing here when she was visiting family and suddenly, why?"

"I had a thought that's all. Something happened and at the time it was strange, very strange and until you mentioned Violeta was missing, it didn't click as they say into place."

"Well tell me what you're thinking and we will have it checked out?" Christian asks him.

"What if Vita was killed by her sister, Violeta? What if Violeta, what if she took Vita's place? I mean she had that look about her, and her sister was weak?" No way... Yes, perhaps, but no, oh god no... Throw another fucking mystery in why don't you?

"Why though?" Christian asked.

"I would hazard a guess that it was something to do with Salvador. Both the sisters liked Salvador, he was a mess and Violeta wanted to be with him, he wouldn't entertain her, she was vile even as a kid. He hated her and liked Vita, she was good to her sister Rose and he liked her, we all did. That much I can tell you to be true."

"What about Vita, I mean the real one not the perceived one? Was she always as mean and as uncaring as she was, you have her as a saint and I am sorry to say she had me fooled for years, then she changed and I don't know when it happened?"

"No, she loved Santino, she adored the boys, she was a good mother, but she was always at her sisters beck and call, they were Kane and Abel, and poor sister Vita did as her evil sister commanded, she sat there and cowered the times I did see them together, they were identical apart from their nature."

"That would fit. That really would. Did 'Vita' ever bring a baby to see you? Perhaps four or five years after my mother was born, again around the time of Sunny s birth? The report we had was not very clear on times and dates?"

"I saw her once, she and a friend were coming out of the brothel house, they were there with a very young baby, I only know because its crying was heart breaking to hear? Why did you ask me that Ana?"

"I have an old Scottish nanny, she told me she saw a man, who looked like Papa Frank here in this house with a baby and he was calling himself the baby's father. She is about my height, she has grey hair, skinny and Scottish."

"Nobody has been here for many years, not matching that vague description Ana, and none to my knowledge with a Scottish accent anyway, and even forty years ago the only people who lived here were myself and my brother. And the staff, who reported back to me when and if we had people knock on the door, they would normally be children of my grandfather in the main."

"She also said she returned a few years later to the same house, but it was, for the want of a better word, a brothel?"

"Oh? We rented a house to someone, and for many years, or rather my brother did, he was a fool and tricked easily into helping a pretty woman, he was not the smartest of men, but he was my brother, what could I do? He owned a small share in the business until he died and if he wanted this woman to have the house, there was not a lot I could do about it. I am fighting a legal battle to get his friend out of the rest of life grace and favour apartment he gifted another of his women."

"Did this woman have a name?" I ask. "The lady you evicted?"

"Yes, Jennifer, I think she was called, yes, she was called Jennifer Smith. I evicted her when I discovered she was using the grand house as you politely called it, a brothel, yes Jennifer Smith. An odd woman, very odd."

"What did she look like. I ask."

"She was a woman, Italian, dark hair, she was peasant like almost and that's not being mean, she was just that, nothing special, you could have passed her on the street and not given her a second glance. She kept the house neat and tidy though. She paid the peppercorn rent and didn't cause us any problems other than not paying the full rent. We had very little to do when we evicted her, other than change the house lock. She had let her clients have their own keys to it. I swear we didn't know what was going on in the house Ana, nobody raised any flags and Frank's house was empty most of the damned time after they left it for Scotland."

"Is this her?" I show Davide a photo on my phone of Jenny. I pray it is not her, but as soon as he sees it he nods his head.

"Yes, she is a lot older, way older, her hair is grey and not dark brown, but yes, that's her. Jennifer Smith. How do you have her photo Ana?" He asks.

"She was my nanny. Mum, when did Jenny start working for Papa Frank?"

"When? I don't know, it can't be the same woman, Jenny is Scottish not Italian. She cannot be the same woman. Jenny had a family, she had children, children who had died, she told me about them."

"She told me that too Mum, she told me Papa Frank gave her a key to come here and stop so her daughters could have a last holiday one winter long before I was born, so she had to have been with him for twenty five years at least, she was in my baby photos, she told me that less than two weeks ago. Why would she lie, why? Mum why?"

"She was your fathers nanny too. if I remember, so she could have been there for many more years. She had to have been with them from the get go, to be his nanny, so yes, why did she lie Ana, good question. We will have to have someone talk to her, I will get Bobby to do it, he's good with mysteries, being as he writes them." She smiles, but I am livid that someone else has lied to me...

"I would say she was embarrassed at her past coming back to haunt her perhaps?" Davide states and I guess that's reason enough, she did jump in rather sharpish with her reasons for us not to come, she also refused my offer of coming with us to New York. She in fact got the next plane home, stating she hated America. I stupidly never thought anything of it, because I trusted her.

"Perhaps you are right Uncle? I mean she was the one who told us the tales about the baby and the house and the brothel and she was so bloody convincing wasn't she Christian?"

"She was. Wow I can't believe she had us fooled, even Taylor like her." He is out in the hall but he will be more vexed than me.

"I can't believe it either, I sent her with my grandparents to live in Calabasas, I trusted her with Papa Frank, he was a weak man, and she and Vita were it seems both evil, and both looked after him. Mum did Nonno say if he was worried at any time about Papa's care? Because he never said anything to me?"

"No, besides he had two nurses and a team who looked after him, neither Vita nor Jenny saw to any of his needs. I saw him several times when Vita went on her travels, and he was well looked after Ana."

"I knew that, I saw him all the time, but still the lies that have gone on right under my own damned eyes people I loved and trusted are hateful dangerous liars and have had me fooled for years, I couldn't bear thinking that my leaving him to their care was a bad thing, and just so I could follow my dreams?" I am passed a tissue. Christian moves closer and his arm grips my waist and he soothes me.

"I tried to go and see him, when he first moved there Ana, but I was not allowed to see him. Their houseman said he had requested I go to hell and never return. I guess I was sent on my bad tempered way for a reason because had I seen Vita and this Jenny I would have raised more than a few red flags."

"You and he were not friendly then?" I ask.

"We were until I met your Grandmother Mimi. He stole her from right under my nose Ana, right from under this old fools nose. It was like Salvador all over again. Though I wasn't as smitten with Mimi as I was with Rose, but steal her he did, and soon after that there was the horrific shooting, my mother's passing and the housing deals we fought over, family and business do not always make for good business relationships."

"You fell out?"

"That is an understatement. We didn't speak as friends ever again, not after he first stole Mimi from me and then stole the biggest deal I ever worked on right from under me."

"He did that to you?" I ask.

"He said it was just business, but I was angry and even more angry that he'd used my own mothers legacy to him to try to ruin me."

"You really never spoke again?" Carla asks and looks very unhappy as she asks the question too.

"No, and though I kept my ear to the ground and made it my business to keep myself in the loop with Mimi and later Little Frank, because I never wanted to lose their friendship, but your Papa Frank, after his mother and sister were murdered he was a much changed man. He blamed us for bailing out the damned restaurant, had they not been there, had it gone under, they would still be alive, that hurt my mother and cut her in two, when he tore into her, he was an angry young man. Very angry."

"He loved my father and Mimi." I say stupidly.

"They saved him, they pulled him out of a very hard and depressing period in his life, he was alone and then came Mimi and the then Little Frank soon after. I was not so much worried for them, he loved them as you say, but at first, he wasn't that interested in her, he saw us having drinks and made it his goal to steal her from me. I forgave him his underhand romancing of Mimi away from me, besides she was not stupid, she and I were friends, friends having a meal and a drink, when he saw us. I was angry when I though he was simply using her, but she helped him out of this vindictive self-loathing he had, she was sent to save him. I always thought that and hoped she did save him."

"I heard she met him in his father's restaurant. Well that's what he told my friend's father Eamon Kavanagh."

"No, that was levelled when he got my mother's money, and the deeds back. It was the plot of land he sold to scupper my regenerating that rougher part of Brooklyn. He hated the place and didn't want to see it prosper, not for killing his mother and sister. As I said he was a tormented soul, my keenest competitors bought the land from him, and so my plans were put on hold and whilst they were they bought up other key areas I needed, in the end, my years of work meant nothing, Frank made sure that part of Brooklyn stayed the same hole it always was and now always will be. It was his business dealings that made us enemies, or what he preserved us as, enemies?"

"That is not the Frank I knew." Mum said.

"Nor the one who doted on me and Mimi." I add.

"Ana, Carla, this hideous thing happened. His revenge thing, it started after he married Mimi. He had a goal, and that was to hurt my business, he started that plan when he sold a property he knew I wanted, he ruined what was the biggest thing that could have happened to that horrid part of Brooklyn. I wanted to buy a whole block of properties, rundown and under developed, and he sold that keystone land to my enemies and not only that one, he scuppered many other deals when he bought and sold more properties from under me, properties he knew I was interested in, here in New York. I think my brother was unknowingly feeding him information, but as I said my brother was not the sharpest pencil in the box.

Then when Frank had amassed a huge catalogue portfolio of properties he sold them all, and killed more property deals I was brokering, deals that stood to make me make many millions. Instead, we made losses, but only small losses.

We could no longer sell in the areas he had covered, because when his came available, when he sold everything, he flooded the good housing market New York had, with his amazing properties, properties he bought cheap and sold high. I recovered and decided not to sell, but to rent and I never looked back, now I rent to people in those same areas and have more than doubled what profit I would have made from their sales. Then five years later and with cash in hand, he then moved to Scotland.

He never forgave my family for killing his, we didn't, the man with the gun did that. However his grief did kill us as a family, I was not as angry as you would imagine either, I saw he was an angry young man Ana. Mimi and I remained friends to the end, she always hoped for the better side and happiness that he had and found in Scotland, would make its way across the pond, alas it never did."

"My Papa Frank was really that ruthless?" I ask.

"Grief makes you do things you never imagined possible. Things that bite away at your soul. I know I have been a bitter man for years since learning about my sister's death, and madder still at not being able to bury them or know where they are buried, that made me hard and made me quite ill. I kept an eye on you and your progress Ana, its impressive you have the same ruthless business streak in you, that Frank had, but I feel you have more compassion than he had, you and I are alike in that, we change something bad by working at it, not ripping it apart and destroying it."

"You think so?" I was loved by Papa Frank, and Grammy Mimi, but I knew nothing of their painful past, nor did I think to ask, but I think the Davide who died, in my grandfather's drunken ramblings, was his 'brother' sat here before me. It seems I did not know my family at all, most of them had secrets I knew and still know nothing of, in fact Kate knew more than me all along. That is sad too...

"I do. You have Mimi to thank for that, she had a heart of gold and she loved you."

"How…"

"… Did I know?" I nod. "She and I wrote to each other for years, after they left the house down the block. Even whist we were still near neighbours she wanted to get Frank to change and to put the past to bed, but instead he buried himself away with work and then later on that bloody cold island, rather than come and talk to me. He got that from his mother, that stubborn streak.

I mean, had she taken what my mother offered her, a life with her and no worries about money and she would have had somewhere safe to live, for gods sake we owned the whole block here she could have been safe here, and had she taken up my mother's offer, she would not have been in that damned hole in the wall. Her daughter would have been in the best school New York had to offer, but she was steadfast in keeping Papa Franks open, even if it cost more to run it than they made from it. The area was going downhill fast and no matter what they did to the place, no one with money was going in and eating their food. She gave away more than she sold.

I did what I could to help Frank, I mean we already had an established empire here thanks to my grandparents and I was willing to share that with him, he was here with Francesco and I that night, studying and doing just that learning. That night he won the house you have Carla, and all for the dollar coin we tossed. It was my subtle way of getting them out of that hole they were in. That night changed everything for us all. My mother was never the same and cried a lot that she had not had enough time with her sister. She was on her way back from visiting their grave when she had her heart attack, so thanks to her sisters stubborn streak and a drug addict with a gun, all of our futures changed that night, and the whole reason for the toss of the coin, was lost the night the D'Acciaio's were murdered." We are served more drinks and Fredrick taps his watch at me, discreetly. I nod. He leaves and I realise we have been here an age.

"I know this is probably a question you should be able to answer, but why if you hated Vita, do you rent her the lower apartment here?"

"I don't rent the apartment to anyone, and why would I rent to that vile woman? No, all but the grace and favour basement apartment, they are staff quarters and places for relatives to stop when they remember us old and past it family, here at happy Acres." I hand him the key.

"My uncle Sunny, Santino Junior, he stopped there a few weeks ago. He was the son Vita said was the son of another man, a man we thought was you. He used to visit this place when he was little with her." He stares at the key.

"It's a copy of the master key for all the properties on this row, including your home Carla, there were three given to me when we first changed the locks on all the row we owned. I have mine and we are missing Francesco's and the girls shared key, see mine has a D on it. He hands me his old key. I study them and he's right it is the same key. "The missing ones had an F and a V on them. How do you have it?"

"Vita gave it to Sunny, he says it is for the apartment below this, is it not?"

"It will open any of the doors on the block, including the basements. The tenants they have their own keys, but this one, I have no idea how he got it. I thought mine here, was the only remaining key!" Fredrick came to the door.

"Yes Sir…"

"The woman in the grace apartment, when was she last seen entering it?"

"Sir, she was here two months ago, approximately, she is known for sneaking in and out of it. Her son was there too." I shake my head. What sack of shit has Vita pulled to get the apartment and why not give it the fuck up?

"Can we go and check the basement apartments. I mean, we are basing our assumptions on the house that Sunny and Jenny said was the New York house was this house, it seems more likely to me anyhow, that the brothel house has always been one in the same house. Perhaps if we start at that basement apartment we will know more?"

"I like an adventure. It would solve a lot, the grace for the apartment didn't extend to Vita's family, and as she is dead, the apartment is mine again, yes?"

"Yes, definitely, I have her ashes ready to take to London."

"Then Fredrick I am having my fresh air for the day, get me my chair please?"

"I will get your chair Sir."

"Good, good. How are you with steps Mr Grey? Fredrick here carries me down when I do venture out."

"Alas I was shot so I am not able to carry any weight for a while, but I have two men and they are strong."

"I have Fredrick, he knows how to throw me around. Now, let's get a little of this mystery unfolded, shall we?" We head to the brothel apartment, my god if I hear that word on more time I will clout the person responsible for it.

I have the key Sunny sent me and I give it to Taylor. Who opens it. We head in… I see Sunny's stuff everywhere. I guess we know which house Jenny managed. My mother takes a call…

"Bobby, slow down. What is the matter?" She ums and arghs a few times and tell him to book into his favourite hotel. I am puzzled. We are looking at a fairly basic apartment. Old and in need of some major upgrading. My mother signals for us to go on and heads to the door. Her signal isn't good here? I push Uncle Davide around, and he is almost crying. I bet he will be glad to get this back?

"I am amazed it is still the same as the day I last saw it, apart from the added embellishments of underwear and wine glasses, and ladies underwear."

"My uncle Sunny is a fool. Much like my uncle Ernesto. A would be playboy."

"Ernesto, that is a blast from my past. How is he, still alive?"

"He is and about to become a father for the first time."

"Good god, he was fifteen when I saw him last, a kid and so excused the D'Acciaio marry off."

"He avoided it for many years Uncle Davide. Is there anything different to the other apartments?"

"Yes, there is a bedroom missing, how does one lose a bedroom?"

"Is this the layout of the other apartment Fredrick?" I ask the man following me, what am I going to run this chair into walls?

"Yes, at the end of that corridor there should be a door, but that armoire is wedged in tightly. It has to be blocking the door, but why?"

"Taylor, could you please get Sawyer in and try to shift it for us, please?" I ask. He nods and in like a flash is my security dude. Relieved he has something to do no doubt? They pull and pull and try all ways and manners in shifting it and shoving it, but they make very little progress.  
"Sir, it is wedged in tightly. We could try to free the back from the main frame of the closet?"

"It is an armoire T." He looks none too pleased, but he and Sawyer have been bested by a fancy wardrobe. "Sorry I added in a humour moment, to ease tension, empty all Sunny's crap out and take out the shelves, then perhaps give it a pull when its empty?" I swear he growls. I smile at Christian who is shaking his head at me, my uncle is laughing.

"You got that humour from Santino, he was always the man to make you smile. It is being taken out, so for me you can smash it kindling wood, hell do it, bash the merry hell out of it. Fredrick are there any boxes for the contents?"

"I will look in the kitchen they will have bin bags yes?" I head to the sparse kitchen retrieve some Glad bags, head back and we place all the stuff from it, in them. I am keen to find paperwork too. When its empty and there is less to manoeuvre, Taylor and Sawyer each take a door and we step and wheel back as the pull at them and with three great lugs and tugs, it falls forward and we see the missing door and from the looks of it, it has been bloody years since that has seen the light of day.

"Open it…" I say.

"Let's move this into the kitchen, the door behind that chunk of wood was never meant to see the light of day." Taylor says and the men all agree. I want to go all Will o the Wisp and get in there. Like Christian would sit or stand there and let me. They get it in the kitchen and even stand it back up. Are they padding this out for a ferking reason? I am tapping my foot when Mum comes back.

"Apparently, Jenny was not at the house to let Bobby in. Oh what's going on here?"

"We have found the door to Narnia at the back of the wardrobe Mum."

"What?"

"Never mind. Why was Jenny not there?"

"I don't know Ana, she wasn't there to tell Bobby why." Derrr…

"Could you do the honours Mr Taylor, I would love to see Ana's Narnia. Calm down, you are a very excitable young lady. When you are ready Taylor, please?"

"Sawyer, do you have your kit, the door is locked. Unless you have the key?"

"Ooooo, I know, I know T, check the top of the frame T!" He looks at me like I have told him Father Christmas is real. "What it's the first thing they do in the movies T!" He does and looks at me like I have a third eye. He takes down the key and shakes his head. "Wow Mum I am going to stand back, because in that same movie, there was a cellar full of Zombies."

"Ana dear, shut up there's a good girl, you are way too excitable." My mother and I do however stand back and Christian stands with Davide, it's his house after all. Taylor opens the door and it ferking creaks and both my mother and I hide behind Fredrick. It opens and I peer around the poor guy.

"What's in there T?" He come out looking pale and coughing. Sawyer too looks none too, bright and bushy tailed, but when Christian looks in with Davide, they head out and the door is closed. "What is behind the door Christian?" He says nothing, but he is swaying. That bad? "Taylor? For Christ sake what is behind the damned door Christian?"

"You don't want to know Ana, you really do not want to know…"

"Is it bad?"

"Ana, it is the mummified body of a poor woman, her belly…" Davide stops and shakes his head. "It's a mess even after god knows how long it is a mess. Fredrick call our man at the station and get him to bring a team. There is no need for a bus, that woman has been dead a hell of a long time…"

"How, what, who, dead body, in there, woman, dead, yes dead?" I stammer, that wasn't in the fucking film or bloody Narnia.

"Ana, Carla, let's get you and I to a warmer place Fredrick, can you take me back?"

"Yes Sir. The police will be here momentarily, can I leave you here Mr Taylor?"

"Yeah, that ain't the only dead body I have seen, Sir, go with Mrs Grey."

"Tell me the moment you know anything." Christian leads Mum and me to Davide's home. I guess we are waiting to see who the body in the closet is… I have a feeling we have just uncovered a massive thing here. I have my own suspicions that the body is the missing Violeta Benedetti or, and then my stomach churns, is it the real Vita D'Acciaio… My head gets heavy and suddenly my world goes black…

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Derr, derr, derr a cliff hanger… So I am posting this the second part because I am having my eyes done so will be blind for typing, or near to it anyhow. I have been told no, reading and no computer for ten days so I beavered away, ha beavered you used to get this weekly lol… So read review and leave a comment or two… Thank you… xxx Much love…


	47. Chapter 47

This story is nowt like fifty shades; I just purloined E.L. James's characters, buildings and some of her other stuff...

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 _ **First of all; thank you so much for your good wishes:**_

 _ **My eye was not as bad as predicted, though I am not to be on my computer for long, an hour a day!**_

 _ **So I am using that hour to do my fanfic not my books;**_

 _ **As I can get lost writing them and editing them for hours.**_

 _ **That hour could have me writing a great chunk of a chapter. Enjoy my one eyed chapter and again thanks for your well wishes, Pirate Chris thanks yea all…Enjoy xx**_

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Dreaming of Chocolate and Grey:

Chapter 47:

Hello from the other side:

When my eyes open I see Christian, my mother and Davide all staring at me. How did I get here? I am on the plush couch in Davide's room. I gawp at them as they are gawping at me, my mother is pacing. Okay what the hell did I do apart from faint?

"Ouch, my god I have a headache from hell."

"Yes, do you know who you are Ana?"

"Derrr, you just called me Ana, so am I Ana per chance?" I say. "Of course I know who I am, and it seems we now know more about who I am really. What did I do?"

"Fainted and hit your head on that hideous elephants foot umbrella stand." Uncle Davide says as he pats my hand. Christian is so worried.

"Yes, I missed catching you by a mere moment and you hit the foot, we are waiting for Davide's doctor to call and check you over."

"I am fine, why your doctor?"

"He was calling anyway, I needed to see him, the discovery has made my already dodgy ticker a little more dodgy, it was a little upsetting the scene before us."

"Yeah?" I ask. "I mean I am not afraid of blood and guts, I would not have fainted at the sight of it. Was it a bad sight?"

"Ana, four grown men came out of that room sickened and two of them are retired marines."

"So why was it bad?"

"Ana…"

"Christian tell me, or I will march in and have a look see for myself, please?"

"You are not moving your butt from there until you have been checked over, had we been able to go back home we would have been there, but we have been told to stop until the detective calls."

"Then tell me, because I am imagining all sorts?" Mum and Davide are drinking tea. Both are shaking their heads and both seem to think I am a tad loopy, are they serious, with all this crap in my life I past loopy way back down the road. I listen and try to understand the mess we now find at this juncture in the that damned loopy road. A body, we have a frigging body and nobody is telling me what I want to know.

"She is like your mother, she had to have her nose in everything. Rose the Nose I called her."

"Really? What was she like?" My mother asks him. Her questions, but who is answering mine? Nobody that's who.

"She was sweet, she was devoted to your father and she was just perfect, apart from her obvious bad taste in men." He smiles.

"You have said a time or two. You are all I have left to tell me of her Uncle Davide." My mother needs her answers too. "Well I will tell you all I know later, for now Rose mark two needs her answers. You don't need to know everything Ana, just that it was gory even after all that time."

"All that time, how do you know how long the body was there?"

"Ana…" My husband is trying hard to placate me and the one thing he should know is, if I ask a question, I need an answer, okay normally it's business related, this is dead body related and not a happy topic for discussion I know, but I need to know, really, I do!

"Christian please tell me. I need to know." I am at the end of that piece of rope, hell I am swinging on it like Tarzan, and I am hitting trees as I swing, called Christian and Davide. They are blocking my swing and as such are stopping the inquisitive flow I have going on. I would definitely say curiosity is killing this cat, dead in her detective tracks. Damn it.

"There were things in the room. Old magazines. It looked like it was her bedroom, and there were medical things in there with her too. Old medical things. Is that enough Baby?"

"The dates on the papers and magazines?" I swing on my rope.

"I would think, it was the same week your Uncle Santino was born." I am now like a circus acrobat on the trapeze, my mind is relaxed and open to more.

"Crikey, so do you think that the woman in there was his mother? Vita, real Vita, or one of your sisters Uncle Davide?" My mother says as I swing, I have a niggly doubt I have yet to find, but as I swing, I will.

"I think we all think that it was the real Vita, but as her and her sister were identical we will not know for sure, but she did come to America pregnant according to Uncle Marco, who is hightailing it here as we speak. As is Sonny." Christian says. "I thought he said Sonny was born in London though?"

"I thought he was too. Unless that was his first home?" I ask. "Mum, do you know?"

"He was born in London, I think. I actually don't know, I was only five and this thing turned up with her, screaming and crying. I thought she and it came from the hospital. Sorry I don't know, we lived in the bakery though for years." I know Mum. I think I need some fresh air, my thoughts are claggy for some reason? "Are you okay Ana, you look like you have the weight of the world on your shoulders?" I swing in my metaphorical tree, and feel the breeze is helping clear my synoptically metaphorical blocked with crap, pathways. I am going to be Ana Dynamite any second now and blow through this pain in the ass blockage, anytime now…

"I am fine Mum, confused by it all, but and I think I may be onto something, so hold on to your hats, but for that body to have been Sonny's mother, and this is what is confusing me, that body in there she had to have come home got jiggy, got pregnant and with Papa Santino, right?" Mum and Christian both nod their heads. "I mean she had to have had sex, to produced Baby Sonny That much we do know because Sonny is Nonno's for definite. So whoever his mother was, got pregnant and Nonno, he would have known it was not Vita, right? I mean, sorry I don't know what I mean it's too confusing. Something is off, I mean really off, the who's his mother thing, it just doesn't add up, and as we all know Sonny had a different mother to Ray and Marco, right? So how can that body be Vita, because though that body gave birth to a baby, it cannot have been the real Vita because then all three boys would have the same mother and father, right?" I may have got the niggle freed but do they understand my confusion?

"Right, and Marco's mother was definitely Vita, because she and the two boys Ray and Marco, both needed blood after they were born, so if we use that logic, Sonny would have had to have had one too, his records say he didn't." Christian says and I have to admit, my heads like a tossed salad, but I think I made a point though, this is mega crazy, fuck me my crazies just got crazier…

"We are presuming that the body is Vita or Violeta, right?" Davide says.

"Yes…" We all say.

"What if it is neither of them? What if it the body in there, body unknown, she is Sonny's mother and either Vita or Violeta stole the child? What if the woman in there was your grandfathers lover and Vita stole that poor woman's baby?" More shit to get my head round. I try to and have an outburst.

"No way, he loved my grandmother he really did. I mean Mum tell him."

"Yes, he did, and he forgave her too much, he forgave the yearlong long trips to London, her always putting him in second place to his brother, and he agreed to cutting ties with me after I gave you to Mimi, even though he did keep me in his life, secretively. He could have had a mistress, he could have, she was away enough. Perhaps he had needs, men have these needs. He was a man." I laugh, no he was Nonno.

"More confusion you are right, now Ana drink this tea." Uncle Davide is hyped, he seems to be enjoying the mystery. I am a little, now I have stopped swinging in the jungle in my head, it was a very nice jungle, in a me Jane, Christian Tarzan, sort of way.

We sit and we wait, we wait and we bloody wait. Did I say we wait? Well we bloody waited all bloody afternoon, we had been fed and watered like cattle. Fredrick is pissed off with us, as Uncle Davide is like a spoiled child and will not have a darned nap.

"Uncle Davide, I know this is a large house, but do you have a room where I could get one of those naps you are refusing? I need one?"

"Yes, I have a spare room here, it's the one I keep for my sisters should what Violeta told me, be a lie."

"Fredrick, please show Ana to the room and if she is going to have a nap, that I will too. Carla, will you come and talk to me? Whilst I drop off, I need to talk to you about your mother. I am getting comfort telling you of Rose."

"Okay, will you stop with Ana, Christian?"

"Me? What stop? I guess that's a given? I was hoping, that given how many people a traipsing in and out of there, they would have something to tell us?"

"Christian, Taylor is there, he is your ears. Sawyer is watching the front for comings and goings and I see the rest are here too. I mean we have more security here than the NYPD." Reluctantly we follow Fredrick and my mother pushes her now favourite Uncle to his room. They do seem very needy of this Grandma Rose thing, needy to learn and eager to tell. My mother at least gets to know about her great mother. I feel a little out of that loop, but I may need to hear good things, especially after we could possibly be hearing bad thigs when we awake?

Christian and I are shown to a very nice room. I am stunned at the 'girl-i-ness' of the place, it is old fashioned yes, but yet a timeless, and an elegant girls room.

"It was their room, his sisters room, before they left for Italy, and he has never changed it. I would ask that you do not disturb it too much, he still comes in daily to be close to them. I find it to be a little morbid, but he gets comfort from it." I ask him to sit, he knew I only asked to come in here to get Uncle Davide to take his damned nap. He sits as do Christian and I.

"Thank you for making that easier than he was making it Mrs Grey. He is too ill to stop awake so long and be as active as he has been today, it won't be very forgiving, his body, if he doesn't take a much needed nap."

"How ill is he?" I ask, because even to me he seems a little out there and though stocky like Papa Frank, he has a frailness about him?

"He was on borrowed time ten years ago, but now he is scraping each extra day he needs from some sort of miracle pot his mind and body seems to have uncovered, there really is no earthly reason that man is still taking in air, he looks good and he sounds good, but the well-kept chassis and body of his, is hiding a rusty and patched up engine, with parts that are worn out and cannot be replaced. He has been waiting and longing to hear good news from the people he has searching for his beloved sisters, he has high hopes they will find them pretty damned soon, as do I, because he hasn't got much more time left Mrs Grey, it seems then and only then he can go peacefully knowing he can give them the burial they need."

"He is at deaths door?" Christian asks.

"Mr Grey, he has wedged the door shut, and he is very adamant that the grim reaper can hold off opening it for a little while longer. Anyway, feel free to sleep in either or both beds. The bedding looks the same as it was, but it has been replaced many times in the many years he has been searching for them."

"I wasn't and am not tired, I just knew he was stopping because we were up and here." He smiles. "How much of what he remembers is true? When did they leave here and disappear over there?" I ask him. Christian is messaging his team and I smile as he carries on texting and yet still asks questions.

"He said they returned to Italy after the war, which was seventy years ago, surely they were not babies when they left again for Italy?" Christian asks. Something I had not picked up on. Good thinking Christian.

"How old were they?" I ask, "how old are they all? I mean I never asked, but Papa Frank was nearly eighty when he died, and Uncle Davide was older than he was, much older because he was already an established realtor when Papa Frank started?"

"Your Uncle Davide, is a very sprightly ninety three, though he doesn't seemed to have aged much in the last three and a half decades, he is the same person he was when I met him as a kid. When I got the chance to come and help him with the business I jumped at it."

"How did you meet him?"

"My mother and her mother are yet more distant cousin of his, yes, I too am a Benedetti, sort of. Please, do not look as shocked as you do look, there are hundreds if us, thousands actually, it is not that an exclusive club to be a member of, and unfortunately for your families tale, having that particular name makes it a hell of a complicated tale, as you know it's not unique being called Benedetti, it's as common a name in Italy as you can get. Unfortunate, as I said. I met Uncle Davide, when they first went missing, the twins? He came to Italy and he spent many years looking for them. My grandmother remembered them and helped look for people they could have been staying with.

He came back for years in fact, and made my grandmother and mother feel like they were very special, as such, he became my sort of honorary grandfather to me too, he was generous to my family, thankful for their help, such that it was, and he paid for the best education possible for me, for which I will be eternally grateful for, and though I am a qualified attorney, I took on the position as his assistant. However as to the tale of the twins, and not my story, during one of the later visits out there, he confided in my family that he had been told they were in fact dead and that other of our relatives had killed them and had been posing as them for many years."

"Yeah, that would be my Nonna and her sister. I it seems, have some very horrid Benedetti relatives."

"You and me both, we are not all saints, in fact I would say we saints are far fewer in number than the sinners. I believe you are the one are you not who now owns all the Benedetti Family vineyards, vineyards where he wants to look for them, his sisters are you not?"

"Oh crap that part of the story was true then, the old bastard was using as a Mafia burial ground? I mean yes, yes, I own all the Benedetti land, I had to buy it as my Nonna's brother was a drunk and was running it into the ground, she insisted I used my inheritance for it in fact and Papa Frank agreed very easily to its purchase, whether it was to help his cousin and he knew of this tale, I do not know, but yes, I own it, lots of it actually. Nonna's brother Paulo, he had ran it into the ground actually! Nonno, he took over the D'Acciaio family wineries many years ago and I simply added in the other side of the families acreages much later, he is, sorry was the best person for it and now my uncle and his trusted cousins run it, I hasten to add they are not trusted Benedetti cousins but D'Acciaio's. Why?"

"He asked for permission to search the lands and has been refused as were the very handsome amounts offered to sell it over the past forty years, since one of the evil twins told him that was where they were buried. He thought it was because he, your Papa was still being vengeful?"

"No, back then it was solely Benedetti land, the Lamberts only joined the D'Acciaio's proper when Mum and Dad had me, unbeknownst to us at the time, we did not know we had the old thing of the six degrees of separation thing going on, we actually had no clue as to it being a hell of a lot less than the usual six degrees we had going on until now, the thing about the secrets and not knowing I told him about were true, I also know you monitored everything we have said to him in his room, you have the same security as us too."

"Sorry, but before I came to work for him, he believed all manner of tales told him, I installed them to look out for the charlatan's and the bad Benedetti's heading our way, there have been a few!" I bet.

"Fredrick, the land we clawed back from Paulo, we did when my suppose Nonna insisted we saved it and for some strange reason he agreed to it being handed over to me with no fight? As such it has taken ten years to regenerate the erosion and the damage done by the years of the families neglect. I was fifteen when I managed to get the land, and it is only just now being made good, it has taken many years to get it back to producing great vines."

"Why did he refuse the money offered Mrs Grey, it was sold to you for buttons?" I shook my shoulders.

"If I were to now hazard a guess, knowing what I know now to be a sort of truth, then he didn't sell because he knows where the bodies are, Nonna took a call from him when I first moved to London to stop with them, apparently, there were a few landslides after a small earthquake, and he needed help, I would guess again, perhaps the land erosion that he said needed sorting out, which my uncle and Nonno discovered in a trip out there was pretty bad. I saw that much for myself all those poor vines were ruined. So of course I asked Papa Frank for money to help my then beloved Nonna and her family out. So when you look at the land I would suggest, the new land fill, and newer of the vines are pretty near to where the 'bodies' were dumped? Perhaps he and she panicked? If he did not sell you the land then these were the reasons, he had to hold on to it. I will look into it." I say, not that I know a hell of a lot about vines, but I do listen at the board and boring land meetings, I occasionally attend, so shoot me. I am a baker and chocolatier, not a vintner. I drink it not make it! "Is the equipment big and bulky and would it disturb the vines?"

"The equipment the detectives use is not intrusive, they simply scan the ground and search out abnormalities under the vines a portable x-ray if you will?"

"Okay leave it with me I will have them given the permission and get them some help doing it. Okay? So when did the sisters go missing? I was lead to believe they went missing after the war? As Christian said it ended seventy years ago? How old were they?" He smiles and seems genuinely pleased at this simple request being granted. We have loads of land searching ten acres is not that great a problem? I hope. God Uncle Ray will have to leave Australia again and head out to Italy. Bummer he will be annoyed, but finding some answers for my aged and ailing uncle comes before some grape bushes.

"Yes, thank you. I will have the team move to your land, we don't have long Mrs Grey. Now the girls, they returned to Italy forty four years ago, so yes it was quite a while after the war in Europe had ended they left to further their life education and find themselves, life for the girls was a never ending summer holiday for the spoiled princess, and the girls had they been alive today or if they are still alive today would be over seventy seven now.

They came here in 1941, as babes in arms, they were always rich and spoiled girls and when their mother died, they were suddenly very wealthy airhead heiresses, I have no time for girls like that, girls who think only of themselves and not of others, money ruined them and Davide is as guilty of granting them their every wish, as anyone. More so after their mother died, he was not strict enough with them, or his idiot brother, he was busy working and the three of them played him like a fiddle. The fool.

He did not like the fact that they were going alone on the European vacation, and going to live in a place they last saw when they were three. Let me tell you truthfully and not through the eyes of a weary man, lost in his dreams. They did not, not settle here as he told you, I should have corrected him, but he has this image of them being lost helpless children and they were far from what he sees them now, because of his age and memory problems, as angelic cherubs.

The girls, both had a shared wanderlust, for travel and excitement and living on the edge, they were spoiled little rich girls and not the saints he would have you believe they were, I would say they were wild hellions from what I have found out. But they were still his beloved sisters and he indulged their huge spending habits for many years, then he went to see them after many years of their ignoring his pleas to come home went unanswered, that is when he found out they were missing and had not been at the villa he purchased for them in years."

"Wow, he is a little addled then? Sorry I mean he has had forty odd years of not knowing where they were and years of blaming himself, the poor man."

"He just wants answers Mrs Grey, he wants to know where they are whilst he is still alive, and please take everything he says with caution, and ask me questions that you want an none biased answer to, any question you have or may have, he is in his world and it's not the real version of this matter at all. I am in the real world, I am in the real one paying out thousands and thousands on test after test on girls who could be his sisters and all come to nought, we do though have a very good data base for Benedetti's, if you ever want to peruse it?" I smile and change the subject. My Uncle is with the faires, and I was fooled into thinking his reality was the real one, I will have to make his final wish come true and will throw the Lambert fortune, which was in fact garnered from his poor mother, to work at healing this old man's gaping wounds. I sigh.

"So this room, are there secrets in it?"

"No, and yes, I have looked, I have had many years to look through it. Alas there is nothing of use here."

"Okay I will not rifle through it then. Though I could get Kate here, she is amazing at finding things we mere mortals overlook."

"Kate?"

"Sorry Kate Kavanagh, one of my great friends and is an amazing helper extraordinaire."

"Kate Kavanagh, daughter of Eamon Kavanagh, and Agnes Kavanagh?"

"Yup, one in the same why?" I ask. His face looks shifty, has she been there and that's why? I shake my head, nope he is a tad too old for her.

"No reason." My Annie spider senses are tingling. He is hiding something.

"Okay spill Fredrick. Why the face, how do you know her and her family?"

"Mrs Agnes Kavanagh, is a distant member of that elusive Italian Benny Club, believe it or not it's got many branches over here. Actually it probably has just as many over here."

"So, she is a relative?"

"Oh god, as in like twenty or thirty steps away from being an actual cousin. Mrs Grey their familial Benny gene is there but, please believe me it is very distant. I think Agnes's has a great-great grandmother with the Benedetti name. Uncle Davide knows the Kavanaghs through business, the Irish Kavanagh Financial wizards are a force to be reckoned with and are one of the oldest names in the finance business, I have had business dealings with them both for myself and Uncle Davide and for us they were very fruitful. They are financial advisers with practically saintly morals, god like almost and squeaky clean, untouched by outside badness and they are heavily cloaked in this massive mysterious and honourable, first do no harm code they have, they are doctors of money and finances and as you can tell I gush wildly about them because they have looked after me well enough for me to be able to make my parents and family have a very nice life back home in Sicily. Uncle Davide trusts them to look out for his sisters huge trust funds too."

"As Papa Frank did mine."

"How do you think he knew of them? Through Davide, that's why, he was the one who introduced them when his mother Sophia invested her sister Maria's unwanted fortune, she did so through them, so when your ungrateful Papa Frank inherited his wealth, he got what he did because of their canny investing of Sophia's gift."

"Oh, so Kate would have known about you, about Davide and about all this mess?"

"No, why would she? Her grandfather and then father were the ones investing Davide's family money, the Lagardia money, but once she saw the Lagardia name, it wouldn't have taken much to connect the dots Mrs Grey, she, like her brother and her father are blood hounds with almost as good a sense of smell as those sniffer dogs have too, they have a good instinct for searching out a hooky too good to be true investment opportunity too, you have to be on their line of work, be able to sniff out the bull shit from the reality of it all. I was told by her grandfather once, when I asked how did they know what to invest their clients' money in, clean investments? He said instinct is all well and good, but facts and figures are needed to back up a good feeling about a business and research, research and research and when you think you have it dig a little deeper and research some more. He is a good man, so are his kids and theirs."

There was a massive bang from outside and a ton of activity with people in masks and white suits on, fuck-a-duck, I saw this very thing happening in an episode of CSI once, a white tent thing is being erected in the back garden of the property a few doors down and we three, we had the windows opened and were peering out as they scuttled about with dogs and stuff. The dogs barking became too much and I looked at Christian and then at Fredrick…

"Ana, are they what I think they are?"

"Dogs, yup."

"Ana…"

"Sorry too early for hilarity, I am only saying it now before my hysteria kicks in?"

"Pretty much Baby."

"Mr and Mrs Grey, what are the dogs for?" I sigh.

"They are Cadaver Dogs. I saw them working in Italy after an earthquake once and again at an avalanche site and unfortunately, I witnessed them at work here in New York after the towers came down. We were here, I mean I was here with Vita and Nonno. It was just before Mimi died and they brought me here to the Big Apple, we were due to go home the day of the attack, and were having a last look around the park, and because our hotel was flattened we had no place to go, we stuck here, it was horrid, so we headed down to LA and stayed there to get our new papers and stuff, everything we had with us went down with the hotel, we lost papers and all our clothes and were lucky that's all we lost, because we all know people died, and I always remember Nonno saying, their but for the grace of god and one of my better tantrums were we saved, and then he hugged me and thanked me and my insistence on wanting to ride a horse and carriage around the park one last time, Nonna Vita, she wanted to sleep and it was a good job we weren't in, because the hotel room where we were stopping collapsed. We then had what you Americans called a road trip, it wasn't fun though but a necessity, as all planes were grounded and the whole of New York and America actually, was on high alert, we watched on the news what happened and I swear Nonno wore his rosaries away to nothing and Vita, she was an unusually very quiet lady that week. Then when we got back I learned of Mimi's death, and the reason they had sent me on a holiday with the Nonno, it was to get me away from the castle, so I didn't see her dying, I played up for Papa Frank after that, a lot and that's how Nonno and she got their hands on me."

"You never said?" Christian says.

"What was there to say, it wasn't a nice thing to see and we felt the whole of Americas pain first hand? It was a holiday I wanted to forget and it was a particularly shity time for me back then both here and back on the island. Oh and no, we did not stop here at the house here, Nonno wanted to stop in a hotel and be pampered. Vita left us alone a lot that holiday though, doing her own thing. Funny how I forgot that too, her disappearing?" We look out again and the dog seems to be having a right old shout all over the damned garden…

"Do you think they hid a body out there?" Fredrick asks.

"I would think judging from the frantic dog, there is more than one." Christian states, so matter of factly.

"Holy fuck what did we uncover and I am sorry for the F-Bomb but hell, it is flipping bad." What looks to be the head honcho is on his phone and the tent then hides away most of the bloody garden, we hear but we do not see… Taylor calls Christian. At last…

"Sir, you and Mrs Grey are wanted here. It is bad Sir, really bad…"

"Ana, we have been asked to go to see the guy there looking up at us, The other guy in the white suit is Taylor." I resist waving.

"I heard bad, how bad?"

"We will soon find out are you okay, the damned doctors not been yet."

"He was called away, sorry I would have said sooner but you seemed okay Mrs Grey. Do I tell your mother?"

"Hell no, she worries at the best of times."

"I will arrange for extra dinners to be made, it seems you could be stopping the night?"

"Thanks." Christian takes my hand and we head to see what this has to do with us? We found the inside mummy not the outside stuff. We are ushered to a van, the police are in the top house too and seem to be in there in great number too.

"I am sorry to have to ask you to this but we were told by your man Taylor, you were here looking for answers to the whereabouts of your family members?"

"Sort of. I mean we know where most of them are, dead and in urns at home, but these are the niggly ones who I wasn't aware existed until a couple of days ago. Why?"

"We need to speak to the owner of the building and I believe he is your uncle?"

"He is my grand-fathers cousin and not an uncle as such. He is however not too good at the moment but his assistant there, that man at the door, he knows everything there is to know about the place, why?" He looks shifty, he actually looks like an um-par-lump-ar, in his white paper suit, he is short fat and has bright copper/red hair, I resist temptation to sing the song, my head is awash with serious shit and my mind is being a child, really Ana, snap out of it. I swear I say dump-arty-do aloud. This is so not the man to piss off Ana. He is speaking to someone on his phone. I may have escaped Willy Wonker Prison.

"Taylor. If he won't tell us what do you know?" Christian asks.

"Sir, it is bad as in I have never seen so many bodies in one damned small apartment…"

"What the fucking hell…" I swore…

"Mrs Grey, they seem to have filled the garden and started burying them in the house. It seems the basement was used as some sort of clinic." The head um-par-lump-ar tells us, what still no introductions?

"For wrong stuff, I mean for you know lady wrong stuff?" I stutter.

"Abortions?" Christian asks.

"I was going for terminations, those are two much confused words, one is through choice the other not, you choose to terminate, you do not chose for your body to abort, lecture over." I counter. "Sir, I think you need to look for Mrs Jennifer Logan or Jennifer Smith, she was the renter of the house above and alas you cannot ask the renter of that shity place because she died a couple of weeks ago She was either Vita D'Acciaio, or Violeta Benedetti? Sorry, officer, but that's all we have too. It is all Frederick there will be able to tell you too. How many are we talking about and how long has the body dumping being going on?"

"I am Detective Smith, sorry for not introducing myself, but this is something I have never seen before. We have called in the experts at the Jeffersonian Institute, their experts in forensic anthropologist. Do you think the missing relatives of yours are in there? If so she Dr Brennan may want to take samples of your DNA?" I gave a really bad feeling.

"How old are the bodies?"

"The oldest, has been in the house for about fifty years, but she is not to willing to guess, her assistant says around the fifty mark though…" I oh fuck again.

"You may need to take a DNA sample from my uncle, though his assistant could save you a lot of time, they have a data base of DNA from many, many family members… "His sisters went missing too, as did my aunt or my grandmother, all around forty years ago and they were all distant cousins of each other too."

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 _ **Read review and please leave a smile or a comment, or two...**_ Did you like the add in of Bones? Temperance Brennan? So I go wacky, it's good to be me lol and I am posting this unchecked, I am not wasting my eye time doing it. I also need you to pm me any flaws… I ain't wasting time on Google lol You don't realise the importance of losing something you deathly rely on until it's too late, thankfully my blindness is not a permanent thing. Just a maddening thing, so its good night from Pirate Christine for a week… Oh and yup there will be many bodies found and answers given… cheers for sticking with me oh and the guest whom hates that it is not all about Ana and Christian, do one. I am not doing porn scenes in every damned chapter, to make it all about Ana and Christian as you mean it, besides I hate writing them… I now have four books on Amazon and Smashwords too, the last is on their kindle books and is called... Wings of a Broken Bird by me Christine Wood it s an ebook it is the last one and a mystery novel too. If I am going to lose my sight I have to get the ones I have written up and ready lol.


	48. Chapter 48

This story is nowt like fifty shades; I just purloined E.L. James's characters, buildings and some of her other stuff...

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 _ **First of all; thank you so much for your continued good wishes;**_

 _ **I gather you liked the Bones thing?**_

 _ **Good job I wasn't watching something more raunchy than CSI and Bones on TV, lol**_

 **I could have made this a part one and two but its a long one instead lol**

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Dreaming of Chocolate and Grey:

Chapter 48:

Bones, bodies: Cue Bones?

Ana and I are now in Uncle Davide's home. Fredrick has handed over all the information he has on the house and the basement apartment. He also hands him the file they have on the DNA and Ana also sends with him their extensive family DNA results too, asking that this Doctor Brennan, takes particular care with Uncle Santino's results. I gather upon his return Fredrick says this Brennan is a little uncooperative and will not in her own words 'be making any rash and unsubstantiated guesses' either. Ana has paced the room for what seems like hours, but in reality, it's about half an hour, she just makes it seem longer. I can't stand it any longer being cooped up like a chicken.

"Ana, you fancy going for a walk?" I ask.

"A walk?"

"Yes, a walk?"

"Oh, okay. A walk may blow away these cobwebs." We head out, and as we get to the side walk and man in a wheelchair heads our way. With him is a woman, who looks like she is enjoying her job. She sees us watching her. I hold Ana's hand and we walk towards them. As we pass the woman, stops suddenly.

"You, are you a relative of one of the mummified bodies?" Ana shakes. Fuck that was random.

"My wife did not know the body was mummified, but…"

"I can speak for myself Christian. Why? Who are you?" She is staring at Ana in a manner which makes me feel rather uneasy.

"I am Doctor Temperance Brennan, with the Jeffersonian Institute. I ask because you and the body have the same distinct facial structure."

"Gheeze, are you saying I look like a dried up Mummy? If so I need to rethink my moisturising regime?"

"No, I was simply stating that you and the bodies in there share a striking resemblance. I did not mean to offend you."

"You didn't Dr Brennan, I have had a bad day, obviously?"

"Why obviously?"

"It is not every day you get to uncover a house full of dead bodies."

"I see dead bodies all the time. It is not unusual. What possible connection do you think you have to the body on the bed? We heard from the detective you thought it was a relative and your facial features seem to confirm to me there may be a chance you are related?"

"I don't know if I am related, I sent you all my files through, but some years ago either my supposed grandmother or great aunt disappeared, we were lead to this house, searching out some family issues and to find out who it was stopping there, great aunt or grandmother, who isn't actually my grandmother or great aunt either."

"That makes no sense to me at all. Do you have a mental deficiency?" I laugh. She is going down, I jump in before Ana takes her down.

"Dr Brennan, my wife is lacking nothing in her mental faculties, she is just working out some rather trying and troubling family matters. A couple of weeks ago she found out the woman who helped raise her was not whom she thought she was…" Ana and I spend an age explaining the family dynamics and she gives us a very aloof look, she seems very, I don't know, hard? No, the poor woman, she is professional and distant. She deals in facts and only facts and supposition is not something she does, as Ana has already found out with her requests for the good doctor to hazard a guess at who is in the bed if they look alike are they related at all? The guy in the wheelchair is a funny guy, Hodges, he says he is called, he seems to be the life and soul of the party, a party of science lab geeks. I am way out of my depth, they speak geek and medical terminology far better than I do, and my mom's a doctor too.

"When will you know?"

"Know what Mrs Grey?"

"If I am related to any of the women there?"

"There are bodies of men too…"

"Men? How, do men need gynaecological help?"

"Gynaecological help? No, why would you think that?"

"We were supposing because of the medical equipment in there it was a clinic where terminations took place?"

"No, quite the contrary, the woman on the bed, she had given birth to a full term baby."

"My uncle?" Ana asks?

"I have said more than I should, but when we get the bodies back to the lab, we will know more." Just then a man in black approaches us, he is definitely a FED.

"Hi, I am Special Agent Seeley Booth, are you by any chance the man causing my phone to blow up?"

"I may have called in a few favours Agent Booth. My wife needs answers. I want to get her those answers and I am willing to use everything in my power to get them for her. Or anyone."

"You know my Bosses' boss? The governor and the vice president and the first lady and former first lady?"

"No those were my shout outs to friends. I know the right people too. Like Christian says we need answers." He looks at the woman in the blue paper suit.

"Well Bones, what are we looking at?"

"Booth, this is not protocol."

"I know, I need to start somewhere though. So what are we looking at? I got a call from upstairs and was told to get my ass here, so my ass is here. The detective, Detective Smith is way out of his depth with the amount of bodies so given the amount, we have taken over. So bodies Bones, and how many and you know what did they die from, these two have some mighty powerful friends?"

"At the last count there were twenty, and counting. The ones in the house are the easiest ones to uncover and thus will be the ones we will get to the lab first. However the ones in the garden may or may not be laying atop of others. The team is working on it. Booth, we have to get to the Jeffersonian. Mrs Grey I will have something more to tell you when my team and I get the first of those bodies back. Booth I will see you later, we have things to discuss."

"Okay Bones, Hodgins what did you find out?"

"The first body, is well preserved. As Dr Brennan told you, until I get my samples back and give these files to Angie, I can't tell you anymore than Dr Brennan has. You know the rules. Don't shoot the messenger either. I'm the bug guy and the trace guy, and as yet I have found no bugs. There is however trace evidence. Whoever tied the bodies up seemed to be good with knots and they were tied up soon after death and all it seems by the same person or persons. The plastic sheeting looks the same and the cable ties are nylon, so are age appropriate for the bodies in the home being there forty to forty five years. The metal ones in the back, they say older, perhaps sixty or seventy years. Not wrapped in plastic. But what could have been cotton sheets. As you can imagine there isn't a lot of organics left on those bodies. Thankfully the inside bodies will be easier to work with."

"What are in the files, I mean bring me up to speed here, and I need to get a look in there too?" Another guy approaches us from the basement.

"Hello, I am FBI Special Agent James Aubrey. Booth its big. Who discovered the body, the first body?"

"I was about to ask, before you rudely interrupted."

"Cool your heels. I was just asking. What does Dr Brennan know?"

"She is her usual non-committal self. So who did find the body?" The guy and the woman from the institute drive off and they follow the first of I suspect the many vans that will be heading their way.

"Would you like to come and discuss this in the warmth of my uncles home? It is just there and he owns this place and all the homes apart from that one on the block, my mother owns that and yes they are all in the house too?" We lead them to Uncle Davide's where we are met by a worried Carla and Davide and Fredrick.

"Uncle Davide these men have questions and are from the FBI."

"Please, come in, come in, we are taking tea, will you join us?" They step into his lounge room and we all take our seats, drinks are given and we fill these two in to our recent finds. Could this fucking tale get any more monotonous, perhaps we should tape it and hand them out to all concerned parties? I think but do not say, the Booth guy has a belt buckle stating he is cocky? I hope to hell he knows his shit. The other is hoovering up the biscuits, he seems hungry? After they listen to our confusing tale he seems to be as confused as us. Booth shuffles on his seat.

"So, they could be your family, they might not be your real family and they could be murders or be the ones murdered, did I miss anything?"

"No that about covers it Agent Booth." Ana states. I sit and stare. It did sound farfetched as we told him all that shit. Davide too looks a little fuddled? Is he thinking what Ana is, his sisters could have been there all this damned tome, less than a few feet down the block. In a weird way I hope they are and then this poor man can rest.

"Until we start getting the findings from the Jeffersonian, we will not be able to confirm any of this. Do you have photos of this Jennifer Logan and of the relatives you say are missing?" Fredrick hands him over a stack of photos. It seems he came prepared. I send him my photos of Jenny too.

"Their names and information are on the back. I took the liberty of doing the ones of interest to Mrs Grey too."

"Thank You. Can I ask that you not leave the country, until we know more?"

"Do we have to stay here or can we return to our home here Agent Booth?" I ask.

"Is it close by?"

"By the park." I pass him my card, which he reads and then pockets. "My men have cards too."

"This one will do Mr Grey. So until Bones and the team do their thing, I think we have everything, unless there is more?"

"Bones are you and she…" Ana tries to ask Agent Booth a question.

"Married? Yes, we were in the park with our two children when we got the call I had to take them to their care giver."

"I am sorry for your losing out on time with them." Ana says and means it.

"Bones and me, we are used to it and so are our kids. Bones loves a dead body, and let's face it there are a few. We will be in touch…" They leave and I swear the Aubrey guy has a stash of biscuits in his pockets for later? I need answers and fast.

"Christian, what do you know about the Jeffersonian?"

"Not a lot, it's a museum and they do valuable research on all things, weather, sciences and anthropological things, and much more, why?"

"Do you have an in, there? As in, do you know someone who can get me answers?"

"I guess I could ask Ros?" I state.

"I guess I can ask Kate, I remember she went to a fundraiser there." Ana says, "I was invited to donate, but for some reason I didn't feel the need, how I wish I had now. I could have bossed her around. She was very strange and very matter of fact. I want to see them working on this."

"What do you want? I mean Ana what can you hope to gain from being there?" We stare as more black body bags are taken to another waiting van, as more white and now blue suited bodies go in. Oh hell this shit is real and horrific and I see the look on Ana's face, like shit, her family had something to do with it and I guess that is a great possibility? The main player and the only one alive, Jenny, she has the answers we need, she has to be found. Why could she not have told Ana and I of her real part in this saga? I always thought she was shifty and hiding something, Taylor is on it, he has promised to find her, as has Welch and all the guys who work for me, Barney is putting any and all of his hats on, white, black and his fucking indigo Beanie, his lucky hat? I didn't ask, but I guess it keeps that massive brain of his warm? He likes Ana and is leaving nothing unturned, all the cyber rock are being looked under. Ana speaks and I am brought back into the conversation. She needs to be in fucking bed and not neck deep in fucking dead bodies and crap. I seem a little in love with the word fucking since I haven't had any in a while. Yup I am whiney and needy of my wife, and yes at the most inopportune of times.

"Christian, I need to be there, I need to see what she sees, when she sees it. I have to!"

"What you have to do is keep yourself calm for you and the baby. Ana, stress is a fucking big part of your life, our lives even, at the moment. You need less stress not more."

"I need answers Christian. I need some peace, which I will get from those darned answers. Then I can be stress free, or as stress free as I was when all I had to worry about was being a chocolate mogul, now that seems like a walk in the damned park right now."

"Ana, go home with Christian and your mother, I know people and as a member of the Jeffersonian charities board, I will call in a few favours, but only if you go home, eat rest and return here tomorrow rested?"

"Uncle Davide, you could have said something?"

"I just have Ana, now home and get some rest Carla take your daughter home, for tomorrow we may get some answers, yes?"

"Yes Uncle Davide, come on Ana, let's get Taylor there to take us home. Will you be okay Uncle?"

"I think I will, yes I think I will be fine and I have a feeling we will know more tomorrow. Eat, sleep and be merry Ana, for tomorrow is going to be a big day, a very big day. Fredrick, see my family out please?"

"Sir…" I give the man a smile. Ana gives him a hug, which he relishes. My wife and I get in the cars with Carla, who seems a little happier than she was. I guess she now knows things about her real mother and they were good things? Ana is staring at the house of corpse's.

"Taylor, did they find anything in the brothel house?" I ask as I watch my wife. She needs food and rest, she has had a smack to the head again and all this bad news. When are we going to get a break, what the hell have we done to deserve all this crap?

"No Sir, it was stripped back and re done when they took back possession many years ago, it is ready to be added to the rest of the buildings should the need arise, he has many friends who need help and they are not all business men and connected men, some are homeless people he looks after. He seems a good guy, his employees think he is a saint. The ones we spoke to anyhow. They are happy that the house is clean and free from bodies, but I do believe they are testing for blood residue later. One of the Jeffersonian guys seems to think some of the bodies were killed up in the house, and are the ones buried in the garden? The fact that it has been five decades since some of the bodies were killed, the ones in the house, they have four decades behind them, and are according to the young lady, well preserved and are in all the inside cases mummified."

"Fuck-a-duck, how did nobody smell them decaying? A house full of mummies and nobody guessed?"

"Perhaps Dr Brennan could explain that to you Ana?" I say as we pull up to the house. It seems Ana is having a bath. We head in and Sonny and Marco are in residence. Ana is engulfed in Marcos arms as soon as she steps through the door.

"Bambino?"

"It's a mess Marco a real mess."

"And, Mama, is to blame for this? Carla, is she?"

"We don't know, and the only one who can tell us has gone into hiding. Jenny, the woman who we all trusted, she was the one running the brothel, her our trusted friend and nanny to my daughter Ana, Jenny, the woman who I classed as a friend."

"Uncle Marco, the bodies are mounting up and she knows who they are and why they are there. Someone else we wrongly trusted and I feel sick about that I really do. Jenny, she bloody-well lived with me, she helped me get over measles, chicken spots, she nursed me through fevers and was like a mother to me. Why would she do that Uncle Marco, I trusted her." Ana sobs.

"I trusted her too, she fooled me. She fooled me good and proper. Has someone gone to search the London house?"

"Yes, she never went back Poor Bob was locked out and was the one who raised the red flags, Holly is checking her room for me. I swear I don't know where else to look for her?"

"Have you checked out her cottage on the Island? She still has it, yes?" Marco says. Of course she did, she didn't move to London with us she stopped with Papa Frank, until Nonna Vita kept leaving us. Why did I not think of it?

"Christian, Marco is right, she has, or she had a small cottage on the island can you get someone to check it?"

"How would she get on the island without being seen?"

"She lived there for years. She lived there for bloody years before she went to Calabasas and back to London. They know her, Christian it's a slim chance she is there, but could you please check it? What harm would it do? I mean please ask your new team to look for her, please?"

"I will have the staff check her home there, now get that bath and I will have dinner made. Ana, I am also calling the doctor to check you over Baby. It has been a bad day." She smiled nodded her head and left us to our thoughts, or in Marco's case his ramblings of being hurt by another woman he trusted. Sonny was silent. His sister calmed them both and they went to sit in one of the lounges to chat. Me? I am way past chatting, I call for a doctor. It seems I do not have to wait for one as my mother is walking in through the door with my father. Talk about my fucking being relieved, never has my parents sudden appearance at my door been more welcoming, than right now.

"Mom…" I almost hug her to death. "Mom, Ana needs your help. She fainted and banged her head, we have had so much shit to cope with and Ana, she…"

"Hush little one, Mommy is here." Okay that sounded lame, but fuck me it felt good to feel her arms around me and hearing those lame assed words soothed me. "Where is she?"

"Having a bath, she had a bad day Mom, a really shity day and mine wasn't that fucking great either."

"Leave her to me…" She goes to see to my wife and I slump in a chair at the bar as Dad pours me a tall glass of scotch, good choice Dad! We spend an hour, yes, a fucking hour talking about this and making those calls my wife asked me to make. I am starting to get nervous about Ana when she comes down with Mom, she looks amazingly rested and calm. Mom has a smile on her face so I gather all is good?

"Christian, Ana is fine, tired and hungry but fine." I get a call…

"Grey…" It is from the new estate manager, it seems we may never get our answers because the bitch, yes bitch was found dead on her bed, surrounded by photos of Ana and the boys. How and why I do not know? I put the call on speaker.

"Mr Grey Sir, she left a package for Mrs Grey, what should I do with it? The police are on their way but the note she had gripped in her had said she was sorry and was too old to die in prison and she wanted forgiveness for her sins Sir? It is a definite suicide Sir, she hasn't been dead long either. Perhaps a couple of hours? Sir, what do we do?" I am fucked if I know, what does one do?

"Have the package sent to me." I say, my dad shakes his head no? Okay what then?

"No, open it please, what is your name Sorry?" Ana asks.

"Ewan Mc Gregor." She smiles. "No, not that one, but the one who watched you grow up here Miss Annie."

"I had a feeling you would come back. Thank you, Ewan. Is it Jenny?"

"Aye Miss Annie it is. She arrived back on the morning ferry, said very little and told the staff who saw her she was jet lagged and didn't want disturbing. One of the neighbours lasses went to see if she needed food and things and found the door open and her on the bed, she thought she was sleeping until she saw the empty bottle of Papa Franks finest malt empty and a hell of a lot of empty pill packets. She was only found an hour ago."

"Ewan, please open me the letter, I need to know things only she could tell me, and I have to hope they are in that letter?"

"Aye Miss Annie. If you're sure?"

"I am." We hear the tear of the envelope and a thud.

"There is a ledger, an old tape a cassette thing, and a letter Miss Annie addressed to you."

"Thanks, what is in the ledger?" We hear him open the book.

"Medical words, names, dates, and how they died. It is like a accounts ledger Annie, but of death, if I am seeing this right?"

"Okay, okay, good, well it's not but it could be the key this lot need to give us our answers. Ewan, please can you see if there is a Vita D'Acciaio's name there?" Again we hear him flicking through pages.

"Yes, it's here, this was your Italian grandmothers name, though I think you called her Nonna? Yes?"

"You, you of all people should know that Ewan, she was rather a pest when she was there to see me. Why did I not see this then?"

"You were always happy to see them, and they were happy to see you. How is Nonno?" I hear her sigh.

"He died, he died a couple of days after Nonna died Ewan. This is no good I need to see it. Can you go to the office and show it to me Ewan?"

"I am sorry for your loss. I am in the new office Annie. I will Skype you. Are you near a computer?"

"My phone is up to receiving anything you send me, but please let me get to my office and my wife and I will sit with our legal team and go through this with you acting as our liaison, okay?" I say. It looks like my dad is going to be helping us now. We head to my office here and Ana and the rest follow, it seems we are all eager to see and hear this. I wonder why? I mentally slap my head back and sit, set up the call and accept his chat request. Ana smiles at the older guy sat on the other end of the call screen.

"There you are Ewan. Nice to see you again." She says and he smiles too.

"Aye too long. Here, here is the note on your Nonna. I never liked her."

"It seems not a lot of people did, but me and Nonno. Open the book at the page with her name on. Please?" He does so. "Vita D'Acciaio, 5th September 1970. Cause of death: Anaphylactic shock, an allergic reaction to seafood." Ana reads what we see? "1970? Death, shock, what does this mean Mom?"

"I don't know, that she died when Marco was what? Four days old? I was nearly six and she was dead. So who was the woman we saw as Vita? Ana, please tell me, was Violeta and I hated the right woman and not Mama?"

"Ewan, is there anything on the previous pages about another woman dying?" We see him turn the page backwards. He nods his head and we focus on the words… I am speechless…

"Vera Lagardia. Yes, she is in the ledger, and unbelievably she too died the very same day, from being hit in the head at the hands of this Violeta, with an iron poker, which can be found with her, in the plastic she was wrapped in, she died the same day as Vita! No, this woman died way before you were born Miss Annie, so who was the evil Nonna who came to the island to see you? Good grief… See this?" We stare at the opposite page. "Valentina, twin sister of Vera, she had the same reaction to the seafood as Vita, however Valentina was heavily pregnant and to save the baby they cut him from her body. What sort of freak would do that? Annie, the pages are signed Jenny Smith, is that our Jenny, Mrs Logan, is this why she came here with your family to Otter Island because of the atrocities she had committed there, did she come here to escape?"

"I don't know Ewan, we are trying to work it all out. Do you remember her arriving with Papa Frank and Mimi? You were a little older than my father, weren't you?"

"Aye, when they arrived on the island it was a great day for us and the abandoned lands and half demolished castle, I remember wee Frank and his nanny. They lived in the crofters cottages with us as part of the community and let me tell you they were very much loved, they all were even Jenny, especially Jenny, she was a nice woman, a tad grumpy, but underneath, she was a good woman, who loved Little Frank. They stopped in those tiny cottages until the castle was rebuilt. My friend Frank did not need a nanny, but Mimi liked him being watched by the nurse, he was a sickly kid when they first arrived. The fresh air cured all that and over the years he got stronger. He didn't need a nanny and then Jenny married a local man and stayed on in her cottage her family all died of the same thing it nearly killed her their dying Annie? Then many years later she helped Mimi raise you. She fair loved you Annie. I can't believe she used her fine nurse training to do this?" She was a fucking nurse? Really?

"Is there any mention of a Violeta?" He looks back and then skips forward to the back.

"No, no and the death book stopped after the last entry on Vita D'Acciaio. Your supposed grandmother Annie, was dead long before they came to the island, did this woman Violeta, did she take over as Nonna?"

"Yes, yes Ewan, we believe she was living her life as Vita. Can you open the letter and place it so I can read it please?"

"Aye." We watch as he places them carefully side by side. "I will be getting a cup of coffee, shout if you need me Sir, Annie? I will leave you to read them."

"Thank you, Ewan, how long for the police to get there?" I ask

"Sir, they are heading over as we speak, the ferry is bringing them, but the sea is in a little rough at the moment, so it may take a little longer for them to get here." He leaves to take tea and a drop of whiskey to calm his nerves, whist we collect ours, poor Ana.

A dear Ana…

I stare for an age as the three sheets of paper and wonder what to do, read, not read? I needed these answers from the horse's mouth, that dead body is not going to give me the answers I need, and what if those damned letter is just filled with more fucking lies? Christian sees my hesitancy to look at the damned screen, but here they are, larger than life and on the screen before me.

"Ana, do you want me to read it?"

"No, no thanks. Let's do it together? Guys sit behind us, maybe many eyes and minds will make better sense of it?" They all shuffle behind me. I start at the top, where else is there to start, with the fucking great big I am sorry at the end? Sorry for what being a murderer?

"Anastasia, my Annie, my wee little soldier and brave, brave Lassie… Is she still thinking she is a bona fide Scott, really? For fuck sake. She is going to be writing down lies, great start Jenny!"

"Ana, read and take it all in first." Christian states, Carrick pats my back and Grace passes me a weak tea and a biscuit. I smile.

"Annie, by the time you get this I will be dead, and my many years of painful torment at the hands of Violeta Benedetti, they will have ended and I hope to god her hands do not reach out to get you from the depths of whatever hell place they have that vile evil and manipulative bitch. I have ran away from her and the things I did, for one last time, to the only place I ever classed as home. My safe place, my haven from the atrocities I witnessed for many years, many decades many painful decades of being a slave to your great aunts evil and vile life. The last step was her having me cut away poor baby Santino from her cousin Valentina's lifeless body, it was a step too far."

"Okay, so we know Santino, Uncle Sonny's mother is Valentina, Davide's lost sister. How though?" I shake my head at Christian's question. How indeed? She would have had to have slept with Nonno? Yes? Yes, she had to have. Did he cheat on Vita, the real Vita? Obviously, he did Uncle Sonny is proof of that.

"I did not ever think she would stoop as low as she did, killing her sister, her own twin and those stupid Laguardi sisters, her supposed cousins or half-sisters depending on whatever psychotic frame of mind she was in at the time. The two sets of twins were the exact same as each other, both had a good and an evil one. Violeta and Valentina, were truly evil. Were as Vita and Vera were sweet lost souls bashed and berated by the controlling twin. Poor Vita was forced into leaving her babies, lest Violeta do them harm and I believe she would have."

"She had no choice but to do her sisters bidding to save Ray, Marco and me? Really, do you believe this Ana?"

"I don't know Mum, but we all know now Vita was dead, and what was left in her wake was Violeta. Did the mean things she did to you and the other two, start when you started in school Mum?"

"Yeah, the same time she brought the brat home. AKA Sonny, we all hated him, and for damned years too, I blamed the change on the spoiled brat and he was a brat Ana, a real dick a spoiled dick. God…"

"It seems he was both scared and scarred from seeing things here, we need to read on." Mum shook her head, her tissue is ripped to shreds, and her eyes seem to be full of anger.

"Vera and Vita, were made to do their sisters bidding, whilst the other two swanned around living life to the max, drinking partying and being nought but whores. The set up in the house of horrors was all their idea. They even conned the hapless younger of their brothers into playing their wicked games. I don't know how but he gave them the house, that the previous tenant had ran as a gentleman's club to use as their own party place. You will find his body is in the garden, I had nothing to do with those bodies, they were killed, or died long before I got there, pitiful excuse I know but the truth was, they were working girls killed by their clients. I do not know any of their names, I only know of the ones killed in the house and moved to the basement apartment."

"I don't understand this, was Davide totally unaware this was happening in one of his own buildings, buildings as close as they were, I mean we saw the activity here pretty damned quickly, did he not see the goings on there, I mean a man digging a grave not once but up to 20 times?" I sat shocked and stunned.

"He did say that his brother ran this block, for something to do and to keep him busy yet close? He also said his brother was for the want of a better word weal in the head?"

"So, he says. I mean I am confused, even if we seem to be getting clarity."

"He could have been oblivious Ana, he was a busy man, though if what I am reading is true then how did he not see his sisters coming and going?"

"His brother covered for them obviously, I mean he had to see the swelling of his own sisters body?"

"True. I wonder… Read on…" Christian says. Grace has gone to herself a stiff drink. I read on…

"I heard the plans to con Salvador into believing the child was his. He was a weak man when Carla's mother died, she, they, I mean they both slept with him, and they both got great enjoyment out of seducing your Nonno too. He thought he was sleeping with his sweet wife, when it was really Violeta and Valentina. They had that poor man doing all sorts. I am not going into detail because I never saw it, I just heard them talking when they returned. Vera and Vita were kept in the house as a pair of near prisoners, made to live here until the evil twin's plans were to be put in place. I figured out it had a lot to do with selling or conning them onto believing the baby Valentina was having either Nonno's Salvador or even the stupid fool of a brother's kid. The older brother Davide, he controlled their money and gave them a pittance to live on. They wanted the good things that the club had offered them, but their club ran into difficulties, word of their depravity got around and their genteel clientele, it waned, so they hit on the idea of cash for kids, and used the basement apartment to deliver the children of the girls they employed in the house above."

"Okay, that explains the room? I guess? Why did she put up with this?"

"If she was blackmailing the good twins, how easy would it have been for them to blackmail Jenny, she after all helped deliver the children of what I have read is true?"

"You have read it already?" Everyone had. I was just too busy over thinking every sodding line and word and letter. That's why! Okay let me read this then and we can figure it out together, yes?" They all nod as I read on.

"I had to deliver the babies of the poor girls, girls forced to have babies to sell to the rich and desperate people of the world. Several girls died as did their children, for obvious reasons I was not qualified to do Cesareans and when they got into difficulty the two of them, they refused to allow the three of us, Vita, Vera and I to get them to a hospital. We were told to dump the first body in the garden, but everywhere we dug, was already a grave. So we started to pull up the floor boards, and thanks to the baker Vita and her odour eliminator idea, we ordered in a tonne of backing soda, and packed it over the well tied plastic the girls were wrapped in, and for a few weeks we opened the vents under the floor to hide the stench of death and decomposing girls. The under floor heating vents in the basement, it seemed to bake them and the smell stopped after a couple of weeks. We did hover out their space and added in more odour catching powder. Over the years we filled the spaces. The good twins were allowed out and Vita was allowed to visit London and her cousin Rose and return home, but was always called back to that house, why did they put up with it? Why did I out up with it, I hear your thoughts Annie, even from the other side, they had photos of us with the bodies, they had photos of us helping the girls, they had photos and they treated those we loved. I was the ring leader of the three of us so protected the other two, Vita loved her family and Vera, she was just too weak to stand up to her sister and Violeta. So we all went along with their mind games.

Then when the baby business failed, the girls got wise to the real reason they were hired, passed the word around and that's when the business upstairs started to fail. The they hot on the plan of one or both of them getting a rich man's child inside them. They were sick women. That is how they hooked Santino and how they tried to hook Salvador, but he died during the final trimester of the pregnancy and Violeta was angry with the three people draining their funds. Her sister had started to get stronger and stood up to her, as did Vera, the heavily pregnant Valentina was now no match for the fed up sister. They had been bought the villa in Italy by Davide, so he thought they were there, when all the time they were three doors down from him, the only time either twin left the damned house was to pull a con with Violeta, they needed to make appearances in London and Italy and a few other places, and yes, they went along with it. Then that last fateful month, we by then had all had it by this time, so we ganged together, and unfortunately for us, Violeta was stronger than we gave her credit for. She thrashed the other two within an inch of their life and me, I watched like an idiot, frozen and afraid. She then nursed them herself, she fed them cleaned them and then the night Valentina had a reaction to her lunch, the same reaction Vita was having too, a swollen face, difficulty breathing.

I asked what they had been eating and all three had said soup, they had a reaction to the soup, I went to see what the soup was and Violeta had sprinkled shrimp powder in their spicy chicken soup. Vera saw what I saw and attacked her sister who was holed up in her study working out her plans, they fought and Vera was hit with the fire poker. She laughed Annie, laughed as the blood dripped from the poker, laughed and then we heard Vita fall over, she had choked to death. The we both heard the scream from Valentina and rushed in to see her die before our eyes, I had no choice but to try and save the child she was carrying and cut her from her dead body, I hadn't even cleared away the detritus of the baby's horrific birth when I was hit from behind.

When I came to, I was alone in the basement with three dead bodies, Violeta had gone and the child was gone too. The idiot brother saw what I had supposedly done and freaked out. He calmed down and realised with both his sisters dead he was in for more money from his too busy to care brother. He then helped me dispose of the girls the same way, but there was only the room for two bodies under the floor and Valentina was too messy to shift, her stomach was everywhere, the baby's stuff was there. So he locked his own dead sister in the room and had the cupboard placed over the door. He told me to see to it that the smell was taken care of, he would sort it with his brother, he gave me a envelope with cash in it and the passports of both of his sisters, I was to go to Italy with each of their passports separately, use my own to come back and then use the other, and then disappear after I had. It was when I was leaving I bumped into Mimi. I was crying of course, and told her I had been fired from my position of care giver to the old gent, to whom the house was I thought rented out to. She said did I want to join them in Scotland and care for her son, who needed help, he was weak and had breathing troubles, of course I jumped on the opportunity of a fresh start, I was disappearing to the back of beyond.

Imagine my surprise many years later that poor wee boy died, he left behind a heartbroken wife and a child. I looked after your mother Annie, I looked after you Carla and I also found out that evil was still in your life, living as your mother, Violeta came to the island with Mimi and Frank to she thought take you home with her to London. Imagine her horror to see me there. I wasn't afraid of her, not with the many years of living the life I had, I was stronger than her, but she still had the photographs and used them to silence me. I did not invent the family I had, they were taken from me because of the evil I had done before them. I never went to New York after that trip to have Christmas there. I let you believe the house were the house was, was Davide's so you wouldn't find the bodies hidden there. Take the ledger to the police, show it Davide, so he can finally put his sisters to rest. Tell him too about Santino, your uncle being his nephew and how it happened, do not lie to him Annie, be truthful, be as truthful as I taught you to be. I taught you to be better than me, to be good to be strong and to be better than Violeta. I wish I had been stronger and come forward, but she knew I loved you like my own and I knew she would kill you without second guessing herself, she was true evil.

I had to look out for my wee lassie, and I did, she knew I was watching out for you, you. I made Nonno get you out of her grips, encouraged him to let you follow your dreams, just so you were nowhere near her. I had to, to keep you safe. Forgive me. I was glad to go to Calabasas to help care for Papa Frank, because she had planned to kill him too. So you would get your inheritance and then you were the next in line. I stopped her, I recorded a conversation and played it for her. Blackmail is a two way street I told her. By then you had hit the big time with your chocolates, and your very public career meant you would have been harder to kill you, harder than the three helpless girls locked away in the house of death.

I heard her on the phone with Jack Hyde and they were working on a plan to take over your empire, she was evil Annie, he was warped and I made sure she died, I swapped her pills for mere sugar pills, she died in pain taking sugar coated placebos for her headaches. She died a painful death, and that I am not sorry for that, that was my doing. Her Karma was justified if a little too late. I am sorry Annie, I never meant to be wicked, I was just too weak and afraid of an evil woman. I know she never loved you, not like I did, you were my little Annie and I would have died to keep you safe, but I am not strong enough to face the humiliation of my hand in the deaths of those poor girls and their children nor at my standing and watching as she killed her own sister and the twins. Make every day I got for you count. Live it, knowing who you are, at last and know that your mother loved you, let her stay in your life Annie, she needs you.

Tell him, Davide, I am sorry, tell him about his sisters, his brother and his nephew. Sonny is all he has left. Tell him I am sorry. I am Annie so very sorry. Can I ask you please, to put my ashes with those of my family? I leave this world a pitiful fool, but I enter the next, not with a clear conscience but with the knowledge that Vita and Vera get, at last, to be returned to their loving families. Vita loved you Carla, loved you as though you were her own and she loved Nonno, she left those feelings she had for Salvador behind her, she loved your Nonno, very much, she did what she did to protect her three children and her loving husband from Vile Violeta. Let them be together in death, as Violeta robbed him of a happy life with her. Annie, I love you and I am sorry for my part in this holy mess I caused. Your loving Nanny, Jenny…"

I sob. I loved her so much… I was lied to, I was lied to by Jenny, Vita and the damned universe. Christian hugged me as I cried, I have the answers I need, Davide will get his and he and I have a calmness about this mess. A calmness I bloody well need. Is it over? I can but hope? I am not looking forward to telling poor uncle Davide, and will put that off until I confirm this with Dr Bones Brennan, which I will be doing, a few million in the Jeffersonian donation box will get me at least an audience with her. I hope so anyway…

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So… tell me what did I miss as I cannot read the previous chapters lol… My eyes are great, it's the damned fingers again lol. I need to get some sunshine, soon lol read and review please xxx

If you are missing me I have books on Smashwords under Christine Wood. and amazon, FREE ON KDP. 4 in all... arty black and white covers.


	49. Chapter 49

This story is nowt like fifty shades; I just purloined E.L. James's characters, buildings and some of her other stuff...

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 _ **First of all; thank you so much for your continued good wishes;**_

 _ **I gather you liked the Bones thing?**_

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 _ **Now, I would like to thank you all for your reviews and pm's I will start to reply when my eyes are a little less bothersome… Thank you though!**_

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Dreaming of Chocolate and Grey:

Chapter 49:

 _(Oops and as I am not a scientific, anthropologist or a coroner, please excuse my ignorance on the medical stuff. Ta very mutchly!)_

The bodies pile high.

Agent Seeley Booth:

We, Aubrey and I are headed to the Jeffersonian, it is day two of the mummies under the floor boards case. Bones and the rest of her team have been hard at work since daybreak, and they worked until late too. I was treated to a roundup of the case when Brennan arrived home, and for a change, she shocked me, because unlike any other case I have covered with her, she was a little emotional about this one. Though not crying and screaming, she was deeply saddened because she has four bodies on the table with eight people involved, the girls each had been pregnant and so there were four babies too. She is having our third child, so it was possibly the pregnancy hormones to blame for her emotional and unusual state of mind, very un-Brennan-like. She had an unsettled night, and decided to set off before the children woke, which is very unlike her.

I had the children with me, and as it's going to be a long day for both of us I have dropped them at the Jeffersonian day care. They need to be with their friends and Hank, he has been a little whiney, he missed seeing his mommy last night and she had gone before breakfast, so he needs to see his mother, and soon. Hence their being here and not at their day care centre in my place of work. Besides the Jeffersonian has way cooler stuff to keep them entertained. Christine has gotten used to this way of life, and takes it all in her five year old stride. I am heading in to see my wife, with Mr and Mrs Grey in tow, they met me here and are eager to hand over their recent findings to Brennan. From what I saw they have proof positive that the woman who could have helped them is in fact dead, a fact that I have had verified. She left her, Mrs Grey a ledger, a tape and a letter, the letter detailed her life with this evil woman Violeta. There were chunks of their life of crime missing. Like how did she get the job as housekeeper/nurse and Madam of the house of the mummies? Did she know the house was hers and all the documents for the 'house for gents' were in her name, why did she not tell a police officer? Knowing what I do know of the force here, the old NYPD, probably had several on the books, perhaps for turning a blind eye, they were offered as freebies?

We enter the anthropology department, and I scan the room, and on the platform, where the bodies are first brought when they arrive at the Jeffersonian for autopsy, and no matter what their condition, this is the first of many rooms were the bodies will be examined, yesterday they actually started on the first of at least 20 mummified and well-aged bodies. I smile and I see the head anthropologist, Doctor Temperance Brennan, my wife Mrs Seely Booth, though I would eat my right butt cheek before she changed her name to mine, she is Brennan, Sweetie or Bones' dependant on who is speaking to her, I am the only one who dare call her Bones' that's our thing, my wife hates it, but has gotten used to it over the years. In the main it is Doctor Brennan, as she insists on her Squints using the title in fact. Brennan, takes a great deal of comfort she has gained from her deep seated anthropological disciplines, this self-imposed self-education, is the main reason for her appearing as she does, to all but her understanding colleagues, whom both adore her and admire her, she comes across as cold, too forthright and very odd, she seems harsh and so matter of fact, and yes, I too sometimes, actually most of the time, want to shake normal into her, but then she wouldn't be the woman I love. I smile as I see her, she is holding court.

With her is the head of department, Camille Saroyan, or Cam as she prefers, she likes to keep her hand in and helps whenever she can, usually all the time! Jack Hodgins, entomologist, or as he calls himself, the bug and slime guy, he is in a wheelchair due to being blown up in one of the many cases he helped Bones and I with, and by his side is wife Angela Montenegro, Angie, the Jeffersonians resident forensic artist and computer expert, they are joined by several of Bones' graduate students and assistants, intern Daisy Wick, Dr Clark Thomas Edison, Wendell Bray, Colin Fisher and Arastoo Vaziri, all of the interns, who I call "squints" because they go to crime scenes and squint at evidence, not really a hahaha thing, but they are an amazing group. They are in again to help with the magnitude of bodies they already have and the others expected today, it is an unusual occurrence to have so many of them in at once.

"Mr Vaziri, can we please confirm these test results? The body confirmed as Valentina, Lagardia, died from an allergic reaction to shellfish, she went into an anaphylactic shock and choked to death? The very same reaction and death as body three and four? Did you double check that Dr Hodgkin?"

"I did, I triple checked it. The body may have been there four decades, but the trace in the plastic showed definite shrimp residue in all three cases. If I were a betting man, I would lay good odds on it being in their last meal it was a shared thing with all three bodies."

"Excellent, did you find out where the key was from that body two had on her, the V was possibly her initial?"

"It is a blank and gets you into many doors, doors that are usually in an apartment block. It is still in business, the locksmith, he is digging out the records as we speak." Angie tells Bones.

"Good, excellent! Now Mr Vaziri can confirm which twin is which, their rehydrated finger prints and their DNA is exact, did they have anything to distinguish one from the other?"

"Yes Dr Brennan, according to the medical records provided by their brother, the one who gave birth to the child, Valentina, she broke her nose when she was 19, a fall from a horse meant she need remodelling, she has the same re-modelled nose. Twin two Vera, she has the nose she was born with, and the broken wrist she acquired in a fight with her sister, it was pinned and the pin was still in her wrist, we have it here with the key and the cross she had on too."

"Mrs Anastasia Grey, she is convinced one or more of the bodies will be that of a missing relative, It seems she was correct The third body, was identified by again DNA, again provided by that bothersome woman." I really should cough as that bothersome woman is stood watching this from the staff lounge.

"Bones' she gets very annoyed when she feels rushed and pushed into making rash judgment calls Mrs Grey. I assure you she is like this with everyone, she has not singled you out specifically." Thank god, she smiles.

"She is correct, I am very irksome, but I have a lot riding on these results. A lot!"

"Money?"

"God no, I have an uncle, Uncle Santino, he needs to know who is mother was. I need to know if the woman I despised in the later weeks of her life was Vita or Valentina. I can't possibly lay my grandfather to rest with the wrong sister, nor can I throw the wrong sister into a volcano and send her back to whence she came."

"Nice send-off then!"

"I didn't want to have her ashes scattered anywhere nice because of the evil things she has done, she cannot be laid to rest when those people she hurt, abused and may have murdered, cannot be lain to rest." We watch as the team discuss the case.

"Hodgins gave me the file Sweetie, and it has helped find out who the three relatives of hers were. Did you not like this woman, this Anastasia Grey? Only you seem a little more, how can I say this?" Angie knows my wife well.

"Be as truthfully as possible Angela, please? I thought I was being very understanding of her needs, nay I am being very gracious and doing as she asks. Dropping everything to do her bidding."

"Sweetie, what did she say?"

"She was a tad demanding and was acting quite needy and was very yes, demanding. She even called in a few favours to get what she wanted. I wouldn't be surprised if she pulls more strings and stands over, me whilst I do my job." Mrs Grey steps back and her husband smiles. Yes, he smiles. I feel your pain. We all do things we wouldn't for the woman we love.

"Brennan, Sweetie, what would you do, if you thought one of these bodies was that of your relative?" Angie asks. She would be far worse, she would leave no stone unturned swabbed and inspected and has done so several times.

"I would await calmly for me to do my job. I would not demand and stamp my feet like a petulant child."

"Did she? Did she actually stamp her feet?"

"She almost did. Back to the matter in hand, Angela, thank you. Now Dr Vaziri, can you please arrange x-rays and scans? Then Dr Hodgins have the bodies catalogued and cleaned." I watch as my wife does her thing, the last thing she needs is me hammering at her door for answers. Mrs Grey riled her enough at the crime scene. She is going to flip when she hears Mrs Grey is the institutes latest donator, nobody turns down ten million dollars, and the Jeffersonian didn't.

"The woman who gave birth was not in her twenties, but she was in her early thirties and not the teenagers Mrs Grey was led to believe. What do we know for sure?"

"I will get Booth on to it, their elder brother Davide, he reported them missing at the age of twenty two, he was told by his brother they were supposed to be in Italy, or Sicily? However, he later found out they had not been there in many years and he has spent thousands trying to find them. He could have been confused?" Angie has a point, what did they do, and where did they hide in that missing decade? I would presume they were not three doors down from their family home all that time? I stare at Mrs Grey and she too looks confused.

"So they had ten years of no contact, what did these two sisters do in those ten years?" She asks me.

"I wouldn't know Mrs Grey. Can you ask your Uncle Davide?"

"Not really, his assistant Fredrick, he says he is confused by the dates. He believes their brother Francesco had a lot to do with it. Alas he died taking his secrets with him. Davide, he is hanging on to find them though. Is your wife sure they are the bodies of his sisters and my real, or adoptive grandmother Vita?"

"Booth, are you up there?"

"Yes, I have with me Mr and Mrs Grey. They have some sort of ledger, a death book if you will on the bodies in the house."

"Excellent, if you give it to Miss Montenegro, she can check out the bodies we have with the books descriptions. Anything else?" Mrs Grey grabs the rail and stares down at Brennan.

"I am sorry if I stepped on your toes Dr Brennan, bit for years I grew up in a perfectly normal home, I was happy and loved, then all of a sudden I get told things that shook me to my core and everything I thought I knew about myself was a lie. Do you know what it feels like to be lied to and for so long?"

"Actually I do." Bones, she was raised in foster care and didn't know her real name for many years, years later she and identified her own mother's remains and then found her father, so she does know Mrs Grey's pain. Though she will be loathed to admit it, she has been where Mrs Grey is now and will have some sort of feelings about this.

"Then I don't need to tell you how important it is for me to finally know who is who in my life, I need to fond closure and my uncles and mother need to know what happened. My uncle especially needs to know who was his mother, have you at least found out which of the mummies is his mother? I know you don't like to guess these things, but could you try to at least try to guess expertly guess who she is from what you now know, because this whole mess is weighing me down?"

"I don't have to guess, Your grandmother here, is Vita D'Acciaio, she died on or around the same time as the other two bodies, as I said you and they share a very strikingly similar facial structure. I do not need to guess, these two are twin sisters, the other is a distant cousin, the records given to Miss Montenegro are a perfect match to the three bodies we found yesterday. All three died because of an allergic reaction to shell fish. Did the twin of this body here Vita D'Acciaio, have an allergy to shell fish?"

"Yes, yes she did. I remember her once eating an aperitif, at a party at the castle and she nearly died, Granny Mimi, she forgot Nonna couldn't have shell fish, she was very ill and forgetful and I was only about ten or eleven, it was awful her face puffed up and her neck was huge, she was chocking and Nonno had to stab her with a pen thing, they flew her off the island and all because Granny Mimi used a shrimp flavouring in the cream cheese. She never let Mimi cook for her after that. Is that what they died of? All three?"

"It would seem so. The vomit on the plastic sheets they were wrapped in after their deaths had trace amounts of shrimp on them, the body which birthed your uncle Valentina? She had the same reaction and whom ever saw this, they cut out the baby to save it. I have had the cord sample and the sample of the mother ran against those you provided me of one Santino D'Acciaio, and they confirm they are mother and son."

"Thank you. Dr Brennan, thank you, very much. You don't know what this will mean to the family. We have some answers. I hope the ledger makes your job a lot easier too. Thank you."

"Mrs Grey you are welcome. We have not finished with the bodies yet. They are being stripped as we speak…" Mrs Grey holds her hand up.

"…Thank you. That is too much information. When can I have the body, sorry I mean the bones back of my grandmother? Also if you know cause of death do you have to do that thing, anyway? I mean I know you know your job, but I don't think I want her stripping down like a used motor vehicle, to just parts, I want her body as is she is, is that possible?"

"Your grandmother is not one of the three bodies connected to you." As I said, my wife is not the tact full one of the team.

"Vita, when can I have Vita back?"

"You are correct, we have cause of death. We could forgo bleaching their remains." I shudder. "If you want and if Agent Booth here has no need for further tests, then you can have them back as early as tomorrow. What about the Lagardia twins Vera and Valentina? Who would will be dealing with them? Will their brother want to know more?"

"No, he will want them back with as little more mutilation than they had already suffered at the hands of Violeta. I realise you have these tests you need to do, but if possible can we go with what you already have, they were killed by a reaction to shell fish? They had no broken necks, no bone stress, please tell me you do not need to clean them up?"

"I don't need to, no. I will arrange their release at the same time. What about the others?"

"I don't recognise any of the names in the ledger, the original is being couriered here for you to look at, these are ones I was sent and are, I hope, going to be of help to you. I would guess, not all of them had allergic reactions, so do what you need. I will also foot the bill for the return of their bodies to their family and for the funerals. I feel that is the least I can do for what that woman did to them."

"If there is nothing more Mrs Grey, I have work to do."

"No, and thank you for doing what you did for me and my family and so quickly too. Thank you."

"You are welcome. It seems money does talk."

"If you were me, you would do the same. Please do not answer that, because I know you would."

"I would. You are correct, I hope you have some closure." They seem to end their standoff and Bones returns to the next three bodies on her table. I shiver again, how my wife does this all the damned time and yet it still surprises me.

"So Agent Booth, can I tell my uncle we have found his missing sisters?"

"I guess so, but we still need to know where they were for the ten years they were missing before they died?"

"We will never know, all I do know is we know where they are now. They had ten years of running around the world as hellions, and spent the last forty becoming mummies. I don't really care what they did, I just want to give one old man some much needed closure, before it is too late Agent Booth. He has waited long enough for this day."

"A day that I guess nobody wants to face?"

"I guess not. Thank your wife for the work she has done and I apologise for the pressure my wife and I placed on her and the Jeffersonian. I am also sure the million dollar a year the Grey Trust have pledged to her department will help ease their financial burden too."

"As well as the ten you gave them? I would think you will be hit up for more too."

"So can you arrange for their bodies to be released to us Agent Booth? I would like to give my uncle the news they have been found. I mean she is never wrong, Dr Brennan? Right?"

"Never. If she says they died as they did and the test prove they are who they are then I will arrange for it to happen. I will have my people contact your people." They nod their heads and the guy swept his wife out of the place like she is made of china. I wonder what else those two have had to face? I go and see my wife and take her to see the kids and perhaps have lunch in the park, and finish the picnic we started?

Good news Bad news…

Christian and I head home, with the last piece of the puzzle fitting sort of in place, sure there are lots of things not quite fitting, but I have found the nice Vita, uncovered the horrid Violeta for the evil and twisted bitch she was. Found out Vera and Valentina, who died three doors away from their brothers and that Francesco knew she was there all that time, How will he take that news that his own brother locked her dead body in that room? I would hazard a guess not too well and I would also guess he did it for the money the girls had spent over the years? It was given to someone? Perhaps Violeta and he had a share and share alike policy, he did give them the house and the basement was hers for as long as she lived, thus hiding them and her from prosecution and Jenny, well Jenny she took the cowards way out. Telling us some things and leaving us to guess the others.

"Baby, are you okay?"

"I am fine, I have the answers I needed and I am going to close the book on the past and carry on knowing what I know and ignoring what I don't know, I mean digging into my past has given me a hell of a headache."

"We just have to tell that sweet old guy his sisters are dead and have been three doors along all this time, and that his brother knew this too."

"We can only hope he takes the news well. I know Uncle Sonny is going to be thrilled at finding he has an uncle and who his mother was, though finding out she was as horrid as Violeta may not be welcomed. I mean two nice twins and two horrid ones. Go figure that one out?"

"True Cain and Abel twins, one good one bad. I will be so glad to get to London Baby. What will you do with Violeta's ashes?"

"I don't know, flush them in your jets toilet and dump her and the contents over the Atlantic? I don't know and Mum and the brothers won't care either. I know I don't want her with Nonno."

"Perhaps we could just scatter them in the park?"

"No, I jog in the park. I don't want her near anything I love."

"Will you leave them to me?"

"Yup. Take me home. I need to unwind a little before I join Mum and Davide. I can't go around like this. Take me home and do what you do best, help me relax?" I see Taylor waiting for us.

"That sounds like a plan Mrs Grey. Taylor, can you take us home please?"

"Sir…" My door is opened and Christian circles the car and gets in at the side of me. I feel sort of sad, if that makes and sense? I mean I turns out that I never met Vita, but she was the biggest part of my life. I was supposedly loved by her and yet it was Violeta all the time, did she actually like me or did she like the money that went with me? The biggest question I have, and this is the biggest headache I have, what the hell did she do with the damned money, she was raking it in from everywhere and left nothing to show for it. Well nothing we have found anyway. My god the boys were all raised by her too and didn't guess, Nonno slept with her and never guessed, so I guess I am not the only fool in the family?

We get home and my uncles are sat with my mother in the lounge. Okay she is supposed to be with Davide…

"Ana, thank god you are here."

"Mum, what's the matter?"

"Poor Davide died in his sleep."

"He what?"

"I went around and Fredrick went to wake him and the poor man had died."

"Holy hell. Really?"

"Really." My mother looks so upset. I mean it is a shock, but not really, I mean he was hanging on by a thread. "I am sorry he died without knowing we had found his sisters, the poor man."

"Ana, are you not upset?"

"Mum I met him yesterday for the first time. I am sorry yes but I don't think I am emotional tied to him. Mum, I am sorry you lost the person who knew your mother, I am. He was old Mum and as Fredrick said, he was living on borrowed time."

"I know Ana, I know. What did you find out? Who were the bodies?"

"Please sit down… Can you call Uncle Ray?"

"Sure…" Marco says and makes the call… He answers. I guess we have woken him?

"Hello Uncle Ray, I have Marco, Sonny and Mum here and Christian too…"

"What's up Bambino?"

"Today I have found Vita, she died forty years ago…"

"No shit? Then the mother I hated was really who, Violeta?"

"Yes. The same year she was reported as missing was the same year she took over from Vita."

"It makes sense. She came back from the trip to London a different woman and mother, it explains a lot."

"She had an allergic reaction to shell fish and chocked before she could be saved."

"So, my real mum is dead and has been dead for forty years?"

"Yes."

"Okay, so I hated this mother for a reason, she was not my mother?"

"Yes…"

"Ana, are you sure this is true?"

"Yes, all the blood test were triple checked by the best people in the world. They also found Sonny's mother too." All the eyes in the room are on me. "She is or was Valentina Lagardia, she and her twin sister Vera were killed at the same time as Vita, when all three ingested a last meal with some sort of shrimp added to it. Like Jenny said, they were killed and allowed to die, they cut Sonny from his mother and Violeta made Nonno think he was his. I would think Salvador dying whilst she was over in America stopped the plans she had of passing Sonny off as his kid backfired, so she passed Sonny off as his instead." Sonny looks shocked, bit not upset.

"So, I am a Lagardia not a D'Acciaio?"

"No you are Nonno's son. DNA does not lie, it seems Violeta did. She stole you from your dead mother and ran. Davide's brother Francesco, he knew and cleared up after her. I am sorry but that is the truth and now we can lay them to rest. I would like Vita to be cremated here and then placed with Nonno."

"Yes, I would too." Ray said.

"Me too." Marco said. With tears in his eyes. "I want Mama and Papa together."

"Me too, though I guess I don't have much of a say?" My mother cried.

"Hey sis, you have as much right to a say as any of us. She loved you, Papa did too. It was the witch who hated you, not Vita… Our Mama."

"So… What do we do with the pretend wanna be Vita, Violeta? Christian has offered to have her disposed of?"

"Flush her somewhere fitting? How about flushing them down a dunny any dunny will do?" Uncle Ray says.

"I was thinking of a plot on her own. Somewhere alone? I would hate to have her block a toilet." Christian laughs as he says it."

"She doesn't matter to us, so do what you want, but are you still placing Papa's ashes with Little Christian, Bambino?"

"Yes and Vita too. If that's okay? I mean I want Nonno to be near my son. Our son, I want my father, Papa Frank and Mimi there too."

"You know my feelings Ana, when you die you die, you do what makes you feel good Ana, I have my memories and that's all good for me. Marco?"

"Yes, I am with Ray on this, they would want to be with him. I know he was sad he never got to see your son, so yes, keep to the plan and add in our Mama."

"Right anything else. Only I was asleep?" He laughs. Now, do I tell Uncle Ray about the vineyard bodies?

"No that's it." I say and sigh, they can sleep where they are. There was only Uncle Davide looking for his sisters, I don't think anyone else has asked to dig in the vineyards? He says good night and ends the call. He wasn't that upset, or he was and he couldn't show it? I sit down to work put a plan of action. Taylor brings in Fredrick. Who looks so sad.

"Ana, Christian, how did it go, they won't tell me anything?"

"We found his sisters. Both died because of an allergic reaction and one had given birth to a baby, that baby is Sonny here." He sits down.

"Oh lord… All that time and they were just down the block?"

"And Francesco knew about it, he was the one who locked her in the room and told Jenny what to do with the bodies."

"I had a feeling he knew more than he said. He was supposed to be a little slow, but he was switched on in other ways. I never liked him."

"How did he die?"

"He," he laughed… "I am sorry for that, but when Davide went on his trips, I used to get myself shell fish in. I love it. I only have it when I dine out. Normally, I do not have it in the house, for fear of making him, Davide ill. However, Francesco came in drunk from a gathering at the gentleman's club and he helped himself to a curry that I had made for myself, he didn't ask he just took it, which was foolish for him. It was a Thai curry, a shrimp curry. He died in agony, his swollen throat and tongue choked him? I found him in the morning dead as a Dodo and a blooded mess, he had bitten off his tongue, it was very gruesome. Davide was called home and he was upset for quite some time, and then he made it his mission to find his sisters."

"He did?"

"Yes, he did because Davide hated being alone here. Still it is very fitting Francesco went the same way as his sisters. So, I guess you will inherit your mothers share of the family fortune Mr D'Acciaio? Are you allergic to seafood?" Does he want to end Uncle Sonny's life?

"No, no I am not thankfully. I guess I dodged a bullet. I am a great lover of Sushi, we all are. Do I really inherit her money, only it doesn't seem right that I get so much money?" Uncle Sonny says? "What about the rest of the family money please tell me that's gone to someone other than his missing sisters?" Fredrick smiles.

"Oh the Lagardia Family fortune, it was earmarked a long time ago, he left most of what he had to charity, everything, including the houses and the businesses. They are to be sold and the money is to be used to change the whole row of houses here into a care facility and the money will be used to home people should they need to be cared for when their families do not care enough for them. The money he has and the money from the property sales, it will than pay for their upkeep for life."

"Why just the one charity Fredrick?" I ask.

"He always had this oddness about him, a good oddness I might add, that the rich renters he put in those large homes, he said would help pay for the less fortunate to have a comfortable roof over their heads, it was a sort of passion, a modern day Robin Hood, though not steeling the money, but making good with their enormous rents, rents their rich employers paid."

"It seems a strange hobby to have. A good strange hobby. How did he choose helping the homeless?" Christian asks.

"That is simple… A homeless veteran from the park, he helped him out one night. Saved his life as it happens. Some idiot gave him a shellfish. As you have probably guessed the family all had the bizarre same allergy. All four children had the allergy to shrimp. Anyhow the old guy had a pen and gave him a shot of his Adrenaline and made sure he was seen to at a centre they had here. He was a little upset to see so many men homeless and in need of medical attention. He had many empty properties and a building or two that would suit their needs, he set up a medical centre and opened a shelter. He then did this row of homes up as you know. Alas not all the guys want to stop indoors. They really like the road. So he has a team who feed and clothe them for the changing seasons and if they need a roof should the roads get too much they have several they can stop at and be cared for. He hasn't stopped giving them handouts and leg ups in over forty years, I doubt he has personally take a dime out of his company in forty decades."

"He paid it forward, that act of kindness." Christian asks, with sadness in his eyes.

"He did many times over and for hundreds of people." He tells me more about the relative I met for a short time yesterday, and I feel very odd to be so upset about this. Christian hugs me tightly. "He has a housing schemes here and in several cities in America. His brother Francesco, he always threatened to put Davide on the street should he lose his marbles, so he ensured whilst he was sound of mind to make sure nothing could be done about his threats, should that time come. As it happened, he outlived his brother so that threat never came too much. So Mr D'Acciaio, you will inherit your mothers trust fund, but you will have no claim on the Lagardia family fortune, it is spoken for, I am sorry to say..."

"Did you get it?" He asks Fredrick "Or another family member?"

"I don't need to stake a claim on any of it, I work for my money thanks." He tells Uncle Sonny and the whole room. Good for him,

"Are you sure, only you will lose the roof over your head, won't you?" I ask.

"I am more than fine Mrs Grey, Ana. He paid me well and I get a decent salary for heading up his charity. I have been doing it for ten years."

"So I am not a billionaire then?" Uncle Sonny asks with a smile on his face.

"No, and Davide was only a property billionaire. He gave away most of what he made, to many good causes over the years. He had no family left, so he decided to give it to the needy and he had a hope to have a free pass to a good spot up there. He had distant cousins and such, you and the rest of the people who came forward to claim their stake in it. Nothing came of any claim until now. I presume the test results were proof positive?" I nod my head.

"Yes, as I said the baby was stolen and by Violeta. Posing as Vita. At least that's what the Jeffersonian have reliably told us. We had a very interesting day of discovery. So is it a lot Sonny's inheritance?"

"Ten million and interest?" Sonny gulped as did Marco and in turn so did my mother and I.

"I was joking, please add my mother's fortune to his charity too. I won't be claiming it, just because she birthed me, she really wasn't anything to me other than that, I have my family and they are more than enough and my niece here has seen to it I get well paid and have a choice of many homes to stay in. Thank you though."

"He died not knowing about his sisters, how sad was that, he was so very close to finding them too." I sob.

"He knew Ana. He was the first to know, he too paid a lot of money into the charitable donations coffers at that place. The head of the department phoned and told him about the findings late last night. I came in with breakfast, when your mother arrived and he unfortunately was dead, the phone was still in his hand. The lady I rang on the number was very apologetic and could tell me no more! He died of heart failure. no nut or shellfish were to blame. His borrowed time was all gone. The Grimm Reaper called and the door was opened for him, he had the answers it seems he needed and I will honour all his last wishes."

"This was not how I expected for today Fredrick. I thought we would tell him and introduce Sonny to his uncle."

"He must have thought it was time to be with his family, now they were all accounted for. He died with a smile on his face? I can but wish that was a smile?"

"Me too. So what will you do, I mean for their burial?"

"They were Jewish, so in accordance with their last wishes they will be cremated and they will be buried together today. Then I will deal with all this mess that those greedy and thoughtless bastards caused him. He was so hyped up yesterday that it was all just too much, he laughed as he went to bed, that it made him feel young again and he hoped you would get all your answers Ana, and that you would then go on and concentrate on you, your husband and your child, whom he says you need to concentrate on."

"A dodgy heart isn't great at any time." Christian joins in the conversation. "Here are the details of Agent Booth, he has promised to hasten their return home. He is a good man. Do you need to know anything else? There will be reports and Dr Brennan she was very thorough in finding things out for Ana and for Mr Lagardia. Alas too late."

"He knew it was a slim to nothing chance of their bodies turning up somewhere. I doubt he knew they were so close, he was convinced they were in the vineyards. I needed to tell you in person too, that you Carla are to get his mother's jewellery Mrs Adams, there are many personal letters to and from your mother, as you were the nearest thing to a daughter he ever had, and yes, he received letters from his one true love, he often said if you had been his things would have been so very different. Ana, you are to have all his photo albums. I am sorry I have to call the undertakers to have the bodies taken care of. Do you wish to pay your respects?" I didn't even need to think about it.

"Of course, he was a relative for a very short time. But he was nevertheless, a relative. What time is the service?" I ask.

"As soon as we have their bodies the sooner we can start a fresh. I would love for you to keep in touch Ana, it has been a pleasant experience seeing a genuine person he was related to, even if it was only sort of."

"Call us we will be here all day, and for a couple of days I have a few meetings for my business but nothing is more important than family, and Fredrick if you need anything call us, please?"

"I will I will also have the things brought around that he left you, the albums you may find very calming to look at, he got many hours of smiles, laughter and comfort from looking at them. There are a lot of the young Mr Lambert and you father too." He smiled and left us to it…

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At last Ana and Christian can get back to being the megalomaniac CEO and chocolatier now… Read and review please back to lemons and loveliness, baby news and a wonderful honeymoon to look forward to. I am betting you are all gonna breathe a sigh of relief… Working on the next one now… An hour a day goes nowhere… The Pirate does not look bashed and bruised any more… Tata for now…


	50. Chapter 50

This story is nowt like fifty shades; I just purloined E.L. James's characters, buildings and some of her other stuff...

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 _ **I would like to thank you all for your reviews and pm's:**_

 _ **I will be returning comments now my eye is a tad better**_

 _ **Thank you all for your good wishes...x**_

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Dreaming of Chocolate and Grey:

Chapter 50:

Work vs Family:

Christian and I are chilling, I guess that's what we are doing? I mean it seems to have been a long time since we last 'chilled' that I had forgotten what it means relax and be relaxed. Yesterday was fraught, we had the cremation of Uncle Davide and his sisters. It was a simple ceremony and over before it began. It was attended by a few of his 'family' the residents and staff of his home, Fredrick and our family. It was an emotional thing, despite our not knowing him well. Mum was sorry to see the last link to her real parents. All in all, it was a sad day. Uncle Sonny, he was a little teary and couldn't understand why? Mum told him it was because he was lied to and he was feeling betrayed. I guess we have all ridden that roller-coaster of late. Then we had the cremation of Nonna Vita, the real one. Again it was a very unusual feeling as the curtains closed on her casket. I never knew the Vita whom my mother and uncles mourned, but I was upset that a seemingly good woman had died and in her place, there was the evil and vile woman left. I cried a little and was hugged a lot. How does poor Christian cope with me, my family and all the niggles we have had of late, god only knows?

We have been in New York a week, and are now packed and awaiting the cars to take us to the plane. Marco and Sonny are in Seattle supervising the renovation of Grey House Two. The Greys returned with them. All our legalities with Davide are taken care of, Mom has even donated the house she had here back to Davide's charity. As she says it was a home she never wanted. Fredrick has been amazingly good and after he was cleared and checked out within an inch of his life by our security, he was allowed to continue to run the foundation Davide had set in place. I insisted on his being checked out. I wanted no more shocks waiting for us when we come back to New York. He understood, and as I said his checks came back as a glowing report of positiveness. Sonny also settled his mother's estate too, adding in her trust fund to the money Davide left to run the homes, he could have been very rich, but chose not to take Valentina's money, I was very surprised but happy, besides he knows he wants for nothing, I may spoil him a little too much. We still have lots of blanks, blanks in their whereabouts for those ten years, but we have decided not to ask or search them out in case there is more trouble at our door. The trouble we had was too much, adding in more was not needed.

"Mr and Mrs Grey, the cars are here. Mrs Adams?"

"Thank you, Taylor. Ana, Carla, let's get to the airport."

"Let's hope this trip is a lot less fraught…" My mother says as she heads into the car.

"I second that." Christian says, as he helps me in too.

"I can't wait to be home, it seems like forever, you know since the last time I was there? At least my company is in good hands. Yesterday's meetings went really well, and they are all willing to shoulder the responsibility that I used to carry alone and I get to concentrate on creating new recipes and coming up with new marketing ideas. As well as doing the studio time."

"My wife the television star."

"I am sure I will fall flat on my face. It is going to be huge and I get to create in a kitchen before thousands of people, very Martha Stewart, but with chocolate, I wonder if I need to get a rapper to cook with me? How about Jay Z? His wife is on my mailing list?"

"Really?"

"Apparently so, she likes chocolate!" I say. "She can't eat all I send her or she would be the size of a whale. I think she gifts them to her people? I don't ask, we just send her the same stuff every month." I would guess her body guard may over-indulge, 'cos he's massive...

"Ana, you will be great. Christian, where did Taylor put the ashes?" My mother asks.

"They are safe and secure. Why?" Christian asks.

"I was thinking about customs, that's all."

"I have the paperwork and they are secure. It should be the last worrisome thing you and Ana will have to face for a while."

"What did you do with Violeta? Can I ask?"

"She was scattered on the Hudson River. Was that okay?"

"I guess so, we did leave it to you." I am sure it was done respectfully, because that's just how Taylor rolls… I know he was the one to dispose of them, Christian had joked about getting her over his suit in the wind, something I can admit to not laughing at. It was sad that she was so filled with so much hate, when I know she was able to show love, she had shown me endless amounts of it when I was growing up. All that can't have been lie? I put the evil down to the brain tumour she had, but Mum did point out that it had to have been a very old tumour.

"You did, I did it whilst Ana and you were at the school. It was a very windy day and I was almost covered in Violeta, until Taylor here advised me to scatter her into the wind. Afterwards, Taylor and I had coffee in the bakery and waited for you. Now. What are you going to be doing in London, Mother Carla?"

"Oh god, call me Carla, I sound ancient? Bobby and I are meeting up at the house, Holly called him when she got back, he has finished his book tour and I have one appearance to make and a reading to give and then we are taking a much earned trip to see Ray and the others. I want to be Mrs Adams for a while and do normal stuff."

"Me too Mum, me too. I have forgotten what it is like to do normal Mum." I say as the airport comes into view. "I want to give this holiday thing a go. Christian is being super secretive about it. Has he dropped any hints to you Mum?"

"No, and even if he had I wouldn't be telling you. How are you feeling?"

"Tickerty boo, Mum just tickerty boo."

"She was throwing up this morning. My wife may have morning sickness." I gulp. I was sick because I choked on his dick and his backlog of unused sperm. He reckons the underuse is making his balls blue, they seemed perfectly pink to me. I will kill him, because my mother seems worried now. He winks as we drive to the plane.

"I was so poorly with Ana, so very poorly. Mimi swore by ginger biscuits and flat lemonade."

"Ginger biscuits were her cure all Mum. Jenny, she swore by chicken soup for all that ailed her."

"Jenny, that's the first time you have mentioned her Baby." Christian holds my hand, I miss Jenny, I really do.

"I know, I think about her all the time and her lies. I doubt I will get over her lies, they were the most hateful ones."

"She loved you Ana, let's not worry too much on her past. She needed to escape and she did. Papa Frank trusted her with your father and you, and let's not forget he was not a fool Ana."

"I know Christian, but she still lied to me."

"Let's not argue and agree to disagree Baby?"

"I know you are right Christian, she didn't lie to me, other than to warn me away from the house. I guess I will get over it. She unlike Vita did not do it to harm me, she sort of did it to protect me. I also get where her hatred of Vita came from and why they hated each other, each having those secrets about each other. Oh lord, here we go again. Customs…" We are sat in the comfy chairs on the jet as customs do their thing.

They looked over the paperwork for the casket of ashes. Christian explained and they seemed happy enough that they were ashes and not pots of coke… I should not jest about such things, I have not had the heart to look at them yet. Taylor has dealt with them. Gail smiles as she and the rest take their places, she has been a rock to me. I consider her a friend first and foremost. She is an amazingly strong lady. I hope she likes London, apparently, this is her first time? I have made sure she and Taylor get some time to themselves, as Christian and I have Luke and Holly.

"Oh Ana, I forgot to tell you Uncle Wolfe. He has had word from Sandy, she says she is willing to meet with you." Argh, the lady with the mystery, the lady who either birthed my brother or not? My brother, how I wish I was not an only child right now. I wish I had someone to share this with. Edward could be that one. I hope.

"Oh good. Are you coming Mum?"

"No, I didn't care too much for her back then and I doubt she wants to see me." I feel there is something worrying my mother. I am assured by Holly that Uncle Wolfe is not angry with her anymore and yet he still refuses to tell us who exactly is Edward Smith, other than being Sandy's son and of his being nearly thirty and having downs syndrome, I know nothing more about him. We are all seated and are about to take off.

"Christian, hold my hand please." He smiles.

"I forget you are afraid of flying, sorry."

"I am not afraid of flying, per se, I am afraid of crashing. Now shush and hold my hand tightly. After take-off I need to get some sleep. I am so exhausted Mr Grey."

"I do believe the lack of sleep is making me a tad cranky too." He raises my hand to his mouth and kisses it and I swoon. When we are finally on our way through the clouds, todays cabin crew come and take our drinks orders. Nadine is still on sick leave. I do keep in touch with her to see how she is coping with her Grandmothers death. "Hello William, nice to see you again." Christian addresses the old guy, at least he won't be opening his shirt for Christian to see his wares. "This is my wife Ana, Ana this is William Jackson, he trains all the staff we use."

"Nice to meet you Mr Jackson."

"Please call me William. Mr Grey, your usual?"

"Yes please. Ana?"

"Vodka and orange juice please, and hold the vodka…" He smiles.

"Ice?"

"Oh yes please could I have an extra glass of them, the ice cubes? I want to chew on them?"

"Ma'am."

"Oh if I am calling you William, then I insist you call me Ana." He takes the other orders and I sit back and take off the lap strap. "I like him, is he Nadine's boss?"

"Ana, he owns the agency I use. He likes to keep his hand in."

"I thought they worked for you?"

"No, they are agency staff. The only ones who work for us are Stephan and Bagley, they are my on call pilot and co-pilot."

"Are you flying this trip too?"

"I may relieve one of them later. I have to settle my wife first. She it seems had a very disturbed sleep?"

"No, I had no sleep, because some disturbed young man kept me up all night."

"He did?"

"He did, and now I am tired. Really tired."

"Really tired?"

"Are you just going to repeat everything I say?"

"I might if it gets me a rerun of what happened last night?"

"Well we can hardly frolic in the bathtub, the shower or in the hot tub on your jet, or can we because if I remember rightly the shower on here fits the one person snuggly?" He smiles and that playful glint is in his eye. Okay we had really amazing sex last night, and it was well worth being totally knackered today. "I really am just that though, knackered."

"Okay, go get some sleep, I may join you, if that's okay?"

"I would like that. For some reason I am tired all the time, both mentally and physically. It is like the baby is draining my energy, like his father seems insistent on doing."

"So we are having a boy, are we?"

"Well, it's a fifty/fifty chance we are."

"I bow to your expertise. Go and get some sleep, please?"

"Okay." I am kissed as I make my way to the bedroom. I kick off my shoes and sigh, god this has been a hell of a month. One I don't want a repeat of, ever. As soon as I hit the soft pillow I feel instantly relaxed. I arrange the pillows and look very odd, pillows between my legs, against my back and I snuggle into the rest. I find it unsettling if Christian isn't sleeping with me, and the cushions give me a sort of calming feeling. So what if I look like I am being eaten by the pillows? I am comfortable. I stare out of the small window and see a foggy mass of clouds, I feel sleepy, so sleepy, my eyes can't stay open and so they don't…

I wake, after what seems like just a few minutes, it is still light outside, damn it have I only cat napped? I wonder why I am so damned hot. The answer is asleep hugging my ass. My husband has me in his grip. I slowly turn, not wanting to wake him. I don't quite manage it.

"Ana, stay where you are. I am comfy."

"I need to pee, so shift it."

"Charming." He moves and I scurry to the bathroom. "You have only had a couple of hours and I have had less. Come back to bed?"

"Okay, seeing as you asked so nicely."

"I did."

"I feel like I haven't slept at all."

"You seemed perfectly sleepy to me, and I should know I tried to wake you!"

"You did?"

"I did, but when threatened with my balls being ripped off and fed to me, I decided to sleep."

"Oops… I am cranky even when I sleep it seems? I think I may go and see my doctor whilst we are at home?"

"Are you okay?"

"I am and I'm not, I mean there is nothing wrong with me other than the stress of the past few weeks, and let's face it that was more than stressful, but she knows what I went through with Christian and she knows me. I mean I am grateful for the care I have been shown, but I need to see my own doctor Christian."

"I am not arguing with you, if I get to come too?"

"Of course you can. I don't want you missing anything. So, what do you suggest we do for an hour or so?" He grinned. I entered the cabin naked… "Well?"

"Oh lord, we think the same things Baby…"

"Really, then why are you still dressed?" He rid himself of his clothes in the blink of an eye, and god the sight that was set before me was a little nice to see. "Okay, now we are on the same page…" I giggled as his strong arms surrounded my waist and I am manhandled onto the bed. He kisses me and I savour every single one of them.

"Now, we are on the same page Baby…" He looks into my eyes and I swear I fall deeper in love with him each and every time I see him. It's like I am fifteen again and seeing him naked for the first time. My heart skips a beat and my insides melt and their only escape is through my sex, moist? Nah, I am wet through…

His kisses are headed down towards my sex, his lips gently suck and his teeth gently nip at the skin, as he makes his way southward, I groan and gasp as he does. He gets to my sex and I arch into the kisses, my hands finger the copper tinted locks, whilst I savour his gently suckling at the apex of my legs. He moves slowly into me with his snake like tongue and as he suckles and he kisses I swear the damns open up, and I come, hard. He sucks harder as I shake to what no doubt, will be the first of many climaxes.

My man is a definite over achiever, especially in the pleasure giving department. I feel every lap every swirl every suck and kiss he lays down and as I calm, he carries on feasting from me. I arch my back into the kissing and pull hard on his hair, I need more, I beg for more and more is given, my god is it given, I am wet through when he turns me around, he lifts my butt high and slaps it, wow… Again and again the slaps a rained down, I am driven into some sort of overload when his fingers reach around and finger my wetness. He groans as I moan. He is sending me to the edge of a high cliff, and I want to jump off this heady ride, but I don't get the chance as suddenly I am taken from behind, oh my god… I can't breathe, as the pleasure from the fingers within me and my husband's huge cock is entering my ass, slowly. Yes no yes no, it's all that's going through my mind, we have done this a few times, but this seems so very different. It is different because he is being harder with me. I grasp at the sheets and try to stop my mouth from shrieking no, no more when Suddenly he relaxes and plays with me tenderly.

He knew without me screaming red, red, red that it was too much. I relaxed into the heady feelings, the pleasure surges through my body and I swear I am floating on those fucking clouds and jumping from cloud to cloud, like a bunny. My head is as light as the soft pillow I have in my mouth to stop the screams, because as soundproofed as this tin plane is, I swear the cabin crew and pilot, heard me call him a beast. To which he laughed, and carried on the torment. The beautiful torment.

"Anastasia Grey, I love you…" I ummed into the non-too silent thrusts, the groans and the moans, the sound of his balls slapping against my backside, the feeling of his throbbing dick as it slides in to and out off me, and the wetness of my nethers and my poor battered and pleasured nunu… I swear my bloody head is going to explode. I grip the pillow hard and swear like a Kosovan roof tiler working in 90degree heat… I am not very lady like I can assure you… "My wife has a potty mouth."

"Fuck me hard Christian, oh god this is so different, this we have to do again..." I say with a gob full of cotton pillow.

"What was that?" I clench my nunu hard and I swear he oh fucks hard. Oops, too hard a clench? "Ana, if you want more babies, I suggest you let him go Baby. You have me locked in a death trap and my dick and I would appreciate being freed." I relax a little and as I de-clamp, he grabs my hips and pounds into me, we are wet through, we are exhausted and over sexed, if that were at all possible? He oh yesses and I swear as he floods my rear with his seed I collapse on the bed and shake to an amazing climax of my own…

"Oh god, we have to do that again… Mr Grey, you are a beast…"

"I think the whole damned plane knows I am Baby."

"Was I a tad loud?"

"I think god heard your prayers Baby, either that or Stephan hit the that patch of turbulence to take the other passengers minds off the sounds coming from the cabin!"

"We were that loud?"

"Yup…"

"Damn. Was I bad?"

"No, I think we did hit turbulence." He laughs as he goes to shower, I am ass up on the bed feeling very relaxed. I mean as relaxed as you can be after running two back to back marathons. I gather the sheets around me and slowly turn. Wow, my bum hurts.

"You may have worn out my bum Mr Grey."

"I do hope not. I liked what we did."

"As did I. So what was that in aid of?"

"I have had weeks of feeling useless, and now I don't feel like holding back, because I don't have too."

"What?"

"My doctor said I am able to do the things I could before I was shot and yes I asked was that everything, and he gave me the green for go, could you not tell?" He laughs.

"I did wonder if they had shot you in the ass with Viagra, or some such potion I mean yes, I knew something was different, not that I am complaining, because the gentle stuff has been just as good, and even the nights were we just cuddled were fantastic, it doesn't have to be full throttle and full kink all the time, but, wow, you were on top of your game last night. So when did you get the all clear for full fun and games Mr Grey?"

"Obviously yesterday when I had a check-up. You were tearing your new COO's a new one and I had business to take care of. That was the business. Hence the all night marathon yesterday. I was making up for lost time."

"You may have a little more making up to do. Christian is everything back to normal, and I mean everything?"

"Um, and I think I have proved that have I not?"

"You have nothing to prove to me, I mean even the gentle love making was pretty damned hot, and you know it Grey."

"I know, but I am happy to be back in the game."

"It was no game Christian, she could have killed you and then where would I be?"

"Shush, now grab the shower. You are a little bit sweaty Baby?"

"I am? I wonder why?" He smiles as he comes back in. The towel is cupping his tackle and I swear I groan louder than I should have. "Put that away, or I will want more of the same?" He smiled dropped the towel and headed in my direction. Oh hell yes…

"Mr and Mrs Grey, we are coming into land, can you take your seats please?" We had just showered and changed when the door opened and Taylor told us to return to our seats. Talk about having a high ole time… The door shut quietly and I giggled.

"We missed out lunch and afternoon tea." Christian said as he slipped on his tee shirt.

"I am sure Holly has stocked the house, she knows what I want in. So more badges earned. I do like these mile high romps we have." He laughed. I entered the main cabin quietly. My mother was reading a magazine upside down. Crap were we really loud?

"Mother…"

"You are happily married, and are in love. So say no more." Christian comes out and grins hearing the tail end of the conversation.

"I am having it better insulated Ana." I blush.

"Okay." I sit and watch the clouds become clear skies and then the land comes into view, good old England is underneath me. I love being here.

"So, Ana, when are we going to add the ashes of my family, to those of my grandsons?" I tear up hearing her say it. I rub my still flat stomach and smile.

"I have arranged for them to be interred tomorrow. It won't take long."

"I may have a few words with Christian." My mother says. "I mean Baby Christian. If that is okay Ana?"

"I have more than a few when I go to seem him. I find it very relaxing, but take a brolly, because it rains all the damned time, he seems to send the rain when I am teary, my son is a little bit of a joker..." She smiles and Christian sighs.

"It always rains when I am in London. Not that I mind the rain, it cleanses the soul." My mother says as she stares out of the window. "It hides the tears. It hardly ever rained where your father was buried, I used to be a regular, I'd sit for hours talking about stuff. He listens well." She sighs. "The times I wished for some rain to wash away my tears Aba, were too many to mention. It is always sunny there. It needs a little rain sometimes."

"I used to visit all the time, but lately I guess I have been too busy. I always make sure I am here for Christian's birthday and high days and holidays, but I love summer, it's nice to read and sing to him when the sun is shining." Christian sighs. "He will have some wonderful company, and I will have more people to lecture, you know when I pay a visit? Christian paid his first visit there on his own before we flew to America." Mum smiles. Christian is still getting his head around stuff, he has not had that long in the scheme of things. It just seems longer with Vita and the mess…

"I enjoyed the quiet time, and yes it did rain." There is a sudden awkward silence when the plane dips and I stare out of the window. I wonder if talking about him like this is upsetting Christian? My mother and I it seems are used to visiting our loved ones. Christian has nobody, except his mother that he could visit. I have not raised the subject about her because she is a subject, person even, who he does not talk about. One day he will open up to me, one day…

"Ana, we are following the Thames…" I smile as I see what Christian does and squeeze his hand. "You are home Baby."

"I don't have one home Christian, but being with you is home. If I had to choose, I guess the island was it for me. I am looking forward to searching for our first home together, our forever home in Seattle."

"I am on it."

"Good. Now hold my hand tight, we are landing." We land smoothly and before long the door opens and we are heading to the cars. Holly is here with three cars. I rush down the steps to greet her and smile as her eyes, they search out Sawyer. Aww, she missed him?

"Okay, things are fine here, the food is in, the beds have been made and the house is still standing and I have got maintenance in to repaint the damned gates. I swear we had a full herd of sheep on the damned gates and half the florists in London had delivered flowers to the gates in our absence."

"How bad was it?"

"It took me an hour to get to the gates open. I mean there was an outpouring of flowers on the anniversary, and a ton of all the usual clobber. Oh and his record company have been blowing up the house phones for permission to release the song and the music video they have had done of you and your Pa singing together at the concert, what are you going to do Ana?"

"Have a cup of tea and think about it. I guess it will fund the music school better? I haven't given the concert a second thought. Isn't that awful of me?"

"No, not really, you have had your hands full. Carla, Bobby says he will see you later, he had his last book club thing to do? Christian your mother has called twice. Can you ring her? Your phone is off? She said it was something to do with your honeymoon?" I watch his eyes and he gives nothing away.

"She is helping with the arrangements. Inoculations and such?"

"Err, I hate jabs…" I say. "How many and when?" Holly laughs. Why though, because she will need her shots too?

"None you had them all when you did the Help the children thing to Africa last year Girl." Holly reminds me. "I mean getting them took longer than the flying visit we had."

"When did you visit Africa Ana?" Mum asks, as Christian stares.

"May, I think, or June last year, I am an ambassador for Save the Children. Which means I get called on to do publicity. I would rather donate money because my time spent with them is never long enough. I have an orphanage and a school I sponsor out there, plus a lion for Baby Christian and an elephant called Nonno, for Nonno. He had a memory like an elephant, so I sponsored a rescue place for the rescued elephants and injured calves in his name. I like the videos they send, so did Nonno. He said this year we would go and see them. Alas, he and I won't get to go now." I sigh. "I wonder if we can go on a sneak and see Christian and Nonno, Christian?"

"Yes, if you want too." My mother is in a world of her own again.

"He liked his Nelly's." My mum said as she smiled. "It was one of your better gifts he told me he was shocked and wondered what mother would have said if it had been hand wrapped and delivered to Calabasas?" She laughs. "He said Antihippie would have had a shock and her dogs would have been more terrified of it than Vita!" I laughed. "He loved the elephant. He was looking forward to going." She sighed.

"I know what do you get for the man who has everything? Can you imagine what I'm going to get Christian for his birthday?"

"I want for nothing Baby."

"I know and that's the problem." We climb in the cars and head for home, Taylor and Gail are in the next car, somehow, I think he is not comfortable riding shot gun with Holly? Sawyer soon looks like he wished he'd taken one of the other cars as Holly does her stop and dash thing she does only too well.

"So, what did Uncle Wolfe say about your grovelling apology?" I ask Holly as both Sawyer and Christian look a little, how do I say? Peaky? Their knuckles are white and their face look a wonderful shade of puce.

"Not a lot, he says it isn't his secret to tell. He did say that neither he or Uncle Frank, are Edwards father, but that's all he would tell me."

"I guess that answers the question I was dreading asking. So it just remains how come Dad was paying her money?" My mother snorts. "Mum?"

"I have my own theories."

"I guess you didn't like her much?"

"Not at all. I hold my hands up, she was always very hands on with your father and I was a little pee green. I guess I was a little green with envy, he and she were very like minded and had this bond thing?"

"Dad said they were more like siblings, she was very much like the groups little sister. Then he shut up. I didn't push it. Oh and I have been replaced on Arrow, the new guy they have can pass as a woman. So I am no longer on their books. I sent my resume to a film company and they are thinking of using me in a new show they have coming up."

"Where are they filming?"

"It's supposed to be Seattle, but they film in Vancouver, I may take them up on the offer, it means I can stay close to you Sis..."

"Just me Holly?" She smiles and hits hyper drive. The boys grab their seat belts and I swear she thinks she is doing a stint at stunt car driving. "Holly, slow down and stop showboating, before Sawyer pukes on you!"

"Spoil sport. Hey Carla, are you okay?" Holly asks Mum.

"What dear?"

"I said are you okay?"

"Yes dear, just take your foot of the accelerator, there's a good girl, I nearly peed my pants back there and I know you missed a speed camera."

"What, Doris, did I miss a speed camera?" She calls the sat nav, Doris for some strange reason? "Hell, I will be shot if I lose my licence again."

"Again?" Sawyers asks.

"Oh yes Sawyer, she has had to re pass her test here twice already and take a driving course in America and I pay a stupid amount of fines when she is on one."

"Phewy, give me the autobahn any day of the week." We hit the gates, not literally, of home. There are a few lambs on the gate and a letter or two.

"All is quiet on the fan front?"

"Yeah, it rained most of the day, rain keeps the lunes at bay. Knickerman has been."

"Knickerman?" Christian says as his colouring returns.

"Yeah, we get left knickers, or as you Yanks say, panties, and he sniffs them. He pockets them too. Saves me a job, but he's a sick puppy. Still he has been warned. Ana, we have full time security, your man Taylor saw to it."

"Good, I mean it's not good I have to have it, but it is needed I guess?" We drive through the open gates. It's good to be home and far from the madness we left behind us. For now…

* * *

SO, THANK YOU FOR THOSE OF YOU WHO DO REVIEW, I APPRECIATE THEM ALL...

DO YOUR THANG IN THE BOX BELOW... Tatarrrrh for now...


	51. Chapter 51

This story is nowt like fifty shades; I just purloined E.L. James's characters, buildings and some of her other stuff...

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Dreaming of Chocolate and Grey:

Chapter 51:

OB/GYN = Shock and awe:

When we, Ana and I got home it was decided we would have a 'quiet' restful day, an unusual occurrence for us of late, Ana spent what remained of the morning with her mother, actually they have spent a long time in her father's rooms. Plenty of tears were cried and many happy tales passed between the two of them. I busied myself in her office as they sorted through his things, it seems they needed the mother and daughter time. Carla was finally seeing things she hadn't had the opportunity to see before. I like my mother-in-law very much, she is good for Ana to be around.

During their bonding time, I have finished negotiations on the dockyard for the fishing trawlers and I am now the proud owner of another kind of shipyard, we now have a yard that deals with fishing trawlers and crabbers. Ana was right the deal was a good one. She has the most amazing effect on me, she is calm like a mill pond, were as I am like a raging river, she is the dam and the high breakwater, stopping me from becoming the normal raging white water, I am prone to turning into. I smile, because I have seen her be the raging river too and seeing her so moved and passionate does crazy things to my psyche, and I get so damned turned on by this crazy power thing she has over me, and now that me and my body are back to full working order, I fully intend to act upon my sudden 'frisky and kinky urges' to fuck her wherever we are, she was warned and welcomes the distraction. We will see…

We have finalised the plans for the morning internment for the ashes of Ana's family. Tomorrow will be tough. I need to be totally focused on her, it will be very hard for her and her mother, but it is a little odd for Bob though, having to witness his wife mourning her first love? I guess we all do things to help our loved ones get over such things as heartbreak? I know I would and I will, if the need arises.

"Christian?" I hear her dulcet tones calling my name.

"Ana?"

"Where are you?"

"In your office, seeing to business. Why?"

"Mum has gone into town for a new dress for the morning."

"And, you did not go with her, do you not own a little black dress?"

"No, I have plenty of black, besides we are to wear something none dull. Nonno always said his send-off had to be fun, and as the cremation was very sad, placing him with our son has to be a happy time. I have plenty of bright sunshiny things too."

"Okay, I think I have something suitable."

"Okay then, so, the reason for finding you, I have made an appointment with my lady doctor, do you want to come visit Dr Naylor with me?"

"If you mean she's your OB/GYN? Then yes."

"Correct. She is my friend and lady doctor."

"When?"

"Now, she has fitted me in after her last patient. So?"

"Hell yes. Try stopping me."

"Are you driving me, or am I driving you?"

"Um? I think I will drive, you're a little too like Holly. Too fast, too furious."

"Charming, comparing me with Vin Diesel!"

"If the cap fits Baby. So where is she based then?"

"Harley Street."

"The private road filled with doctors?"

"The very same, Nonno never skimped on health care, he always sought out the best for me, besides my trust fund allowed for my upkeep, much like the homes I had and still have there are loads Christian. What will I do with them all?"

"We can get Ethan and Kate to ready your real estate team and when we get back, the sorting of the wheat and the chaff should be done. Sell what you do not need and keep what you want. Simple and effective."

"It sounds simple when you say it, when I think of it my head feels like I am playing a real life version of Monopoly!" I laugh, "Christian, I am seriously over wealthy and it is seriously way more frightening than I ever thought possible. Chocolate I know about and all the rest of it I do not. Oh come on let's go see our baby. We need some clarification and some bloody good news. Oh and a word of warning, Liv is a really good friend as well as my doctor and she is just a little whack-a-doodle too!" Okay. Good to know I guess? "She isn't the run of the mill doctor, she is great, she is the best and a little crazy and sort of hippy like, Bohemian sort of. Wind swept and interesting too and a really good friend. One of my oldest friends, and believe me they are few and far between since Olly died." She wipes her eye. "I didn't like getting too attached to people after she died."

"What happened to Kate then?"

"I didn't have a choice, she wheedled her way in."

"Holly?"

"Is my sister and biggest pain in my bum. I tend to attract weird assed friends." She laughs.

"Why are you warning me, is she some sort of new age doctor, some sort of hippy doc? Does she practice in a tent, with herbs and witchcraft?"

"No, god no, she was my doctor when I had Christian, or she should have been, so every time she sees me she feels it was all her fault for not being there for us, she took the news hard when I went to see her again."

"She feels responsible, how?"

"She was on her break, she was doing her thing for Doctors without borders thing, and couldn't get back. She feels bad I was left to the woman she left in charge of me. She thought I had weeks left. She thought…"

"…Okay I get it. Ana, we will be fine."

"I need some good news Christian, good news."

"I agree Baby, good news…" I hope the tests she had done have not harmed her or the baby. I keep that nugget from her.

We grab our coats and tell Taylor this is a trip for just we two, and to take the evening off. I am pretty sure we will not be mobbed here in London, besides all our lunes are locked away, or dead. We get there in no time at all, and I have to smile, because Holly and Sawyer are following us, three cars behind us. Taylor is not taking any shit off me, and is doing his job? We get into the ultra-modern offices and Ana checks in with the girl on the reception desk, she first changes her name and I beam. So much so that I swear my face is going to crack. I hear her say Mrs Anastasia Rose Grey and my heart flips. We sit and wait for the doctor, and haven't got long to wait. She comes from her rooms and heads in our direction. Personal service. Good!

"Ana Banana, nice to see you again. Come in, come in. Tell me to what do I owe the honour, you are not due to see me for six months, are you okay?"

"Hi, Liv. How are you, and I am fine and I am in need your expert services, and I Asked you first, how are you doing, really?" Um, what is that all about?

"I'm fine, really I am, and who is this?"

"This is my husband Christian."

" _The Christian?"_ She smiles and I look very surprised by her smile. Does she not hate me for leaving her pregnant? "Nice to meet the man, the myth, the legend that is Christian, if you are in fact _The_ _Christian?"_

"He is, one in the same Liv. I am pregnant. So I am here to get a baby and me health check, because we have had a few weeks of stress."

"Ana, if you are pregnant, then your implant seems to have failed, buggery boo, I will need to send out letters, because some of my ladies have the same one implanted, they will be needing a check-up, I truly thought those implants were reliable, or more reliable, god the paperwork I will have to send out and apologise to them if any others are in the bun club. Are you happy, I mean you look happy, I guess you are, sorry you have thrown me Ana, you said you wanted a catch up, not a medical check up. Good grief, you got married too?" I smile as she sits behind her desk and taps on her keyboard. "Excuse me Ana, but you got married without me, why did you rob me of the opportunity to get a new hat and dress? Bugger, I missed an Ana party…" They laugh together.

"We did. He asked I said yes and we got married. Sorry Liv, but after your fiasco I decide to grab the man and run with it." What the hell?

"I know, three years planning, over two hundred grand spent on the damned thing, another twenty thousand on a dress to die for, and it was all ruined because the groom ran away with my brother, who knew I had such a good looking brother and was set for marrying an in the closet gay imposter?"

"How is Tim and Tom?" Ana asks. Is this some sort of joke? "I mean, how are Mr and Mr Naylor-Smyth?"

"Happy and happy to be Mr and Mr. Least said about the family black sheep the better. So are you happy with the news?" She stares at me.

"Yes, thrilled. Ana and I had decided to try for a baby when her birth control needed replacing, we didn't think it would happen quite like it did."

"Things usually happen for a reason. Though the implant I use on my ladies has, up until now, been very safe and trust worthy. I am glad you are not suing me, you aren't, are you?"

"No Liv, I wouldn't do that to you. As Christian said, we are thrilled. I need the tests done, because I had all manner of tests done on my body after the accident, I was told you would get some sort of note or file from the hospital over there?"

"I did? Let's look." She taps away and reads the notes. "So, lets rerun the tests, and let me get my doctor head on, and do the baby checks. Did the hospital tell you how far you were into the pregnancy Ana, it just states early, but not how early?"

"A little over six weeks, I know Liv, it's very early."

"Bloods first." I cross my fingers and everything else. I watch as Ana lies down and has her stomach prodded and poked, I am on tenterhooks here, because she has had a fair amount of blood samples taken, it looked like they had drained her. I am a worried father to be, its expected, right?

"It's never too early to get a jump on these things Ana. Did they do a scan?"

"No, it was only confirmed by a blood test, the good doctor, not a OB doctor, said it was early, about a couple of weeks. He said to check in, so I am. Please Liv, can I have the best scan, the best medicine and everything done to stop…"

"…Stop right there, what happened before was nothing to do with how you were taken care of Ana, so stop blaming yourself. Please?"

"I am worried."

"As you should be, all pregnancies come with some sort of difficulty, water infections, sickness and much more. If women knew everything that could go wrong, women would never have children. I have had one lady in today who cannot carry a baby past 12 weeks. She has tried to have a baby 14 times. She knows the risk but carries on hoping, I am pleased to say she is happily on her fifteenth try, and has made it to week sixteen and her babies are perfectly fine. What happened to you Ana was horrific. We will do our very best to monitor the baby and you very closely." We are headed into another room for Ana's scan. They talk and I listen, watching Ana closely.

"I will be living in Seattle Liv, that's where I will be setting up shop too!" She has smeared some sort of gel on Ana's still tiny stomach and is scanning it with a wand thing, she talks as she clicks away.

"Oh what coincidence, I have just accepted a partnership in a new women's wellness and medical centre, it's in an area called Downtown, do you know of it?"

"Yes, I live, sorry we live near the Pike District Market." Christian says. "So Ana will be okay, and you, would you please take care of her, through her pregnancy?" I ask, as Ana seems to trust the doctor.

"Oh yes, would you?"

"It will be a non-profit medical centre. They got a grant from Coping Together, and it will increase their donation massively if we take on clients unable to pay. We can still see the rich, but it will not be free for them. Dr Trevelyan, the founder of the centre says the rich can afford to help out the poor and we have to do at least fifty percent of our work pro bono. I am happy to do more, if needs be." She has Ana lay down again. "Her husband's quite the hotty too, and the son wow, he is over the top hot." I laugh. "I mean, I am off men for life, I was just saying there was plenty of talent at the masked ball and in Seattle in general." She laughs, as does Ana.

"So, is that a yes or a no?" Ana asks.

"As it is you Ana, then it's a yes. Ordinarily I would be there for the poor and single mothers. So I guess you paying my absurdly high fees would help fund other women's treatment? As I said, I was there the other week at their fund raising annual ball. An amazing extravagance, but the money they raised, wow. The lady who runs it was very nice, both her and her husband were very welcoming. She was very persuasive in getting me to fly the coup here and settle over there." Both Christian and I laugh. "What, do you know her?"

"Yes, she is Christian's mother Dr Grace Trevelyan, she doesn't use Grey at work, the hotties are Christian's father and brother Liv…"

"Okay, well I guess that means you know her." They laugh. "I can see you have the good looking Grey gene, Mr Grey." She looks very embaressed.

"It is Christian, please? So will you still treat Ana? I mean please will you still see to Ana and our baby?"

"No…"

"Why?" I ask, nay demand.

"I will gladly help Ana, but it will be babies, as in three. Not baby as in one…" I sit on the chair at the side of Ana. She is staring at me as I stare at her. Three, I heard that right, she just said three?

"What did you just say Liv…" Ana asks, just in case I misheard her!

"There are two sac's and three heart beats. These two are identical, as they each share the same sac, but this one is all on its own, let me re-check?" I nod my head, and I am open mouthed and trying to take in all she has just said. She clicks a few knobs and plunges down on Ana's belly and smiles. "This is really interesting, yes there are in fact three babies and they look perfect from here." All I see is three sort of blobs, Ana again asks the questions I cannot.

"What's what there Liv, because they look like three blobs? Sorry, I mean how can you see a beating anything?"

"This is the newest 4D scanner Ana. Here is their body, the head and the little tiny movement you are seeing are their hearts. See this thing here, this is the sac, the two babies in this one will be identical, this one is alone in his little room, I mean, in his or her own little sac, see here?" She points out something that looks like a cloudy balloon thing around the blob. "Most women get a bog standard black and white scan done, I already knew you well enough to go straight to the best. In another couple of weeks Ana, Christian, you will see eyes and some body changes. Arms, legs and other cool stuff."

"They look like aliens." I say, I am a little dumbstruck.

"They do look like little aliens, I will admit it throws a lot of people, their first look at their baby, but you are a little more confused because there is more than one, yes?"

"Yes, we are, but they are my three aliens, I mean our three aliens." Ana says as the doctor wipes off the gel and passes her a few little pictures in tints of brown and gold. I take them from Ana, still unsure of what I have just seen, I mean I saw three odd little shapes, and I take it she knows her shit, or Ana would not be here. Right?

"How…" I ask.

"Yes, how is it possible to have more than one? I mean is it normal to have a twin and a single in the one womb? I mean is it unusual?" Ana asks.

"Not as unusual as you might think. They were probably conceived on differing days too."

"What?" I ask. "I mean is that a reality?"

"Yes, your swimmers can stop around for a sleepover for a couple of days and Ana's eggs are in the same house stopping around for the same sleepover, and to put it crudely, you can never tell how many eggs are in the monthly sleep over and how many are eager to party, hence the twins, the triplets and the multiples born every day, of course people get help in this matter too, but Ana and you seem to have had no trouble in conceiving three little party people…"

"Christian, the over achiever does it again." Ana jokes, but looks really worried. "Will you be there at the birth this time Liv?"

"Yes Ana, of course I will, and if it stops you worrying you can have as many appointments as you need, daily if it reassures you, okay?"

"Yes, I realise you only missed being there for me because you were doing your charity thing. Sorry."

"And because of that, I left you with the worst doctor ever. I will never forgive myself for not being there and giving you the C-Section you should have been offered!"

"Shut up Liv, you were really good to me afterwards and what's done is done, you were not responsible Liv, and I am pregnant again and will be more aware of the things to watch out for, so stop it, you have nothing to be sorry for."

"Umm, apart from giving you a dicky implant you mean?" She says. I smile, and thank fuck for the dodgy bullet thing.

"And because of that Ana and I will be donating a large amount to the medical centre. In fact do you have an apartment yet?" I ask, finally grasping the fact we are having more than one baby.

"I am still looking. It is hard to find one that is near to the centre, and be cheap enough to rent. It's something that the foundation is looking at, helping fund my relocation costs, but I don't want to add my rent to their already bludgeoning running costs. I mean I would hate that money given to the charity is spent on a place for me to live in, as it is I am taking a very small salary."

"Why. I mean why are you so desperate to move, I thought things were good here?" Ana asks.

"I need the change, and I am fed up of London, and fed up of the two faced people I have hanging on in my life and fed up of my brother being still in my life daily… Oh hell sorry I am offloading on you again Ana, will I ever learn?"

"No feel free to offload. I am told I listen well. Besides, I kind of like our chats. So who is it this time apart from Tim and Tom?" Are these two seriously discussing her love life at this very important medical examination? I smile and figure they have forgotten I am here? I watch them talk and see how at ease with each other. I am one of the girls it seems!

"It's my new boyfriend, he seems to be the usual sort and more interested in his damned hair, good clothes and his appearance, will I ever learn?"

"I didn't know you were dating again?" Ana says, do they chat a lot, I wonder?

"I wasn't looking for a man, it just happened. This one is not gay, but he is married though and I only found out when we were eating dinner the other week, his wife was in town on a hen party and happened to walk by the restaurant we were having dinner in. She barged in, covered me in the rather nice tomato soup I was having and tossed his salad, the champagne and the bucket of ice over Duncan. The cheating husband in question. I did it again Ana, picked another damned loser." Okay, I thought that was funny. He seems to be following the Elliot playbook.

"You didn't know he was married? Really?" I say, and shock the two into remembering I am here and listening to their gossiping.

"Nope, I am so sorry Christian, but Ana and I have not had a catch up in ages."

"Its fine, talk away. I am all ears. Ana here has a lot of friends I have yet to meet!" Ana sighs.

"I don't actually, but I am sorry we forgot for a moment you were here Christian, sorry." She laughs. "Liv here, joined her father's practice, he was my OB/GYN first, and Liv had just joined him and her elder brother at the family practise here. I hated a man looking at my bits and bobs, so she took over and once she got over my sense of humour and had done checking my bits and bobs, we became friends and the rest is history."

"Do you still work with your father and brother?" I ask. Listen to me gossiping like a girl. She is very easy to talk to though.

"I still work with my brother, my father died a couple of months ago, and when he died he left us the business, now we are meant to be equal partners, but he thinks he is the boss and I cannot work with him any longer, the arguments always end in slamming doors and cussing, not a good look in a private very expensive private practice. So I was happy to get the invite to join your mother, it came at the right time to save my sanity. I want to be myself for a while and not ride along on my father's coattails and those of my damned brother and get as far away from my idiot brother and his husband and my ex-boyfriend."

"I admire that, people always thought I would be a lawyer like my father, but I knew I wanted to do what I am doing."

"How did the married man get past your very good fool radar Liv? I mean I get the brother thing, they both had me fooled?" Ana asks as we chat. Drink tea and chat, I swear I am now gossiping with Ana and her friend. I may still be a little giddy with the baby news.

"He was a good liar Ana, he didn't wear a ring and his flat by the river was a stereotypical bachelor pad, there were only photos of him and his army buddies, no wife pics, no girlfriend pic's and certainly there certainly were no children's photos in his second home, he swore I was the one to change him. He really knew how to woo a girl and he did it well too, so after the wife made me look a fool in that restaurant, and calling me a home wrecker, I decided on taking up the position in America and get myself far away from here."

"Men, who'd have them?" Ana says. "How were you supposed to know?

"I know. right? I still say you should have barcodes tattooed on an arm or the neck, and we should have some sort of device to tell us who we are dating. It would help me no end, I mean once was bad enough, twice was awful, I think my radar is down, you're right Ana."

"So where do you want to live Liv?" She asks her friend.

"I saw a nice place near to the centre, but as I said it was too expensive for the charity and I wouldn't ask them to fund it either, I could buy it, but I don't know if I want to make the move to America permanent one, and though I have the money from this place and what my father left me, I am far from poor, but I don't want to throw all my eggs in one basket, and be left with nothing, or buy a place and have no fall back plan."

"Where was the apartment, perhaps we can help you Liv?" Ana says.

"Escala? It was perfect." I smile and Ana giggles. Did I say I love that sound? Well, I do.

"Problem solved, how does living in an apartment at Escala sound?" I ask.

"Too pricy, even with my nest egg and the money I am getting for this place. Thanks though. I believe the owner is a stunner, is gay, and is a little too grouchy, though his place is very swish and nice? The letting agent gushed lyrical about all the hot stuff he employs too, but I may give men a miss for a while?" Ana laughs. "What, I mean it, I am off men for a while Ana. No offence Christian, but the male of the species suck." Now there's a thought.

"He can be a tad grumpy Liv, meet the owner, the not gay, but hell yeah on the good looking bit, your new landlord, Christian Grey…"

"Oh god I am so sorry Ana. I mean that too, twice I have put my doctor clogs in it. First with your mother, and my ogling your father and brother, then with you, how small is Seattle? Oh and are the men you employ good looking, or not?"

"I own Escala, so have the place on us for as long as you need. I think Seattle will be good to you! Plus Ana will have a friend nearby to chat too, right Ana?"

"I am always glad to see my friends, however we will both be very busy, I have to set up shop in Seattle and Liv has to set up her stall too, but yes Liv, please accept Christian's offer? Kate is there too? There are a few good looking men in Seattle too, he employs a few. Though Holly snagged the best looking one." She thinks Luke is good looking, really?

"Oh god, how is the Blonde Book worm and Ball Buster? And the redheaded freak, with the suicidal tendencies?"

"Very busy and both are always annoyed at me. We have had a lot going on, hence my wanting this remarkable check-up. In all the furore of your house hunting and new job news, I almost forgot the words three babies for a moment Liv. I mean I worried about one?"

"So, I guess having me live in the block will ease your worries Ana?"

"It would, but I will not be down to bother you by borrowing cups of sugar and annoying you. Seriously, I am worried though." I hold Ana tightly.

"Don't be, things will be different this time, so when we next see you, in Seattle in six weeks, we will know more. Take your antenatal vitamins, as before, and try to take it easy, or easier and you should be fine. We will work together on this Ana, and I will be there for you every step of the way, I promise on all things holy." I like her, as does Ana obviously, I guess I don't know everything about my wife, but I guess that's the learning stuff she mentioned is all about, getting to know her and her friends. I am envious of her and her closeness to the friends she has.

"So, am I good to go?" Ana asks as I stop feeling sorry for myself and take the strip of photos offered up. I am agog, and soon the be the father of three babies. Knowing my luck they will be all girls, girls are hard work and a worry, I guess someone up there thinks it's funny and payback for my past?

"Ana, you are fine, keep the stress down and rest, having three babies will tire you out much quicker Ana. So rest when you can and try to keep things to a slow and steady pace." She winks, and both Ana and I smile.

"We are going on our belated honeymoon, on Friday, so my wife and our babies will be very rested."

"Oh, are you going anywhere nice?" Liv asks, and Ana's eyes widen.

"It is top secret and Ana does not know where, yet!" I say.

"Oh lord, do they do other mini versions of you? If so get me one Ana?"

"Nope, he is unique. So I will see you in Seattle. Give me a call and we will show you Escala and around Seattle." Ana smiles as she puts on her coat. "I am now going home to read up on multiple births, and worry."

"Don't worry, don't read up on anything, sometimes too much information, is just that too much. Keep her safe Christian and I will see you in six weeks."

"Put a ring around the date. I know will, thanks Liv, thanks a lot." I shake her hand and head out with my all too perfect gift giving wife…

* * *

Sorry for delay, but it turns out I have a torn rotator cuff muscle thing and it hurts like hell to type, I get rid of one problem and get another, I hate ageing. Lol… Read review and tell me off for missing a week lol… Oh and the guest who says I add in too many characters, and ruin the original story ect? Tough, I do what I do because I do lol…


	52. Chapter 52

This story is nowt like fifty shades; I just purloined E.L. James's characters, buildings and some of her other stuff...

* * *

Dreaming of Chocolate and Grey:

Chapter 52:

We say goodbye, and hello:

Christian and I defied doctor's orders and Googled the twin thing and the cause and effect of multiple births. As expected we still don't understand the two and the one thing? Surely, there are three and we are having triplets? We eat at home, Gail despite being on holiday, cooks for the whole team, Christian seems okay and more relaxed eating with 'staff' I however am not as used to living with 'staff' and I settle more easily into treating them as friends than Christian did, besides, I love the comradery they have, it was a little awkward at first for him, but by the dessert we were chatting normally. Christian, by his own admission, liked to keep the boundaries clear and I walked into his life and smacked his dumb head into a fair few very squeaky clean glass doors, highly polished ones at that he didn't see coming until it was too late, and he has smashed his head hard on a few and broken others!

Yes, I use metaphors quite a lot, they were Nonno's sort of sensible little idioms he with his old wise head, Papa Frank too used to be good with the advice, I guess it comes with age, and experience? Christian, after a chat with Taylor, he agrees to loosen the lines a little, though never at work, in public or when needed, I will be Ana at home and relaxing, and Mrs Grey or Ma'am, Ma'am will be used as a code thing, Taylor talk for if the situation or his orders are not to be questioned, this also applies to me when my protection detail see a danger or a threat to my safety. We are joined by my mother and Bob after dinner, they have been out for a romantic evening and catch up.

"Ana, Christian. Bob and I are going to go back to America after the funeral, if that's okay? We need to recharge our batteries and say hello to home."

"Home to Anastasia?" I ask.

"Yes, it's where your mother and I relax the most. I have had a rough few months with the damned long book tour and what with the grandparent debacle poor Carla is at her wits end, as I am sure you are? We, and I do mean we, we need some we time, is that okay? I mean I know you and your mother are just starting over, but…"

"…Say no more, it has been very hard on us all, and we are only here a few days before we too are heading god knows where to relax. Go home and relax, besides I want to see the place I am named after. If that's okay Mum, Bob?"

"Oh Ana, I thought you would be angry." My mother says.

"Why? I mean really Mum, why?"

"I have just come back into your life."

"And you are still in it Mum, honestly, I am fine, we have our own lives to live too. So go recharge you batteries, besides, Christian needs his next fix of your book."

"Um, I do… And Carla, you have quite the selection of mysteries and adventures to work on." We all laugh. "Besides this one will be on the phone all the time, won't you Baby?"

"Yup and grabbing some face time with you both. Now, did you get a dress?"

"I did, a pretty yellow one."

"The girl in the primrose dress?" My mother smiles.

"Yes, I am the girl in the primrose dress he wrote about."

"I like the song too." Bob says. "He was right, your father? She has the prettiest blue eyes, I have ever seen. One of the many things I noticed about her. Do you know you both have the same eyes?"

"Yes." He genuinely seems at ease with the love my mother had/has for my father. "I have my mother's beautiful blue eyes."

"So, what are the plans for tomorrow?" Bob asks me.

"We will meet the undertakers, and the people who have opened the grave at the cemetery, and then they will be laid to rest with a simple prayer by the minister. It is going to be a little strange, but it needs doing, but without too much godly stuff, he and I are not on speaking terms, and we had the prayers and other stuff over in Calabasas and again in New York. I am sorry but that was too much god for me. Though I did promise to go more if he made Christian all better, and I will go back, but not right now."

"Ana?" Christian says.

"I lost my faith on the church when they took Baby Christian from me. I prayed and I begged, and it all fell on deaf ears. Olly's mum, she said my faith was being tested and she wasn't wrong. It may come back, it may not be as strong as it was."

"He asked, the minister, if we wanted the usual earth to earth reading. I said yes for you Ana, Carla. I hope that was okay?"

"Yes, it is more than okay Christian, and I have ordered tiny white roses for us to place on the casket thing they are all inside of." My mother gasps.

"Are we not putting them to rest separately?" My mother asks. "Do we just put them in a hole in the ground, what is happening Ana?"

"Mum, they are with the undertaker now, they are taking them to the cemetery, where we will meet them. They will be three caskets, in one Nonna and Nonno, Mimi and Papa Frank and a separate one for Dad. Why?"

"It just seems a little different than the usual thing that's all, I was just wondering. Anyhow, when are you going to Wales?" Wow, a quick change of subject Mum.

"Probably tomorrow after the family are laid to rest. Uncle Wolfe is arriving in the morning, with the guys and I think Sonny and Marco are arriving later too, they seem to need to be here too. I know they said they didn't want it, but Uncle Marco has had a change of heart."

"He called and asked was it okay. Is Wolfe going to Wales with you?"

"Yes, and Christian. I need to know Mum. I need to know if I have a brother."

"He isn't, Wolfe said he wasn't Ana. Besides your father would have made sure he was named as his father. He didn't Ana, I did some checking too, the gap for the father is blank."

"Mum…"

"I had to know Ana, I had to know."

"Okay, I need to know too. Though I would prefer to get it from Sandy and not by trolling birth deaths and marriage sites Mum."

"What, I went on line and asked for a copy of his birth certificate. Do you know how easy it is to get a copy of anyone's certificate?" I shake my head. "Really easy, birth certificates are designated as 'public records', and as such anyone can request a duplicate certificate to be produced. The only caveat to this is that for births that occurred within the past 50 years, you must be able to provide the full details of that birth, all of which I got from Wolfe, who knows more than he is telling us. It was just too easy, which shocked me I can tell you."

"Okay, I thought they were strict on that sort of thing, wow. So anyone could have a copy of my birth certificate and Baby Christians?" I ask.

"Yes if they know where you were born, when and all the other stuff." I shake, lord they do not protect our records well at all. "But they do need all the information and most people do not know all the facts about you and your baby, I mean they need to know everything."

"Okay, but it's so wrong. Is it the same in America?" I ask Christian.

"I guess so, it's the same thing at home Ana? Welch and Barney can check on it for you Ana? They do it for me all the time."

"No, I am fine. I just find it strange they can get access to all that personal information so easily and a canny reporter could dig up all sorts if they had a little information or we are followed tomorrow, especially with all my dad's band being there too, especially after the concert, there is a sudden revival of interest in the band. Uncle Wolfe has retired and the other guys had already hung up their instruments," I fight back the tears, "so they have said no as it isn't a band without The Lamb. So, are we ready for bed, it's another early start tomorrow?" Christian grins. I know what is on his damned mind, rampant sex. He has been hinting at it all night.

"Yes, I have had a tiresome few days." My mother says. "I need to rest my very weary head Ana. I will sleep better knowing they are finally at rest with my grandson and that your father gets to spend some time with Little Christian."

"Mum, it's just a resting place for their bones and ashes, I have to believe their souls already together, and Dad has already seen his grandson, you know when they went to this higher plain that the god bothers harp on about?" I say.

"I know, and that does make me feel better, but having them in the one place, that too is comforting. Besides my publishers are here in London and I am here all the darned time. So I get to visit them all the time."

"That's why I picked here to lay them to rest and not on Otter Island." I reply. "Now I need to get to bed, all this talk of death and the afterlife gives me the willies Mum." We laugh at the look on Christian's face. "Willies as in being afraid not as in a male genitalia Christian." He smiles.

"Oh, I do love your English sayings. I guess they are a 'bugger' as Ana says, to understand to we the non-English beings, did you catch on to it easily, Bob?" Poor Christian, he is struggling to be social, a butterfly he is not.

"No. I can honestly say, Carla here, she spouts them daily and I have to ask what the hell she is on about all the time. I just nod my head and smile, sometimes I am not meant to agree, and it gets me a right old 'gob full'." We all laugh, before we head to bed. If all we had to worry about were our English and Italian colloquialisms, it has to be said my life would be as clear as Chrystal, alas, it is as clear as mud at the moment. We close the door on the family and the world. I breathe in deeply, turn and search out my butterfly.

"Christian, if I didn't tell you today that I love you, very much, then I do. Very much."

"Likewise Baby. I love you too. What's the matter?"

"I want to give my family something to be happy about, I want to tell them about the baby, I mean the babies. What do you think?"

"I think we keep it to ourselves until we return from honeymoon. Let's get past twelve weeks and then tell everyone upon our return."

"Oh, I thought you would be chomping at the bit to tell your mother and father?"

"I am, I really am. Especially with the news I have, I mean we have managed to get three babies all at the same time."

"I know, that is some scary shit, three heads and bodies springing forth from my poor hu-hu!"

"Um, three heads, that sounds hideous, and Ana, if I could do it for you I would!"

"My hero…" That was all it took for him to send me to heaven and back again, well that and his naked body and huge… Ego! We made love into the early hours, softly and lovingly, nothing rushed, nothing harsh and it has to be said as we lay in each other's arms afterwards, I felt amazingly loved.

The day we say goodbye:

Christian woke me with breakfast in bed, he actually woke me when he oh fucked trying to get in quietly, but my bedroom door is a tad heavy and not too easily held open, even with his cute bum backing against it. He cussed as it and he juggled butt to wood for dominance. I really should get the handyman in to take off those pesky fire chained doors. I, most times, only just mange to get them open when I have a basket of washing in my hands, still the heavy doors mean the whole house won't hear us making loud and passionate love tonight, last night was simply wonderful, but tonight I want to be in charge, I feel the need to be the dominant one. He is a very super submissive and I need to be in charge of something.

"Ana, what's that look for?"

"Just admiring that bum and your perseverance with the stiff door."

"Umm, I now have a dick as hard as the fucking door. I swear the things that turn me on right now are fucking stupid. I even went ridged when I was beating the eggs."

"You cooked?"

"Hell no, I just beat the eggs for Gail, I didn't want to kill you with my cooking Baby, oh and I think she knows there is something afoot, she made sure the eggs were cooked very well, and she didn't let me put salmon on your bagels."

"Okay, she did the same with me yesterday, has she got super powers?"

"I don't know but her scrambled eggs are amazing, she does this thing with thick cream and butter. I salivate when I get to eat them."

"Egg white omelettes are a waste of eggs, anything tastes better than clouds on toast."

"Hu? Oh yeah, but they are essential whilst I am in training. Now, sit up and take this tray, I need a cold shower. I swear when we get to where we are going on honeymoon, we are never leaving our bed."

"Okay, who will cook for us?"

"It is all sorted, now sit and eat. We have to be going in an hour."

"An hour, why the hell did you not wake me earlier?"

"I tried, but you pushed me out of bed and told me if I ever wanted more children, then I needed to leave you alone or you would rip that particular part needed off at the root. So dear wife, dear angry in the morning wife, me and my babymaker, my fucking awesome babymaker, hit the shower and the kitchen. I want to fill the house with the sound of tiny feet and tiny little clones of you."

"Um, I think you will find that three babies will do the job."

"Nah, six may do it." He winks. He smiles. He is bloody crazy stupid, parting with one was bad enough, but three? Oh god help me, but I can't stop it from happening. I cry and I mean hysterically cry.

"Christian, what if it happens again, what if… What if I lose one, what if I lose them all, what if I can't do this thing right, what if I fail, again, what if…"

"…Ana, fuck…" He puts the tray down and hugs me. "Ana calm down, you are worrying me. Liv is going to be with you every step of the way, and I am here for you, Mom will be there. Kate, Holly Gail, we will all help you this time, Baby, why do you still blame yourself, it was a freak occurance, you heard Liv say it will be different this time, and besides I hardly doubt seeing there are three in here, that there will be much room for any of them to do anything but kick there sibling out of their way, let alone do somersaults, do you?"

"No, I guess not."

"Crap, my book says you will get hormonal and go off sex, are you, I mean please fucking tell me I am not going to have blue balls again?" I laugh. I snort and laugh like a donkey. "Hell, what the fuck was that sound?"

"Relief. I am sorry, I just got the worst case of what ifs, didn't I?"

"You did, but it's to be expected. Now eat. Please? The peas in their pods need feeding."

"Peas?"

"Yes, our three little alien peas in their tiny alien pods need feeding. I love you Mrs Grey, so fucking much."

"Charming, do you kiss your mother with that wee potty mouth of yours?" I eagerly accept the tray of delicious food he sets before me.

"I do, and let me remind you it kisses other parts of your body Baby."

"Oh god, I just had a vision of that, and it's not a good look. Gimmie the damned fork and remember the aliens in here, they can hear everything you say, the good the bad and the potty mouthed swearing. It is banned."

"Oh…Kay… I mean, all the swearing, even when we fuck hard?"

"Ouch, I shot myself in the foot there. Bedroom sex is to be honed to a few less oh fucks Mr Grey."

"I will try, but I ain't promising that, I like the passion we have and the odd oh fuck is needed. I am grabbing that cold shower. Eat."

"Yes Sir." I purr. He strips as he goes towards the bathroom. If I didn't need to eat, and I do, I would follow that ass right in there and fuck the oh fuck rule. I know damned fine well he and I need the raised voice and the odd oh fuck. He does things to me that only oh fuck is the only thing going through my opened gob!

I finish eating and shower, it seems we have a date with our son, my relatives and a few more uncles. I don't know if today will be happy or sad? I don't know how I feel right now apart from confused? I am drying my hair and in a world of my own when Holly comes in to the dressing room.

"Christian said I was to come on through Ana."

"Good morning Holly, what is the matter?"

"Nothing, I am here to tell you the guys and my dad are ready when you are, they are at the hotel near the cemetery. But, they were spotted so Taylor is going to do some recon and get them out unseen. Dad wants me to ask you, do you want him and them here, he says its up to you, especially if they follow them, you know the pond life?"

"No, I want him and them here. I want them to be there Holly, they were his brothers and they have helped me through many tough times, I want them to come." I am now worried. Over what I do not know?

"Okay, are you nearly ready then, Christian is down stairs with Marco and Sunny. Who, for a change are sober after their flight."

"Wow, that must be a first?"

"Um, and Marco said to tell you Grey One has a fabulous bar on board, and he was tempted."

"Christian sent his jet for them?"

"Yes and they brought guests." I finish my hair throw on the pretty pink dress Nonno bought me for my last birthday and head down… I see a sea of faces smiling back at me.

"You all came to be with me?" Grace steps forward.

"Why wouldn't we be here for our daughter and our son, especially today?" I swear I need more of Grace Grey in my life. "Besides we would like to pay our respects to our grandson too." I am enveloped in my husbands loving arms.

"I told them it was only a quiet burial, but Mom insisted they all came. Including my grandparents. Is that okay?"

"The more the merrier, and I see you told them no black?"

"Sorry, but Elliot is an ass. I was sure he would be a little classier." Elliot is rocking a pair of bright red Billabong board shorts and an equally hideous Hawaiian shirt, with yellow pineapples on it. He makes me laugh.

"Hi, I was told the dress code was bright and cheery, and these were the brightest things I possessed. Though the weather here isn't as good as usual, I may be a little chilly, bright but chilled."

"Its fine, you look…"

"…Idiotically too bright?" Christian says as he shakes his head.

"You are welcome to swap, I know you wanna?" Christian grins.

"Not in a million years Bro, but every party needs a comical element, we have you."

"…And me." I turn around and see Uncle Marco in his very eye wateringly bright suit. Oh hell, Sonny and he are wearing hideous outfits, matching idiot outfits. Bright yellow suits, all that's missing is the silly hats. "We had these left in the wardrobe from Halloween, do you remember Papa and we boys all went as Jim Cary in his Mask outfits? We handed out candy in the hospital? You went as a pirate Ana?"

"I remember it well. I guess Nonno would love it, he loved doing that ever year, we have to keep up the tradition, wherever we are, we still visit the children who can't go trick or treating." I smile.

"I think that sounds like something we all could do. I happen to know my children would love to see you all." Grace says. "They don't go without a visit, the doctors and nurses see to it they are not forgotten, though Elliot here, scared the heck pout of several of the poor children last year."

"I know, next time less blood and no eyes swinging from my eye socket. That girl hit me do hard with her crutch my poor man bits were in ice for a week."

"Serves you right, she was terrified."

"Mia went as a pink princess, now that was a truly heinous sight, my sister the sickly princess."

"I can't wait to be part of it. What did you go as Christian?" They all laugh.

"He went as himself and handed out hundred dollar bills. He isn't a joiner…" Elliot mocks his brother.

"Well next year we, you me and the aliens will go as a family of aliens…" I gulp… "If that is okay with everyone?"

"Ana, Christian. What do you mean by aliens?" Grace is as sharp as she is wise, I know it is killing Christian keeping the secret. I smile and nod my head.

"Ana and I are pregnant. We were waiting, but she and I are having ourselves a baby or three."

"Three…" My mother says.

"Triplets?" Marco says.

"How the hell…" Elliot says.

"Mosel Tov." Ethan says from the back of the crowd.

"I know, we were just as shocked as you lot at our great news, its early days. All is well and I am fine, we are fine. Me and our three little aliens are fine and well." I keep saying as we are congratulated. "We were going to wait you know for the usual twelve weeks, but I was itching to tell someone, so was Christian. Now you know."

"Oh my lord." Christian's grandmother says. "What a very nice bit of news, so Elliot when are you and Kate adding to our brood?"

"Mrs Trevelyan…"

"What? I had the misfortune of hearing you and my loud grandson going at it in the next room, all night, unless you were actually seeing God?" I have never seen Kate, or for that matter Elliot blush.

"Elliot? What are your intentions toward my sister?" Kate and Elliot grin.

"Well you know we got drunk at the wedding?"

"Yeah, Taylor had to go and bail you both out!" Christian says.

"Well we got married, it seems? We got the paperwork in the post the other day, we must have left it in the hotel and they forwarded it to Mrs Katherine Grey here. Surprise?"

"Kate, is this true?" Ethan asks his twin. She blushes again.

"Yes, and I am not too upset about it either, yes, a little shocked, because try as I might I cannot remember saying I do and neither does Elliot, we are okay actually, about being married. In fact we laughed about it, drank to our shock nuptials and decided it wasn't as bad as is it seemed, so we decided to move in together and give it a try, this marriage thing? But no, to answer your question Grandma T. We are waiting for a while. I still have to get used to having this big kid in my life!"

"You are married Elliot, and you Kate, you think this is funny?" Grace says, still in shock. "Elliot, you are married and it was a joke, how can this be legal Cary?"

"I guess Gracie, that times they are a changing, I would think they know their own minds now, if they are happy about it then who are we to step into it and say no?"

"Cary, they are married…"

"Mom, Dad, do you realise that I am the good kid?" Mia says with a smirk. "Thanks guys, you made dating for me a whole lot easier. When, and I will say this again, when I meet a guy you have set the bar so low, anything I do will be a cake walk. Not that Kate and Ana are a low bench mark as girlfriends go, far from it I still think you are batting way above your weigh dear brothers. They are way too good for my moron brothers. Both of you did bad things whilst drunk and me? Me, I threw up in Mom's vase and the world ended, cheers…"

"Mia Millicent Grey, you were ten, you were sneaking drinks from the guests and that vase was a Ming vase worth a lot of money. So, let's not use any of your brothers drunken antics as any sort of bench mark." Grace says.

"Mr and Mrs Grey…" Taylor speaks. "The cars are here, your uncles are already at the cemetery and were not followed. Their decoys are drinking in a hotel room. The press are waiting there for them. The coast is clear for you and your guests to leave."

"Taylor, thank you. So, shocks aside can we please lay my family to rest?"

"Yes, let's go. Mom, Dad, Mia? Are we all ready?" Christian says with a smile. I want happy faces today. My hand is gripped tightly and Christian leads me to the car. "I cannot believe they have got married and are treating it like a joke." He says as he helps me inside the car. "Marriage is a serious thing."

"I know, but their way sounded like they had a lot of fun. Mum are you okay?"

"Yes dear, Christian, let them be, they seem very happy and actually in love, I see the look they have. Joke or not, it seems they are made for each other. Bobby here and me, we were very tipsy when we got married, we did the very same thing."

"You did?" I say.

"We did. Best round of drinks I ever bought. I found your mother." He smiles as he grabs my mother's hand.

"It was Bobby, it was."

"I guess that answers my question. Ana, are you ready"

"Yes. Where are your family stopping?"

"In the family suites at my hotel here."

"My home is full, will they think badly of me?"

"No Baby, they take up a lot of space. Taylor, when you are ready, thanks."

"Sir…" We head through the gates and there is a tour bus doing their usual drop off. I smile and wave, they screech and smile and flashes are seen.

"My father's fans are relentless." We pull off and our entourage of security, friends and family follow us. Arriving there, the undertakers are already at the position near the family plot. The tiny boxes make me very teary, in fact I do sob.

"Ana, are you alright?"

"Yes Mum, please don't worry. Tears are quite usual here." We head to the resting place. I see the smiling faces of my honorary uncles, and my real ones. My family stands around the open spaces and I see Christian's eyes got to the place where our son rests. We walk hand in hand and stand by his grave side.

"Hello Little Man, we have brought you and Olly some company." Christian says. "They are your family, and will be there for you, just until Mommy and me join you. It won't be for a long, long time, but one day we will see you. One day…" I dab my eyes.

"Yes, you have a Nonno called Sunny, a Nonna called Vita, a Grammy Mimi, and a Papa Frank. Mommy is also sending you my daddy to look after you. He will sing you songs and play with you. Until Mummy and Daddy get to see you again. We will never forget you Baby Boy, even when your brothers and sisters get here, you will always be my big boy, and I love you and I always will." Grace comes to my side. "This is your Grammy Grace, she is nice too, and today lots of family are finally getting to see where you sleep, so please don't send the rain Baby, we want to see the sunshine, not the rain. Do you hear me?" I smile as the clouds seem to clear, and like a fairy story, the sunshine beams down on the part of the garden that is my families new home.

"Ana, this place is beautiful. So peaceful and beautiful. I am sorry I didn't get to meet you little one, but one day, one day we will. The just you wait, the spoiling will begin, in earnest. Mommy and Daddy are making sure you have some very nice people to wait with, until we meet." She is handed a hanky by Cary and we, Christian and I kiss the headstone and stand with the others. The minister, a very godly looking man coughs.

"Hello, and welcome to this garden of remembrance, on this unusually sunny day. Today we are laying to rest the D'Acciaio and the Lambert families. The family, gathered here today are not here to mourn the loss of their family, but they are here to rejoice in their families journey to meet their young ward, Christian and his companion, Olivier." I hear the prayers he says, I hear it but don't take it in. The little boxes are put in the holes and my legs buckle as they did when Christian and Olly were laid to rest.

"Ana, breathe, breathe Baby, everything is going to be fine." I look at Christian's face, his tears are the same as mine, and are streaming from his eyes and down his cheeks too. My hand wipes them away, and he mirrors the act and wipes away mine. Mum, Marco and Sonny all throw in the dirt and the miniature roses, I am handed my roses and kiss them, Christian throws on the dirt and I scatter the roses.

"Look after them, please?" I sob into Christian's jacket and the rest of the extended family, throw in their flowers. I think Christian thanked the minister, I was too consumed in staying upright? Taylor, thank god for Taylor, he guided the family to their transport. Apparently, Christian had lain on a wake at his hotel here. We stood around for a while, whilst the cars and vans filled up and filed off. I was not good company. Stood by my side is Christian, Holly and Uncle Wolf and in the back two people are setting down wild flowers by the open graves...

"Ana, I have someone I would like you to meet, someone who want to meet you too." I look up and see a woman, and with her is a young man, I don't need to be told who they are…

"Sandra, Edward?"

"Yes, yes we are. I am sorry we crashed the service."

"No, no its fine. Honestly, it really is fine."

"Edward and I have a lot to be thankful to your father for, he did a lot to help me, especially in my hour of need. I needed to say goodbye. We needed to say goodbye, didn't we Edward?

"Yes, goodbye, goodbye to Uncle Frank." He is smiling, not sad. I guess I wanted happy faces? I got one at least. He looks at me and smiles. "You are Anastasia, Uncle Andrew said you were coming to see me." I laugh. "That is him there..." He points at Uncle Wolfe.

"I am sorry, but I am a little late coming to see you Edward."

"It's okay, hello Anastasia."

"I think you want some answers to some questions Ana?" Sandy asks.

"Please, you don't have to tell me anything you do not want to."

"You want to know if Edward is your brother, am I right?"

"I did wonder."

"He isn't, your father saved me and in turn he saved my wonderful son."

"Saved you from what?" Christian asks.

"Sandy, this is my husband Christian."

"Pleased to meet you Mr and Mrs Grey. We are not stopping, I just needed to say thank you and goodbye."

"You said that already, but thank you for what?"

"Your father talked me out of doing something very stupid. Something that would have meant me never having a great future." Uncle Wolfe takes Edward's hand and he and Holly take him to an old green army land rover. "He doesn't need to hear this, but you do…"

"Not if it is going to hurt you I don't!"

"It was something I will be thankful to your father for, forever. I was raped…" I am sure my mouth opens, but there is nothing coming from my mouth. "It was after a concert, and I was dragged into a van as the roadies loaded the bands equipment. I didn't know what happened next, one minute I was loading in the girls cases and the next I was waking up in a hospital. I still to this day do not know what happened to me. Who assaulted me or why."

"How, I mean why not?"

"I was drugged, I was then sexually assaulted and left for dead at a hospital, all I had on me was a my band ID, and the next thing the band and the guys were all thrown in jail and tested. The man, he left his stuff on me and well, to cut out all the crap, none of the band or our crew had been near me. I was low and hurt, and as I could not remember anything happening to me, I cried a lot and blamed myself for being too flirty with guys and well…"

"Hey, hey I told you, this was not your fault Sandy, not your fault. We would have gone to jail to protect you and the other girls in the band, okay?" Uncle Wolfe has his arms around her.

"I don't understand?"

"I was raped by a stranger posing as a new roadie. I was left for dead and the police thought someone in the band had done it. Your father and the rest of them were all questioned. All of them were getting drunk in a hotel at the time. I was clearing out the last of our stuff when it happened.

I don't know who it was and I never want to find out either, but whoever it was, they left me pregnant. I found out about Edward a couple of months later. He was both a curse and a blessing. I was so afraid. I was shocked of course and I felt unclean and dirty all over again.

I was out of my mind and was about to do something really stupid when your father found me. I was alone on the roof of the hotel we were stopping in, I was about to throw myself off, when he stopped me. I didn't know what to do. He talked me off the edge and into a clinic."

"To get rid of the baby?" I ask.

"I was too far to do it legally and I was a mess."

"I bet you were." Christian says. "How did it help you being locked away?"

"Oh I wasn't locked away. He got me help in a really good place, and good help too. I went through all sorts of crap in there but it was crap I needed to hear. It wasn't my fault. Being gay was not the reason I was being punished. I thought this was someone's sick idea of a joke. I wasn't into men. I was one of them." gobsmacked, I stand and I listen...

"Oh…" I say. "You and my dad never had a friendship then, Edward really isn't my brother?"

"No, lord no, he is not your brother and Lambert was never any sort of lover to me, we had a great friendship and that's it. He and I were good friends not lovers, men really do not rock my boat that way sweetheart, all the guys were my family, ugly assed big brothers, that's all. I never thought about having a kid, so when one was sent to me I panicked. I didn't know what to do. So I went to my dark place again. Hence me wanting to headbutt the pavement. Whilst in the clinic I found god and I realised this was meant for a reason. I was offered the chance to have the baby adopted. I chose to raise the baby. I thought about it long and hard, and decided something good had to come form that night, and it did. Edward Franklin Andrew… My wonderful gift."

"You kept him, even after you were attacked?" Christian asks.

"Yes, your father didn't understand it either Ana, nor did the guys, but they promised to help me and the baby, when he was born he was as he is now. I didn't need help. I wrote songs a few songs for them and a few of them were good. So I am financially sound thanks to the songs I wrote for them and other bands too. I stopped touring when Edward hated flying, it was impossible to take him with us, so I retired…"

"We wanted to set up a fund for them after she set up camp in remote Welsh farm. So she and Edward would not think they were financially dependent on us, but she wouldn't hear of it, she is as stubborn now as she was back then."

"I didn't need it, you lot had nothing to do with how Edward got here and I got fed up of telling you all were I disappeared to for a reason."

"Is that why you haven't touched it, the trust fund? Really?"

"Yes, I didn't need it. Edward has been a blessing and made my life a truly wonderful one. So please stop contacting me Mrs Grey, I don't need the money your father's estate thinks it owes me."

"They do owe it to you, do you know how much those songs were worth you wrote?"

"I got paid for writing them, and they paid me well enough for them."

"My father didn't claim the copyright on them and thanks to their inclusion on some billion dollar selling albums, the money from them has been sat in a bank waiting for you, the money is not charity or money for helping you or Edward out It is your money, money you earned from owning the songs."

"It isn't. I sold them the songs free and clear."

"Lenny didn't work like that Sandy, if you wrote it you owned it, I tried to tell you this already."

"The money is mine? Not charity, not money because Edward is special, Ana tell me the truth, because the guys won't?"

"No, money you earned from writing some amazing songs. Uncle Wolfe is right, it's yours free and clear from any debt of gratitude you think you owe my father and the band, you earned it writing some really good songs, songs that helped make my father's albums sell so well. If you don't want it, then use it to help Edward? It really is yours Sandy, yours to do with whatever you want to use it on."

"I am so confused. How?"

"Understandably so. We have people who can help you invest it for Edward should you wish?" Christian tells her.

"I really have a lot of money sitting doing nothing, my money, and not the bands meek and mild way of gifting me supposed guilt money?"

"Hey, I always thought you knew us better than that Sandy, we knew no meant no, we send the gifts and we know that's all you take from us. We got the message loud and clear, presents under fifty quid, and nothing dangerous and we stick to your words."

"Um, like the Edward doesn't get like a hundred gifts a month? Yes under fifty pounds but hundreds of them come. He loves them. He writes to you all. Good god, so the millions in commission is really mine?" I laugh.

"I told you she was not a charity case Annie. Now, are you coming to the wake?"

"No, because Edward has his routines, and he doesn't like being away from his animals for too long. I just had to say goodbye to Frank. We don't travel anywhere other than in the land rover. He won't fly, so we don't leave home too often. Look it was nice seeing you, and you really are as beautiful as he said you would be. Andrew Wolfenden, come see us at the farm and we will discuss this money in more detail, and bring Ana and Holly. Edward would like that." I pass her the card I have for Ethan.

"They have it all in hand, and it's worth more than you think and all of it was earned by you. Do you hear me, it's all yours?"

"You are like him you know, you look like Carla, but you are all Frank, all Frank, heart and mind, you are a Lambert alright…" She kisses my cheek and heads to the battered land rover. Uncle Wolfe walks with them.

"I wanted him to be my brother Christian, she is a nice lady. I wish he was my brother. I really do."

"Hey soon enough we will have more family than we can count. Let's go and see Grammy T smack Kate and Elliot sencless. She likes a good big reason for buying a hat and they robbed her of just such a reason…"

"Umm, okay…"

"We are leaving tomorrow on honeymoon, now we don't have to track down Sandy…"

"Where are we going?"

"Wait and see Mrs Grey, wait and see…"

* * *

Sorry for delay I am in so much (insert a few swear words!) pain. I cannot write more than my left hand can type… Right handed and sore… read review please I will get back to you all I swear I will xxx


	53. Chapter 53

This story is nowt like fifty shades; I just purloined E.L. James's characters, buildings and some of her other stuff...

* * *

Dreaming of Chocolate and Grey:

Chapter 53:

Safari surprise…

After an extremely nice, I think nice is a very underestimated word, meeting with Sandy and Edward, I am a little sad, because I am still, as yet an only child. Sandy is a very proud woman and I can see what my father admired about her, she is a proud strong woman, and as such I am confused as to why my mother hated her so much, when it was very clear that Sandy made no attempt at hiding it, the fact that she is gay? As I am still getting to know Mum, I have no idea why she would hold the grudge she does have against Sandy? My mother the jealous zealot girlfriend, is not a good look on Carla! She is good looking though, Sandy I mean. One of the lads and a very motherly loving lady, all qualities I would guess Mum does not have? I am living proof of that! Old record playing on a worn out record player.

Holly was enamoured by Edward, as am I, he has given her permission to visit his farm in Wales. A very happy Holly accepted, especially if there are lambs to be seen. It seems his mother farms Welsh Lamb, very moreish when cooked correctly! He thinks they all leave the farm to go away to school? I didn't laugh, much to my surprise, he really does think they are all his friends and go to loving homes, it makes me want to become a vegetarian, and seriously soon too. They, Sandy and Edward, entered my life as a mystery and left as friends. It seems too that Uncle Andrew actually knew more about them than he let on. He keeps many secrets within his larger than that large noggin of his.

We got to the hotel and the front of the damned place is swarming with paparazzi, fans and other associated pests. Taylor is very good at his job, he is an expert, I am in awe at what he sees that nobody else catches. My head is so far in the clouds I need his watchful eyes. My head is a crowded place, much like the front steps of the hotel.

"Sir, we are going to enter the hotel from the rear of the building."

"It's madness." Christian says as he stares out of the window. "I guess this is the only bad part of being married to you Mrs Grey. Their damned need to get a photograph of you."

"I think Mr Grey, you seem to forget they clamber for the money shot of you too, we are doing well not being papped, thanks to Taylor and his men." Taylor smiles, a rare, but welcome occurrence. "So, how long are we stopping here? I have to pack for the holiday!"

"We will say hello, watch as Elliot is rolled over the hot coals by Granny and Mom and see your mother and Bob off, and then head to the airport from here and leave the family to the party, they are leaving when the plane gets back."

"Okay, what and when do I pack for said trip?" I ask, knowing he is better at this secret keeping than I am. "I mean what do I pack, seriously Christian and when do I do it?"

"Gail and Caroline Acton, your new best friend, have packed everything you will need already Baby. I mean everything and more. This is not a function fuelled holiday, so there are no ball gowns and evening suits needed. This is a relax and do nothing holiday. We have earned this us time."

"I like that, us time, and yes, we need it. Taylor, are you and Gail all packed too?"

"I believe Gail has seen to it we too have everything we will need." Damn it, Christian learned from an expert. "Mrs Grey, I am sure Gail has packed everything you will need, the cars were packed when they left the house."

"Where is Gail?"

"She is on her way to the plane."

"Okay. I guess?"

"Ana, what's the matter?"

"I can't believe I am letting go of reins of my business, and for a whole month too."

"I can't quite believe it either, Ros and your new people know they can contact us if needed. We are not totally out of contact. Is that your mother and Bob?"

"Yeah, wow they weren't kidding, they really do want to go home." We are in the underground garage. Far from the madding crowd. Christian helps me out of the car. Mum and Bob head over.

"Ana, I am glad we got the chance to say goodbye. Bobby has a plane waiting to take us home. I had to see you, I… I…"

"Everything with Sandy went well, she explained about the money, about Edwards conception and I found her to be a very strong woman and a great mother to Edward."

"Unlike me you mean?"

"Mum, I mean she is a good mother to Edward, I never said you were a bad mother. In fact I think you are really quite a strong woman too. You let me go because you were wise enough to realise you were not ready to be my mother. You are now though, right?"

"Yes, yes I am. I am so sorry. I realise I was a disappointment to you. I will be a much better mum and a wonderful grandmother to your children I promise."

"Mum, where is all this coming from?"

"I didn't like how close your father and that woman were. I know, stupid, but stupid is my middle name."

"You do know she would more than likely made a pass at you before she pashed my dad, right?"

"She did 'pash' your dad, they were always whispering and laughing at me."

"Oh god Mum, she is gay, you did not know this? How did you not know?"

"I guess my gay thing-a-ma-jig is broken. So Edward really is not your brother? I know I said he wasn't but I really thought he was."

"No, no he's not. She told me everything and was really very complimentary about you. She says had my father been alive you would have been the one to change him. She was just a friend Mum, you need to write to her, she likes getting letters, hates the internet and phones, so I will send you her address and how about you bury the hatchet with her? I mean, if you want to that is?"

"I might do, I mean if you think she will welcome a grovelling apology for me calling her all those horrid names and hating her?" I laugh. "Ana, I was a little bit envious of their friendship. I even stopped him seeing her, she came to Anastasia and I sent her away with a flea in her ear."

"Yes, she said, but she said it was more of a push and get lost sort of a moment and she went backwards into the water canal around the house there?"

"Oh, she told you?"

"We did talk for a little while. She never understood the resentment you felt towards her? Anyway Bobby is chomping at the bit to head off. Call me when you get home. And Mum?"

"Yes Ana?"

"Thank you for being here for me now. Please stop re-hashing the past. It's the past. Besides, with three of the little buggers to look after, I am going to need my mother about, if that's okay with Bobby?"

"Oh he will be fine, he will have to be. I intend to be with you and be there for you to lean on." Bobby taps his watch. Okay, I get it. Mum doesn't want to leave and he does. "Okay Bobby, the plane won't leave without us. Bye Ana and Christian, look after my daughter, please?" He leans in and kisses her cheek, she blushes and scampers across to their car. I watch as they pull out of the garage and smile.

"My mother is indeed someone who needs a lot of reassuring."

"She is just worried Baby, worried you will not have her in your life. I guess she is still insecure about what she did?"

"I get that, I really do, but there is no way in hell I would ever leave my child with anyone else, not for all the tea in China or the cocoa beans on either side of the Equator or the vanilla pods in Madagascar."

"Okay, I am glad to know they come before chocolate, they come before golf too Baby, just so you know! Now, let's go see the busted head Elliot has, shall we?" I link his arm and we head in to the wake. Which is not as lively as I thought it would be, I guess the rockers are not as lively as they once were? They are drinking tea and eating scones in the lounge, how very British of them? They are not with the rest of the family. Apparently, they are waiting for us as it happens, as they have more publicity to do for the album and are waiting to say goodbye.

"So, where did this party go to die?" I ask them. "Uncle Wolfe? Holly?"

"Hu?"

"Holly who died? This party is not much of a party."

"Annie, it's a wake. It's meant to be a mournful affair and besides we are leaving when the battle bus arrives, Taylor has it hightailing around London, because we were spotted by the sewer creatures." Uncle Wolfe says. "We are getting rowdy, so were sent out of the party room. Apparently, we cussed too loudly at the football results. Birmingham City lost again…"

"I didn't expect you to be tossing televisions out of the windows and trashing the place, bit drinking tea and eating scones, that's very old lady like of you, please remember Nonno liked a good drop of wine, Papa Frank liked a nice malt, my father liked the good beer, you are meant to be the wild men of rock, are you not?"

"Nah Annie, that was all publicity. We always had tea and scones after a gig." I smile as he winks. Frog tries to pull the rug over my eyes, Frog stepped up for us at the concert, he was my father's replacement and the bands keyboard player, real name Alexander Frogmore. Hence the Frog nick-name, derrr.

"I did not come down in the last shower Uncle Alex. Now, and just because I cannot drink, it does not mean you cannot."

"Okay, okay, Annie, can we be honest young lady?"

"Yes Uncle Wolfe?"

"We don't touch the hard stuff. We are old and crinkly, and it takes us days to get sober. It's not as fun as it was when we were kids in uni, being drunk then was a rite of passage into being in a rock band, but it's not for the faint of heart, and let's face it Annie, we are not the sprightly kids we once were, I mean let's look at the health of the band shall we? Two members, who don't want to admit it, have two dodgy tickers, one or two of them need more tablets to get them up in the morning than an old aged retirement home, there is a diabetic, at least three dodgy hips and a deaf member and one who has milk bottles for glasses, time has made the Lambs and Wolves very road worn and time weary guys, long since gone the late nights the booze, the drugs and the women and hangers on, now we are the hangers on, to walking sticks and walking frames, Uncle Dave over there has a motorised mobility scooter in his garage, we will toast your father with tea and scones like old ladies, cheers Annie." I laugh.

"Oh god talk about over the top. I happen to know the drinks bill for the concert was huge, and the riders you put in were not very rock and roll, but the hidden riders were, so where that bill sprouted from lord only knows. Do I blame the aged groupies?" Uncle Wolfe points at Golden Graham, "I know you are not quite up to Mick and the boys standards, unless one of you is become a dad at seventy?" We all look at Uncle Graham. He laughs, his shoulders shrug and he smiles.

"I am working on it kiddo, I happen to know all of us have had our moments, but these days Annie, we need to pop so many blue pills, it's a small wonder we are not turning into stiff Smurfs when we get to entertain the ladies, if you know what I mean?" I laugh so hard a bray like a donkey. Uncle Graham, the bassist, is the wildest of my band uncles, he is the Ronnie Wood of the band.

"We? I will have you know not all of us are like you G, and please remember those are my girls." Uncle Wolfe is laughing at the bands only remaining wild man, the one who, when he wears them, has the milk bottles for glasses. Holly is very happy today, and as I see Luke, he is grinning too. Oh my oh my, is this thing they have serious?

"Okay, okay, okay stop before Ana wets herself again. Daddy, you and the boys are not The Rolling Stones, but neither are you past it. We, Ana and I do not want to hear about you sexcapaids Uncle Graham. Really, quit it with the pity party too, I happen to know you are all in pretty good shape these days, sort of. If not then I will get you all a trainer apiece and get you in shape."

"We were pulling your legs girls. We have the odd wild night, but we seriously are not as young as we think we are. That damned concert was bloody hard work and the riders we put in were nothing like the bad old days. Gone the fully stocked bar, the women and the drugs. In their place, a nice bottle of wine, prescribed drugs and a creche for the grandkids, and not forgetting Flynn's new wife." Wolfe laughs as a cushion heads his way.

"Hey, what can I say, I am in love, and Mya, she is not a kid." Flynn's new wife is five years older than me. "Age is just a number, forced on us by society, besides women my age are not as bendy and Mya is very bendy." He winks. Oh my god, no…

"Hu? Who is bendy? Me?" Uncle Graham says, he is the band member known for the wildest sexcapaids. "Is that another dig at my youthful outlook on life? As per?"

"I said old man, age is just a number. Turn your hearing aid up man." He is the deaf one. Poor guy.

"I heard you, I was hoping I was not getting the damned lecture on my dating young and very bendy models, I note you took my advice when you ordered your new bride from the Thai Bride Book?" Graham is very cutting.

"Hey ass hole, she didn't come from a book." Oops, here goes the flare up, again.

"Nah, he ordered her on line…" Frog is not helping. I drop my head. I forgot just how competitive this lot are.

"Okay. So, what's the news with the record sales? And I happen to know Mya, as you bloody well know, she used to work for me, and it's her parents who come from Thailand and not her? Let's stop with the tall tales and the leg pulling, shall we? Honestly, you lot are really not that funny anymore and I don't want to know about anything bendy, okay? Now, let's just settle down and be serious about adding to your pensions, shall we? I happen to know nursing homes are getting more expensive." They mutter their thanks.

"Thanks for that Ana, Mya and I thank you for the introduction, that was the best chocolate launch ever. My favourite actually… Though from what I hear the New York one was a life changer for you Little One?" I blush.

"It was, for both Ana and I." Christian has his arm around me. "Best ever…"

"It was, now Uncle Wolfe, you are in touch with Stella and Shaun at the record label's PR branch, so what is the news on the ticket sales, album sales and concert and related album stuff?" Very technical, not…

"We are at number one on the album sales, pre orders for the DVD of the concert are amazing as are the demands for more of our time. It seems we may have to do a couple of small arena tours. So we will need those trainers, I for one will need them, I haven't got anything nearly as nimble and bendy as the women in your lives, Holly? Close your ears, please?" She covers her ears and laughs. "I haven't pulled anything in years and don't have the need in me anymore. Though I did try it a couple of years back with the botanist in the house near me, and she threw my back out." The guys all laugh.

"I could have done with the heads up there Uncle Wolfe." I say, "shocked and horrified here and I am now feeling like I really did not need to know that about you…" I shudder.

"You should have been in the damned house, I thought she had killed him with her backward facing pony trick, which I found out is not a yoga move at all, Google did not save my blushes and the headphones did not drown out the screams." Holly smiles. "The trip to the chiropractic place, was a fun filled experience, he cussed like a sailor and cried like a baby. Poor Diana can't look us in the face when she's in her garden now, and the guy who does it now is not up for seeing to the inside plants, is he Dad? Not like Diana did, I swear those plants were over watered to cover their secret bunk ups. I mean cacti do not need watering daily. Even I knew that. They were better cared for than the dog and watered more than the damned lawn. RIP cacti."

"I said ears covered, and how was I to know you arrived back quietly for a change?" Holly laughs.

"Oh lord… So, back to the figures and a tour? How are you going to tour without Dad, 'cos much as I love you guys, I am not doing that ever again, it was horrific?"

"No need, the green screen thing was so good, the publicist is working on a way of using more footage. Frog here will still be the body on stage. I knew you would say no, besides when we are touring you will be humongous."

"Cheers, don't remind me. Now, let's get those damned drinks, tea or otherwise. You lot are nutters. I love you all, but you are hard bloody work."

"Try living with them." Holly says.

"You live with me most of the time Hols…"

"For good reason. For a bloody good reason. It's like feeding time at the zoo, or nap time at the nursery, or old man time in the young man cave, they really think its a time warp man cave. I swear I know more than I need to about these ageing rockers than is good for my young sensitive ears. Hey-ho, you aged, man-whores of rock, I have listened to enough sex talk from my father and uncles for a while, I have a holiday to ready myself for, Gail needs to help me pack too, sadly she took one look in my room and said she would need a week just to sort out my floor-drobe. So, if it is okay with you Miss Ana, I am going back home to pack."

"I thought you packed already?"

"Nope, I have had better things to do. Can I go?" She winks at Luke.

"Yes, but do not be too long. We are heading out of here in an hour." Christian says. "Please?"

"Okay, I only need ten minutes, I have all I need in my grab bag. Though the leopard skin bikini may not be suitable, I don't want to be eaten or mounted by a damned big arsed Leopard."

"Holly…"

"What Christian, I didn't say anything about Africa, oops…" I look at their faces, okay we are going to a place with Leopards? "Much, sorry… I can still come, can't I?"

"Yes, but remind me never to confide in you again."

"Christian, are we going to Africa to see my adopted pets?"

"Yes, we are going to see Nonno the elephant and Christian, the lion, we are doing the trip you were to do with Nonno, but we are also going somewhere quiet too, though I am thinking of leaving Holly with the damned game preserve, for the Cheetahs and lions to play with."

"Sorry, I am no good at secret Santa either. Laters, I need to pack for the safari… So-fari, so good eh?" She leaves and I laugh. I have wanted to do that trip for so long.

"Thank you, I really love you. Now, let's go and mingle with the normal folk's, shall we?" After the band go and get on their bus, and the goodbyes are said, we head into the family rooms, where the rest of the party people are. As we open the doors I stand and stare, "oh lord. I stand corrected, are none of your family sane either Christian?"

"Mother, what has happened?" I duck as Christian suddenly has a very messy cake heading his way, "Elliot, did you start a food fight and Mother do not toss that salad my way." Oops, too late.

"Sorry…" I hear her scream as Cary covers her in the dressing for the salad Christian is now wearing, he looks good in lettuce too, yummy…

"Mother? Explain yourselves and stop making this godawful mess. How old are you? Grandmother, put down that leg of lamb. Put it down…" It hits Elliot. "Now…" There is a sudden moment of calm…

"Sorry but she started it." Granny T is pointing at Kate. Who is pointing at Jose. Who is pointing at Ethan, who is sat in a chair covered in cream and chocolate cake. Really? I thought the band were immature, and in this room, are the great, the sensible caretakers of my life and the supposed good mannered folks in my life, all looking like they are in clown school, training to be slapstick artists.

"And, you thought these were the sensible ones Ana?" Christian asks.

"Oh, really, pray tell why are we the baddies?" Grace says, as Christian and I take in the very messy room. I am not paying for clean-up.

"Care to explain Kate?"

"No not really, Grammy was annoying me about our drunken wedding, she wouldn't stop moaning about not having a bloody hat, so I gave her one."

"Yup, I got a trifle thing, very fetching don't ya think? So I had to return the complement, I, by mistake I might add, hit Growling Gracie Grey here with the tray of mini flans when Kate ducked, good dodging by the way new Grey, I didn't have my glasses to hand, or I did but they were under a layer of trifle, I would not have missed had I had them on Katherine. Grace then picked up the fruit salad and I ducked. Her son then shouted food fight and we have had a very cleansing ten minutes, you should have been here then, you missed all the good projectiles, there is a salmon somewhere, but we lost the fowl and the bread rolls and a ham… It is very stress reliving, better than a naked massage, much better fun and you get to keep your clothes on." I laugh at the normally so prim and proper Grey's covered in a mess.

"Are you serious, this is a thirteen thousand pound a night suite. It is ruined and for what? A missed opportunity to wear a damned hat grandmother?"

"A wedding hat Christian, oh do chill out, there's a good boy, take the stick out of your butt and chill. It will all come out with soda water, here see…" She squirts the soda thing at her shocked grandson. I swear I nearly peed my pants as he grapples it from the aged lady and squirts her back, by accident.

"It seems the gentlemen of the band, are the saints and in your absence, you are in fact forgiven boys the bad boys are in here, I forgive them, they can talk about sex and anything else band related, as long as they never throw a food fight like this." I say. Holly missed out on a food fight. She starts them usually, and they cost her an arm and a leg to have cleared. She has been arrested in some very swanky places too. "So, what are we going to do now then?"

"I, I am going to have a shower and we are leaving, before I lose the plot totally, this is a wake not a sideshow, really, it was wake family, a damned wake." He says through clenched teeth. "We, sorry you lot need to apologise to Ana and her family." A slice of pepper falls of his head and I swear I do not laugh, well much?

"Oh, I don't know Marco and me, we enjoyed it Chris. Besides, Papa would have loved it. He and Antihippie used to love a good food fight. The dogs liked to clean up and it annoyed the faux Vita to leaving him for the week, good result I might add. The pool always looked like a bowl of soup when they had finished. It is a very fitting after funeral party to throw, excuse the pun, he would have loved it, thanks guys…"

"I have to admit, Nonno would have liked it. Though Christian is right, the room is ruined. So, what's next?"

"Oh Ana, I am sorry, but once we started we couldn't stop, my poor father was asleep until the selection of sandwiches landed on his head, complete with tray." Grace says as she clears the crappy glupe and mess from her Dior dress.

"I thought it was rather shoddy room service. My wife will pay for it later!" He winks and eats the tiny triangles still left around him. "Would you like a tuna and cheese thing Ana, they are very moreish, another odd combination is this chicken and peanut butter and jelly sandwich. It is very satay tasting, very unusual, do you think I am getting the pregnancy craving for you Ana?" He is sat as calm as anything making sandwiches from the mess on his ugly shirt and board shorts, with knees like that he should have gone for cotton summer trousers, he looks so funny I laugh again.

"I don't think so, but thanks for the offer. Who ordered PB and J sandwiches anyway?" I feel very sick, the combination of booze and all this food is doing nothing to help this sickness.

"I ordered them for Elliot, he likes them don't you Honey?" Kate says as she wipes away the glupe from her blonde locks. "I think they were what Grammy T bit into first. I laughed and the rest is history. I will have the rooms redone, it was worth it. I haven't had so much fun with my clothes on, ever." I shake my head. Way to lower the tone even more Kate!

"Katherine Agnes Grey…" He father Eamon is here too, and is the only one still clean and pristine. "I leave you for ten minutes and you caused all this mess?" He looks very odd and like he is seeing this room very differently than I am, it will clean off or can be replaced, he is pale. Okay, am I missing something?

"No, that would be me and I would Eamon dear, duck or move…" Grammy T was too late with the warning and something, I am not even sure it was food of any description falls out or from one of the light fittings and covers him in the same glupe as the rest of them, the room is silent… "Oops, sorry you snooze you lose Eamon. I do believe we found the missing goose Grace. Eamon is modelling it."

"Mother…" The room stares at Eamon Kavanagh. His children cringe. My husband is opened mouthed and Grace and Carrick suddenly rush to his aid.

"It is fine, please stop touching me. Please stop." He looks shocked, he looks pissed off, he looks like he is going to cry.

"Daddy, are you okay?" Did I miss something? "Daddy talk to me, please?" Kate is crying. I always say good horsing around always ends in tears. I was right, it has.

"Dad, speak…" Ethan asks. Grace steps forward.

"Eamon, you will be fine, breathe deeply and come with me to the bathroom. Breathe in and out slowly." Grace takes his hand and he slowly walks with her, he looks like he has been hit with a stun gun, not an orange and plum glazed goose. He follows Grace, Kate and Ethan follow her. What did I miss, did the duck, sorry the goose have a knife hidden within it?

"He suffers from a severe case of Mysophobia, the fear of germs Ana. He has done all his life. He was getting better, I bet this puts him right back. Hell of a way to end a party." Carrick tells me.

"As in really afraid of germs?" I ask, not knowing about this has me shocked.

"He has many OSD type phobias, Automysophobia, the fear of simply being dirty, and Claustrophobia are on the very top of his list. Did you not know he was kidnapped as a child and was placed underground in a wooden casket thing Ana, I was so sure Frank would have had guards on you too. Poor Eamon has never got over it, even after all these years and specialists he has had to see." Carrick tells me.

"Why did I not know this about him? I mean I knew he was OCD about touching people and shaking hands, but to be like that? Wow?"

"It was no fun for him growing up. Hence the precautions he takes around the family, the clean areas he lives in and works in. He was with Grace and Mia when they had their accident, he was driving them to go and see a concert in my place, and they were hit by the drunk who nearly killed them all a few years ago. It flared up again when he was covered in all their blood. This is not a good end to the day. Christian, take Ana and yourselves away. We will sort out the mess we caused. Please just take off, all of you take to your rooms, he won't want to see you. Besides I think we all need to ready ourselves for the journey home we made a hell of a mess and will have the room cleaned, it was just a moment of madness for everyone, especially after the last few weeks." I am shocked and then it hits me, that was the night Christian took my gift and left in the middle of the night. What a way to end a shitty day, in tears… Poor Eamon… We do as Carrick asks before I really do cry… We are mid way to his room at the hotel, when the dams burst and it is not me crying, but Christian. What the hell?

"Christian, why are you crying, it's only food, it will come off in the wash?"

"I realise that was the night we made our son. Ana that was the night Mia and Mom nearly died, what a fuck up."

"Indeed, and Eamon, he was there too, I never knew that, did he get hurt too?"

"Yes, but he feels guilty that he escaped with just the gash to his head. He spent months in therapy. I thought he was getting over it, or getting better at coping with it. How the hell does a falling goose and a mess make a man as strong as Eamon fall apart at the seams?"

"You have to ask, didn't you have the same issues with touch Christian?"

" Yes, I did, and I guess that's why he understood me more than my parents. God, we are going to have to wrap our three babies in so much cotton wool Baby. Will they be normal?"

"Is that why you are crying?" He wipes away the tears. "If so stop it, we will be super secure and have the best people on our side, we have Taylor."

"I guess so. I mean what if they too get kidnapped like poor Eamon and Kate?" He says, I hug him tight. Yes what the hell will happen if they do and how do we stop it from happening. Wait a minute, did he say Kate too, is my brain not hearing everything? Am I having memory problems, when did Kate get kidnapped?

"Kate got kidnapped?" I say shocked. "When?"

"When she was little. Thankfully her security stopped the mad woman before she got out of the grounds, she dropped Ethan and headed off with just Kate, it was his crying that alerted their nanny, or god knows what poor Ethan would have done. After that their security was rampped up to the max, as was everyone who knew them, my family too."

"God, will it ever end? I am, we are I mean, we are going to look for a very secure house for us to raise our children in. Do you think we could buy Fort Knox, I can pay over the odds for it?"

"We, and I mean Taylor and the whole of the security we have in place, are already looking for somewhere secure but which affords us some sort of freedom from prying eyes too. I guess this has been a very unusual funeral and after party Ana?"

"You can say that again. What a crappy end to the day, I mean it's never straight forward for us lately, and don't think I am not grateful for your planning the trip to see my lion and elephant, in all that food mess I forgot to hug you and thank you for planning the perfect getaway, that shows you listen to me and that gets you many bonus kisses, and other good stuff Mr Grey."

"It's not over yet Mrs Grey, this very unusual day! Ana, I had to wonder if they were filming it, it was just so, so god, so unusual, and I was shocked to hear them speaking openly about Eamon, they are usually very guarded about his problems. Ana, it was obvious you never knew, did Kate never say anything did you never wonder who the guys are who follow her and Ethan?"

"No, nothing. It explains why she is so good at accepting her security. I am very glad I was kept out of the public eye and lived on the island and allowed to run free and be the Wisp. I would hate for our children to be so swaddled Christian, and yes I mean I really would hate it."

"It was something I never imagined me ever having to deal with, I guess it is a lot to take on. Taylor is the best Ana, but you are right, it is something we should concentrate on, the safety of our family."

"Bang goes the next fifty years of worrying… Urgh, you always worry about your children whether they are a baby or not, so how about we enjoy the next few weeks and then start to work out what part of Seattle we are turning into the next Jurassic Park? I will have my people work with those electric fence guys, I want the paps papped, and with a bolt of lightening and many volts of electricity, especially if they come near the damned fence or our babies."

"Ana, I am being serious."

"So Christian was I, and it's frightening to think I may enjoy seeing some cockroach papa person sizzle on a fence. How do the First family manage? We need to ask, I will ask the lady in question, I have Michelle on speed dial."

"They have a team of thousands? They hire the best. They have the connections."

"Urgh, I am giving my fathers and Papa Franks money away. All of it, and publicly, so the kidnappers know I am not as rich as Midas. I have enough of my own to give it away and not miss it, and we need to keep the baby news under wraps for a long time too though I doubt they could kidnap me, unless they come with a crane that is, I was huge with Christian and he was a single baby. Me and my big mouth."

"I love your big mouth." He strips and gets into the shower. "I really like your big mouth. So please help banish my woes and get clean with me and perhaps use that big mouth on this?" He grins and points at the rising flagstaff betwixt his legs. Oh my…

"Okay, move over. I need that and I need it now…"

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There will be lemons next time, I am high on painkillers and its not good lol xxx

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Now, I know you are all thinking why did she introduce the kidnap thing into this? But all will become clear in a few chapters… Now't bad will happen to our girl and the babies, but it is something that all billionaires have to think about… and something that they need to think about when house hunting… I hope this uploads and you get notifications, I am not happy I have to try to load this again and again. Read review and I will be happy to write another chapter a little quicker. I have a posh dinner to go to at the weekend. My daughter is the President of the local Lion's group, and is having her end of term party, I asked for a masked ball, was told no it has been done to death, damn we fifty fans get everywhere, so my best dress and flattest shoes have been brought out of mothballs for the boring do. I am having dinner with the mayor… Wish him luck lol… If he touches my shoulder like the poor physio did, he too could be wearing his soup of the day lol… I am so classy… Not!

Talking of my dratted shoulder pain and trouble, thanks for all the well wishes, I will get better, I have to, as I go to Bulgaria in a couple of weeks, I need to be better but my shoulder is being a bugger, anti-inflammatory meds are not working, pain killers and deep heat help a bit and I stink like something in a chemist as I have to lather up when I want to type for any length of time. The poor girl in physio is a saint though I didn't tell her that. I think she knows I did not mean she was the daughter of Satan and was enjoying hurting me? I may be banned from the physio department for cussing. It bloody hurt, I wouldn't mind but I am not a pitcher, I do not play sports, so why the hell have I torn my rotator cuff…? I did ask was it reaching for my cream cakes that did me in… That went down like a smelly fart in a sealed room… If nothing else I still have a sense of humour, just…

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Okay off to have a bath, and steam the damned creaky shoulder thing, because that was an epic few thousand words to type... But you are all worth it... Thanks xxx


	54. Chapter 54

This story is nowt like fifty shades; I just purloined E.L. James's characters, buildings and some of her other stuff...

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Dreaming of Chocolate and Grey:

Chapter 54:

Inside my crowded head:

Christian and I are heading to the airport, and we are leaving behind the family, to clear the mess they caused to the suite! I still can't believe they had a food fight, and at their age too! We, Christian and I are amazingly clean, refreshed and in a very calmed state of post coital bliss. We made love for what seemed like hours, in reality it may have been a mere two, two wonderful sweet hours of silent passion, yes silent, no oh god's, no oh fucks, just kisses and hugs, the silence and the sensitivity of it all caused such a wonderful array of amazingly feelings, and silent body action! Yes, silent! Christian asked for silence from me, or a gag was to be used, as I hate the damned things, I decided I would try to be silent, a task which was easier said than done, but my oh my, the hard work and lip biting it took to be silent was worth it, it was a little weird, a silent shower, the water falling on us was the only sound I seemed to hear, okay that and a few oh gods from him! Maybe I should have gagged him? It was different that's for sure, I swear I took chunks of his flesh from his back and I know he has teeth marks on his shoulder. He is very good at orgasm denial so I bit and I scratched, serves him right, a few oh gods and oh fucks are what is called for when you are made love to by Mr Grey, its was a hellish time curtailing my screams, but rewarded I was.

Christian is forever changing our boundaries, adding in things and teaching me more. I don't know very much about the act of making love and though he says he never has, made love, he is very good at adapting what he does know to make me happy, give the man a prize for best adaptation. I too am more than happy to adapt and I love to submit to him, and be his willing submissive too, I get the rewards and he teaches me new and exciting things, the only draw back? I am well aware of who taught him and how he learned the things he did. I guess that is the price I have to pay for the things he uses in wowing me, especially with the differing things he does and the differing intensities he uses with me. Pain and punishment he learned at their hands is now replaced with a kindness and a caring, yes those things he has changed, for me. Now he is able to use those marvellous gifts to give me the sweetest of pleasures. and I know those things he does to me have only ever been used with me, he brings so much to our relationship and tries so hard to be softer and loving, in everything he does, from a simple kiss to my nipple, a gentle suck on a shuddering thigh, and when he added the gentle nip kisses to our afternoon delight, my body felt so loved. I am loved.

I am a little sad that he has the past he has, but it is just that, his past. He is mine now and that is all that matters, it has been years in the making, this love affair of my wild imagination and creation, and after all those years of dreaming about him, I finally got the prize, he is the prize, he is my everything. He is my whole life and it is a life I know we are going to be happy living together. At the moment though, I feel like crying all the time, because it seems I am a hormonal mess, why though I do not know, I mean I have the man, the dream and the life I wanted with him, but hell my head is a confused mess. I am an excited mess, and bloody hornie as hell, I am a wonton hussy for the man with the magical tongue, lips and fingers and I am happily thinking about the magical staff of wonderment he has between his legs? Yep I am hornie and happy. Even thinking of the afternoon spent cleaning my man is a wondrous thing, and as we huddle together and are making our escape, just being so close and thinking about all we did earlier, is making my body shiver in anticipation of our sharing more of the same later...

The gentleness of it was amazingly loving and sensual and so very nice, I need a better word than nice too, when he asked me was it good for me too, I simply said, "yeah, very nice" He laughed and said he would show me how 'nice' he could be when he really tried. Lucky, lucky me… With most of our angst gone, we decided that we would use Christian's private lift in his suite and sneak out, if ever I felt like a naughty schoolgirl, it was as we crept past the messy rooms and climbed in the swanky lift unseen, even Mia and her bat-like hearing missed our departure. We are lip locked as we head down. My hands wander and his lips kiss at my neck, god hit the stop button Mr Grey... I wanna make out some more... However Taylor is waiting and we have a plane to catch, one day we will make out in one, what is it with the confined space and the silly music played in them? I mean who wants to make out to elevator music? Apparently, me and I am damned sure that damned tune playing is going to haunt me for quite a while. Where is Ipanema anyway, damn you Frank? I hum the tune and know it is there for the foreseeable future. We are met by Taylor. How they do this I do not know, Christian can probably pocket text, I hardly doubt the poor man waits around for us to finish getting friskey, or does he? Damn it now I have images in my damned head of Taylor having his ear to the damned door.

So, I am helped into the car like the china doll I am, both Christian and Taylor are super attentive, this will have to change as I get very grumpy when I am huge, and hate to be touched, though last time it was total strangers who did the damned touching, when I went food shopping, that is not going to happen this time, as I have Gail to do the shopping for me, and Taylor, Sawyer and Holly to stop strangers from getting too close. As we are driven to the plane I stare out of the windows and watch as London comes and goes from my view. I always feel a little downhearted as I leave, I don't know why, but I do? Christian has been very quiet since we left the hotel. His fingers have played with his phone for most of the journey and I have to think, or I do think, it has got to do with the kidnap threats and the security of our babies? Who knew Eamon and the Kavanagh twins had been kidnapped?

The nearest I came to that was when Vita, the then nice Nonna, tried stealing me from Mimi when she, Mimi was not having a good week. I remember asking why we were on the ferry, I remember her saying I was not wanted by Papa Frank and Grammy Mimi, I remember crying that I didn't want to leave with Nonna, I remember it so clearly now! I remember Papa Frank getting to the train and pulling me off it and him taking me back home to Otter Island, I remember her being told to stop on the train, I remember the tears and the cussing and the bad things they said to each other too, but why did it take me so long to remember that? How come I have just remembered that? How easy was it for her to take me from my grandparents, I swear our children will have locator chips implanted in them, but secretly I pray they are never that far from my sight, I will even give up my company to be with them, they are too precious to me to ever put in harm's way. I am sure Christian is worried too, but he hides his worry well, I however wear it on my sleeve for all to see. Talking of sleeves, their clothes will be chipped and their asses too. I joked about it, buying a secure facility used by the government, but I am seriously considering it. Area Fifty One is known about, but know body knows quite what goes on in there, that's a massive area, so I guess we could have our own Area Grey? I must have laughed aloud, because my husband abandons his phone.

"Ana, why are you giggling to yourself?"

"I was?"

"Yes. Why?"

"I was thinking about an Area Fifty One type of home."

"As in a UFO place, a black site for those in the know?"

"You know of these things Christian?"

"No, but there are black sites and who doesn't know about Area Fifty One?"

"Exactly. Perhaps we need the same premise for our home base? I mean people know we live there, but there is nothing to show we live there? I know, we need a Telly Tubby place, underground with hidden windows and entrances?" He looks clueless as I stare into those worrisome gray orbs of his.

"Hu?" He says and I realise I sound dumb! Telly Tubbies, really Anastasia? "I mean what?"

"A hidden home, one where only we know is there, because on top of the plot is a smallish house and outbuildings, where security can set up shop, whilst we live like rabbits underground?"

"That would be cool if we were five Ana!" He laughs and pockets his phone.

"I know lots of people who live underground, its safe, energy efficient, plus it is cool in summer and warm in winter, it's something to do with geothermal thingy ma bobs and they can heat the water, you know, the geo thingy ma bobs? I thought you of all people would like the green idea of being a Womble?"

"Womble, Telly Tubbies? Are you going to want your own Sesame Street too?" He laughs.

"I never liked that, Sesame Street, it was too American for me. Now can we be sensible and not childish?"

"If we must, but I think it was you who started the talk on Telly Tubbies Ana?" He laughs as his hand catches mine and he kisses it, okay that is nice. New word needed for nice, I will work on it.

"I did?" I say absentmindedly. Of course I am with the fairies, again!

"You did… We are here, lets talk later, but I am not ruling out underground accommodation. It in fact is a good idea."

"I have them occasionally. Is Holly here or are we waiting for her?" Her head pops out of the plane. "Okay, she's here. Wow, I can't believe I am having a whole month off work. I have only ever had long weekends off before."

"Me too. Now Mrs Grey, let's get the plane in the air before we get waylaid again?"

"Okay. Thank you."

"You are welcome, but it is me who should be thanking you."

"Why?"

"Umm, I don't know, how about we start with you agreeing to selling me Otter Island?"

"That is a very good place to start. Thank you for demanding I came to sign away my islands."

"They are still yours Mrs Grey, you and I are partners in the golfing resorts and everything else I own."

"Umm, likewise, you are part owner of a few sweetie stores." He laughs. "And owner of all my heart."

"Smooth Mrs Grey, very smooth and cute. Now get out before she pulls you out." Holly is stomping down the planes few steps.

"Ana, are you okay in there? Christian?"

"Holly we are fine. Stop worrying. Please?"

"We have been here a bloody hour already and you told me to be quick and we were, I mean I was…" She blushes. "Very quick… Mores the pity…"

"Say no more." Christian says as he helps me from the car. "We were discussing Telly Tubby Land…" He tells her.

"They what, the who? You were discussing Tinky Winky, Dipsey, Lala and Po? I can think of better things to discuss than the bloody Telly Tubbies, unless that's secret sex code for shit you and Mr Grinning Grey here seem to be doing a lot of these days Anastasia Grey? Is Nu-nu still the word for your nunny girl?" I laugh.

"Hols, we were discussing living underground, not sex, and as you know it's a hu-hu not a nu-nu." I say as I follow my wayward friend up the steps of the plane. "We were talking about living requirements for the new house, I rather like the Telly tubby bunker house, as in underground secure living, hidden from the world."

"Oh I live to live as a fucking Hobbit, will we be living in the Shire too?" She says as she snorts and grunts loudly, shocking poor Christian. We have very unusual laughter sounds the pair of us. We are also very girly and stupid too. Holly is this way all the time. She is a bad assed bad influence on me.

"No, I mean I don't know. I do have places in the Shires though…" I say as I take a seat. "We need a place in Seattle though." The conversation that started in all seriousness has now turned into Holly living like a bloody Hobbit, in a hobbit house. I guess it is better than a Telly Tubby House? Christian wants to sit opposite me. Holly has plonked her bum in the seat opposite.

"Oops, sorry, it's a force of habit, this Hobbit will sit with my guys over there, sorry Boss." Holly gets out of his seat first and smiles, she goes to sit with Luke and buckles herself in. I wonder where we are going first?

"Its fine Holly, next time maybe?" She is laughing. He sits down and I stare into space. I have so much going on in my busy head. "Ana?" I am in a very strange daydream state of mind today, not helped with the odd day we have had, a funeral, a food fight and bidding farewell to the band. Atop of all that Eamon's kidnapping and phobia attack, he really was a mess. I will call Kate and offer up my home in Aspen, he likes it there, it is a clean, uncluttered place. He and the twins ski there in the season, in fact he uses it more than I do. I look up and Christian is staring at me. "Ana…"

"Hu? Did you say something?"

"No, I was trying to tell you to buckle up. Are you okay?"

"I am fine, very soothed and calm thanks to the clean-up. Speaking of which, I wonder how the real clean-up is going?"

"Elliot says its will be easier to strip it out and start again. I swear my family are acting very oddly at the moment. Or rather more oddly than usual."

"I don't know there is something to be said about an awesome food fight. Holly there is the Queen of the bun toss. She has had crown heads of Europe tossing cream cakes before today. It has led to her having to spend a few nights behind bars. I sometimes refuse to bail her out, sometimes I can't because I am in there too, sometimes, and I mean twice I was in there with her."

"What, you have a criminal record Ana?"

"No, not unless you can call my Peter Andre LP a criminal record that is?"

"Who?" He asks.

"Nobody, an eighties pop star. It was a joke, as in a ha-ha thing? No, I got arrested for pie facing the chief of police at a posh art gallery opening in Italy, for which I had provided the refreshments as we had a store next door, and as he, Philip the curator of the new art gallery was one of my best customers, I was happy to do it, the man was annoyed Philip, the owner, had not chosen the police chiefs brother to do the catering for the prestigious event. He was being rude about Nonna and my tasteless cakes, which were far from tasteless, the man was a fat and idiotic moron. Anyway, I jumped to her honour and he was wearing a very tasty cake instead of eating it. Holly shouted food fight and all hell broke loose. She hit his pompous assed wife with an éclair, square on the massive hooter she had, and it was then we got arrested. It was worth it to see a prince and a princess in the next cell, they had never had as much fun at stuff opening before. They were covered in creme pâtissièr and didn't protest loudly when they were thrown in the van with us."

"Really?"

"Really, it was the most fun they had had on the European outing. I am now classed as their dear friend. They got us out of the clink and we have been friends ever since. Stick with me Christian, I have friends in some high places, including the White House. I may ask Michelle if her hubby can get us a look see into Area fifty one?"

"Barney would love that, he is a conspiracy theorist, and my wife it seems is a cake throwing ninja fool when she is with Holly?"

"We have our moments." He smiles that panty dropping smile of his and my Hu-hu tingles, again.

"Now, can we be serious for a moment?"

"Yup. Serious it is. I mean I do have my wacky moments, don't I?"

"You do, and it is enduring and refreshing, and you are most definitely like nobody else I know, or have known before and I like it, children's television characters included."

"Stick with me Christian and you will be as fruity as me. I do sensible too, but you, you make me become that child I once was, and I can see how thoroughly annoying I was."

"You were bloody annoying Baby. Though I guess I liked you." We are in the clouds.

"You did it again, took my mind off the take off. Thanks."

"I live to please. Now, we need to talk about our holiday come Honeymoon come escape from our fruit loop parents and friends for a while."

"Did I hear my name used in vain again?" Holly is at the tables edge. "Heyho, can I grab a cabin? I need to get some sleep, I was up all night?" My eyes find Luke, but he is with Taylor, running through security plans I would guess? "I meant to sleep, my other half is doing secret security stuff, so can I? Sleep I mean?"

"Yes, take the cabin to the right there. Holly thank you for adding the entertainment you bring to our lives, Ana and I appreciate it."

"Enough for me to get a raise. Better holidays and a new car as a bonus Boss?"

"Holly…"

"Okay Ana, hold yer head, I was seeing if I could get the new addition to the family to fork out for a new Bugatti for me? Well Christian?"

"What colour do you want it in? Green to match your eyes or red to match the wonderful colour of your hair?"

"Nah, it isn't red either, it's like rusty iron, okay orangutan orange, I know, I get it from my mama. Unfortunately, my dad has copper locks too, or he had before I gave him the gray hair he has now, so I was kinda stuck with the damned colour! No, I want scarlet, like the letter I should be wearing on my buxom bosom?" She laughs as she pushes her flat chest up and sighs.

"Does that mean I have to buy those too Hols?" I say. As Christian, still not used to the uncouth Holly blushes.,,

"Bugger. I guess that's another no to the boob job then?"

"You don't need one."

"Says you with the rack of a porn star. I am always lacking in Mother Nature's gift department, red hair a chest like a boy and ferkin freckles, good job Luke is part blind, or he likes my boyish good looks? Wow, do you think he likes men? I must ask him." Christian blushes.

"She took her time with mine Hols and besides, she gave you the gift of the gab and the gift of embarrassing people so easily and effortlessly. Oh and let's not forget you do gab very freely. Poor Luke likes you, as you are and he is not gay, you are a sodding fool sister, a fool and too mouthy, and a blabber mouth at that."

"Are you still upset because we are orf to see the lions and tigers in Africa and it was a secret? One, this One should have kept?" She mocks the lardy-dar-brit accent she occasionally has!

"That would be impossible Holly, I do believe that Tigers are in Asia, not South Africa and I know in future whom to trust and whom not to trust!"

"No tigers in Africa? Bummer, did they hunt them all out of there?" Christian shakes his head at Holly...

"They are not native to Africa Holly." He says as she looks at him in disbelief.

"I never knew that, but there are leopards, right?"

"I do believe they are the most popular with the safari people who go to visit the animals in Kruger National park. Not so much the farmers but the people who hunt with cameras to see them. I am still considering leaving you there!" They both laugh. "Wear the bikini, you may blend."

"I didn't bring it, I didn't wanna get shot."

"Holly, it's a nature reserve not a game reserve." I say. Laughing as I do.

"Hu, oh okay. I did wonder why you didn't pack the guns Ana."

"You have guns Ana?"

"Yes, but I don't shoot things that I don't eat. Though I nearly shot Holly once. A long story of her creeping in from a late night booty call. I nearly shot her ass as she crept in."

"Yup, I was nearly mounted on her fireplace, good thing she is a crap shot or I may have ended up next to Papa Franks deer thingy on Otter Island had she misfired." She walks away. "I shoot to kill, she shoots ceilings for fun don't ya Annie?"

"Ana?"

"I went to shoot game with Papa Frank a few times, and don't look like that, where do you think we got the game for the game pies you and Elliot liked to eat?"

"Really you killed and cooked?"

"Umm and rang necks and plucked, stuffed and cooked the birds you and the guest wolfed down. Not everything is shop bought Christian."

"You learn something new every day. So, how bad are you?"

"Really bad, I close my eyes when I pull the trigger, I hate to see things die because of me."

"Good to know."

"Yup I have shot more ceilings, trees and turf than actual animals. Oh and one unlucky beater who walked by the tree I shot at, he got a branch on his head for his troubles, Annie Oakley, I am not." Christian laughs, which is more than the poor beater did. That was the last time I fired a shot. "So, where are we stopping?" Christian laughs at the bad shot he married.

"Wait and see. We are on a photography holiday, a none gun hunting holiday. We are going to see things through the lens."

"Christian, the lion, he is in a safari park type thing, he was too use to being near people, so he can't even roam with the free lions. They have a few from circuses and zoo's. So he has company of like minded lions. I can't wait to see him, he was so scrawny when he was rescued. His claws were taken off and his teeth were not pointy, I guess he could still bite if he had a mind, but he was such a mess." I cry again.

"You really do care for the animals. I love you Ana."

"I love you too." He kisses my hand and I sigh. "I can't believe all this is happening to me Christian. I am so very happy…" So sodding happy I cry.

"Ana?"

"Hormones, give me morning sickness, give me puffy feet, give me anything else but hormones dear lord, please?"

"Okay, the book says they are very unsettling. I can see why. Are you okay Baby?" I sob.

"Yes, *sob* yes, *sob* I am just peachy, *sob* sorry!" I sob.

"Okay, this I am never going to get used to. Ana, are you ready to eat?"

"Yes please. I worked up an appetite."

"Wow, that was weird, one minute sobbing and the next not?" He says as I smile.

"Umm, something for you to look forward to. Me and my damned hormones. You knocked me up, so deal with it." I snap.

"Ana? Baby, what did I do or say?"

"Nothing, they can go any manner of ways, I am not always sad, I can be a snappy bitch too. Sorry."

"I can see this is going to be a very long pregnancy, do we need separate bedrooms already?" He laughs.

"You don't love me anymore?" I sob.

"Oh for god's sake, I love and adore you, not so much the hormones though!" He unbuckles his seatbelt and I head to his knee. "I guess we are going to get triple the fun?" I sit down and hug him tightly.

"I don't know, I was bad enough with the one, oh hell does it really multiply, did the book say anything?"

"I haven't got to that part of it yet, but I will download another on multiple births, and brush up on stuff." He kisses my head and rubs the not even there bump. "We will be okay Baby."

"I know, I guess it's not much fun right now."

"Oh I don't know, I am very excited by it all and we had fun earlier."

"I guess we did, lots of fun. Although when I was having Christian, I was rather bad tempered because I was so damned hornie and had nobody to help me relieve the situation."

"Did you get that way a lot?"

"About seven or eight times…"

"…A week?"

"No, a day…" He laughs.

"Oh, that's good to know. How are you feeling now?"

"Hornie. Hormonal and hungry."

"Oh lord…"

"Take me to bed, please?" He carries me to his room. "Oh goody, I have a plaything."

"I live to serve." We bypass the others and head to his room at the back of the plane. I am such a very demanding woman and this time I want the noise and the passion...

I think she will kill me.

After a very exhausting afternoon, I creep out of the cabin, my wife is sleeping and I do not want to wake her. I thought I had when she moved as I showered, she however turned and carried on sleeping. It is official, the book was right, pregnancy and its side effects are a quagmire of emotions. Some I like better than others, but even her very high sex drive, a sex drive I might add, that will take some calming. I gave it my best shot, several times. I swear she is trying to kill me. Can you died from having too much sex? I never thought I would ever be thinking such wicked thoughts. I laugh as I take my seat. I guess I have a lot to learn and getting there is going to be fun, if the high demand for sex doesn't kill me first, said no man ever… I open my laptop as Taylor sits opposite me.

"Sir, we have a situation."

"What sort of situation?"

"Unfortunately the body of Jack Hyde has resurfaced, when his resting place was opened to place in the grieving widow of the grave Sawyer hijacked for the job."

"Fuck. Did Sawyer leave any trace on himself, I know you said not, but have you someone who can tell us?"

"Sir, he was very good. He is very good. He knows his shit. He was taught by the best."

"Okay, but why is there a situation?"

"The body turning up is the situation, I just thought you should know. Though top of their list are the Russians, they were the ones who were taken into be questioned and it didn't help them much when the authorities found out a hit had been placed by them on him, so for now Sawyer is way down the watch list and I doubt Mrs Grey is even a foot note."

"Okay, you had me worried for a moment."

"I thought you should know. Mrs Grey may want to send flowers to his mother though?"

"Okay, yes, yes send her some from Ana. The last thing she needs are more reasons to cry. I am so confused by them, you know the reasons for all the tears?"

"I hated them, and I still do. I swear when Gail cries its like a dagger to my heart."

"Gail is sad?"

"Happy, and sad. Happy about your wonderful news but sad because she hasn't had a child of her own."

"Oh, I mean…" I twiddle my thumbs.

"… I am used to it, I don't like it and it gets easier, Gail is a godsend and she adores Ana and she is happy to be a part of your good news in whatever way she can be. She just doesn't want to upset Mrs Grey, and interfere and make a pest of herself, she feels like hugging her all the time."

"I know that feeling. I really do. I am glad she has Gail, it is good to know she is willing to be there for her."

"We, you included now Sir, will get used to the signs, or you will do, eventually."

"Thanks, I am well aware of that. She cried when she saw two rain drops on the window joining with another, and making a big rain drop. I thought it was something devastating like a pain or something was the matter with the babies."

"A rain drop, where?"

"Where? Oh sorry on the cabin window earlier. I nearly laughed but when I saw Angry Ana, I soothed her worry away and found her another raindrop to watch. Anyway Gail will be a very big part of helping Ana and I raise the babies, a massive part. Ana has already said she will need Gail's help, in fact she insists on it."

"I think they have bonded over their shared past, I have never seen Gail so motherly, I mean she loves Sophie, but seeing her with Mrs Grey, its different."

"I see it too. Thank god for Gail."

"Indeed, thank god indeed."

"So, will your man in the know keep us informed?"

"Yes, he is a fan of Mrs Grey's chocolates. He apparently gifts them to all his mistresses."

"Oh…"

"I know."

"T, what are you two gossiping about?" I look up and see Holly wiping her eyes. "Where is everyone?"

"Miss Wolfenden, Mrs Grey is sleeping and Sawyer is brushing up his shooting skills on the PlayStation. Apparently, you whipped his ass?" How is Taylor keeping so straight faced?

"Yeah, I know all the good camping spots. He hates my great camping spots. So, I best go and find him then, if that's okay Boss, and Bosses Boss?"

"Yes, we have very little to do Miss Wolfenden."

"T, I told you its Holly. Though I do like that Ma'am thing you do." She leaves us, and I have to wonder what the hell is going on in my life? My wife has brought to my once organised life, several layers of chaos and madness. I smile, because I like the madness that she brings.

"She is a handful Sir, but I like her."

"Ana loves her so best you do. Now, Ana came up with a good idea for a home."

"Sir?"

"Underground living."

"Sir?"

"Semi underground living as a matter of fact."

"I will get right on it." He smiles.

"I am serious. I think the idea has its merits, even if she did suggest it in jest, I think it could be a solution to locking ourselves away on a faraway island. Don't you?"

"I will look into possible sites. New build?" I shrug my shoulders and we settle down and we talk.

I mean we really talk. This is all new to him and he takes it all in his stride. We even watch an episode of the Telly Tubbies, to see what their house looks like. He was not as much of a stranger to it as I was! It seems Sophie loved them? If a grown assed ex special forces man, can watch four other grown assed men in neon costumes dance around and do their stupid shit, then so too can the billionaire CEO, he works for. Apparently, this is all I will do when I want my kid to shut up and get quiet time, I smiled when Taylor imparted his limited parenting tips. I think I am going to have to look at ways of calming my kids, or risk being glued to this crap more often… Things within the Grey household are certainly changing, and for the better, starting with Taylor getting more time to spend with his daughter. He headed back to his seat to see to Gail.

"Hello you…" I look up and Ana is heading to our seats. "When did you skip out on me?" She sits down and picks at the food on the table. "I didn't hear you leave and I only got up because I am ravenous."

"I will have some fresh food made for you Ana. What do you want?"

"This is fine, though I quite fancy some rollmops and spinach."

"What?"

"Smoked Herring, with a breaded filling, umm, I could just go a rollmop."

"I don't think we have them on board Baby. Anything else?"

"Fish, anything fishy, oh god gimmie something with fish. I think this is a girl. I hated fish with Christian, he liked sweet things and pizza."

"He did?"

"Yeah, he did. I wonder if they are all girls?" She smiles. "Ha, ha, ha, you would be gray haired in no time Christian."

"Yeah or fucking bald…" She picks at the food and smiles.

"I hope not, I like your copper curls. They make for some very good sex tools."

"They do, do they? You need to have your nails looked at too. My back is not looking too good. I look like a I have been savaged by a Tiger."

"Oops, I will file them down. Sorry… Anyway, where are we stopping, I asked earlier and we got rather nicely waylaid? Do you have a golfing retreat near Kruger Park?"

"No, but I am looking at it. We are stopping at Lion Sands, I do believe it is the safari park where you had Christian re homed to?"

"I did, it seemed the nicest of the ones I looked at."

"Well, Nonno roams freely there too. So I figured we would hire the place."

"Oh, okay, the treetop villa looked good."

"Hired…"

"Okay then, so where's my fish? My girls need brain food?"

"Girls, really?"

"Yup, three girls. Now, brain food is needed, please?" I smile. Oh god help me, I never thought of that three girls? Three girls. Oh god, I will be gray and or bald. Ana laughs. I am not laughing, girls are trouble and I don't think I could handle three of them…

* * *

Sorry this is an in filler chapter because try as I might I cannot get my mojo back… Read review and do your thing… Oh and my books are all free on amazon at the moment, get them free for five days lol… Christine Wood… Look out for them… Leave me a star or two, five would be better… Anyhow ta-ta for now xxx


	55. Chapter 55

This story is nowt like fifty shades; I just purloined E.L. James's characters, buildings and some of her other stuff...

Dreaming of Chocolate and Grey:

SORRY FOR DELAY IN POSTING, REAL LIFE IS SUCH A PAIN...

* * *

Chapter 55:

Into Africa:

Christian and I had a pleasant flight, with cuddles a plenty, which for me were much needed, as we'd had a tense couple of hours when we had to refuel at a stopover in Zambia, Taylor and Sawyer had guns drawn on the private airstrip we landed on, the whole time we were there. Talk about butt clenching! Apparently, we were a kidnap threat, being as we are a bunch of rich foreigners, and the rebels running the country are cash strapped! Had I known this we would have not come, because I would have quite easily watched the pride of lions my lion belongs to, on the camera feed they have, rather than risk being taken. But such was his need to give me what I wanted, that Christian had Taylor working on this for weeks, had we not been shot at, we were to have been here for our honeymoon much sooner, it had its good point, the shooting, if there was a good point to being shot, Taylor was thankful he had the extra time and was able to get people in the know on the ground he trusted. Needless to say, we are not flying back that bloody way.

When my butt had stopped clenching, Christian and I had a couple of hours of soothing away my bad temper. It seems sex is a fine way of distracting me, my hu-hu is happy and I am sated and relaxed, when Holly knocks on the cabin door.

"Get your asses back to your seats, we are coming into land, and you have missed some really small ant-like wild animals out of the windows. I bloody love you Mr Grey. I mean in in great brother sort of way, this is nothing like the safari park at home. Awesome is the damned word, frigging awesome. I feel like singing whim away… The lion sleeps tonight. I could and would probably scare the crap out of the wildlife though. Get up, get dressed and get out of there." She is an utter nutter.

"Okay Holly thanks, we are just finishing up." She laughs. "Christian, if I can hear her as clear as a bell, can she hear us, you know, doing married stuff?" Christian is dressed in some super-hot safari type khakis, a white tee shirt and rugged looking man shoes. Hot, is an understatement! I am in a plain cotton dress and sandals, flat sandals, my feet are bloody sore and dratted puffy. I am underdressed, and if anything, I look frumpy!

"Wow, you look pretty in pink Baby. As to her hearing us, she has opened the door a touch, so the seal is not airtight."

"Okay, so how do you know if the bloody door opens, you know for future reference?"

"The red light up there," he points to the tiny down light thing, "it is an intercom and it alerts me that the door is open and allows the staff to wake me via a com button on the security table and from the cockpit. Holly wouldn't know that, or she did and she is being her usual charming self?"

"Okay, she would be being her charming self, but don't worry, she grows on you, like ivy and is as annoying as poison ivy sometimes too. So, are we landing in another trouble hot spot, Mr Hot Stuff?"

"No, we are at the airport nearest the reserve. Skukuza Airport. It is a short drive to our holiday destination. Lion Sands, Mrs Cute." Cute? I am cute, I will take that, he smiles and readies his things.

"The Lion Sands, please tell me are we stopping in the Ivory Lodge?" I ask. "Only Nonno had plans to hire the place for my birthday treat?" Alas I am doing the trip without him, but thankfully I have Christian to travel with, lucky me.

"Yes, we are the only ones there for the week, I hired the treehouses and the smaller Ivory Lodges for the others, there are a few other lodges, but the Ivory lodges were the easiest to secure and are the nicest they had, but if you don't like it, I have hired their entire rental stock for the week, I wanted to give Taylor less to worry about, and I want only the best and safest place for you to rest that head of yours, Ana."

"How very decadent of you, but very nice indeed and so it should be a restful time, if all Taylor has to do is watch us?"

"I wouldn't tell him that, he wanted to hire people here. I said that was like announcing that money people were arriving!" For god's sake, my life never had these sort of threats in it before.

"It kind of is, but hiring the whole reserve, is that not like doing the same thing?" I ask.

"No, I hired all the other lodges in other people's names, as it happens none of them will be able to make it, but the owners have been paid well for our taking over the whole place, and we will stop in the tree houses for a night too, but again have paid for the week, as we won't know which night would suit us better, though I don't think I will like camping up a tree, albeit in the branches of a luxury treehouse, people may be able to hear and see you and I enjoying the open air views, and as it tends to be very echoic at night, the bush. I don't really want anyone hearing us as we make out under the African sky." He says as he stares, do I have lipstick on my teeth?

"Oh, okay. I guess? We did struggle with the silent thing, nice as it was, our hushed love making, but, I love the passion and the loud and excitable bumping uglies thing we do." He smiles and I laugh. I am new to this hide and seek malarkey, so I will bow to their better knowledge in this field. "Let's go in before Holly drags us out of our cocoon. I love you so frigging much right now"

"Ditto Mrs Grey. Holly, she is very persistent, isn't she?"

"Yeah, she can be and annoying, fingers crossed she has enough going on to keep her entertained. She gets fed-up easily, she is like a petulant and annoying child and most of the time she is in need of being constantly entertained, I was sure she had A.D.H.D. I still think she has this constant sugar rush thing."

"Does she have a medical condition?"

"Nope, she has just mastered being a pain in the ass." He laughs. We go and sit down and I look out of the window, she is right, everything apart from the expanse of the African plains, is tiny. I am going to have a great time on this holiday. "Oh god, Christian look at that, there are thousands of antlike creatures. How big is it, I mean it looks so huge, oh god I sound like a lune, I mean to say it looks big on the damned maps, but I am useless at putting what I see on a map into a real life dimension thing? I mean, I knew it was massive, but down there is huge, bloody huge." I stare at the expanse of land we are flying over, and for as far as the eye can see there is the same view for miles and miles.

"Kruger Park has a lot of small, and not so small reserves and private parks within its boundaries and so we have to be careful where we go. The view is amazing from up here, we will also have a few hours following game from a helicopter too. If that's okay Ana?"

"Yea, that sounds amazing, but, and this is a big but, I wouldn't want to get lost near a bullet shooting game reserve. There are no fences up to differentiate between the differing reserves, apart from the natural ones they have for the once captive animals at the little reserve where my lion is, it is a small part of a bigger one and though it is safe it has a risk factor about it too. I asked already, I didn't want him, my lion Christian, letting loose only to get shot. They told me he has on a collar thing and they know when he strays near to the boundaries of other parts of neighbouring game reserves. These people are the best, the preservation team I worked with assured me they are good at keeping the more tame animals safe!"

"I know. I made a few enquires of my own, you know, when I made the arrangements Ana?"

"You did?"

"I didn't like to sleep before you steamed into my life. So, on the odd occasion I was not working, when we were not together, I researched everything you told me."

"Steamed? I steamed into your life? Interesting!" I ponder who steamed into whose life, and that would be him, when I first realised he was the boy for me, so many years ago. I laugh. "Steamed as in drunk? Because that would be you Mr Grey!"

"No, as in like a train. Though I guess I was steaming drunk a lot of the time on Otter Island as I got older, especially the last visit we shared. But you were a hellion who ran rough shod into my life from the moment we met." He smiles.

"I did, did I?"

"Yes, and I am happy you did. Now, where do you want to go first? Do you want to unpack, eat, or what?"

"Unpack, its bloody hot here. Too damned hot."

"You are part Italian, do you not like it hot?"

"Umm, it's a different heat, dry, arid almost. I guess I will acclimatise."

"You could always wander around naked Baby?"

"Yeah, and we both know why that will never happen, actually even if you were not overly possessive of me, that is never going to happen, not in a strange place, because I am not an exhibitionist Grey, and though I love walking around naked as naked is, it will never happen here? Nope, here it will only be in your dreams sweet cheeks, though I will reserve naked for the bedroom and in our own private rooms. I can assure you nobody but you will see this body naked! I doubt you are as inclined to let my bits and bobs be out for all to see anyway, at least I hope you were kidding me Grey?"

"Yes, I was joking, as if anyone is seeing my wife naked, except me. We can draw the blinds when we do fuck naked on every surface of the villa, and as everyone has their own places to stop in, we will not be disturbed. Though I doubt Holly will be stopping alone in her lodge, or will she?"

"I am being fucked, am I? I will see that thought and raise it with one of my own, I will be searching out an outside space for me to fuck you in, on, or whatever? As to Holly? That was never going to happen Mr Grey, she sneaks in his room now and visa-versa. So, are the flight crew stopping here too?"

"Yes, I accept your challenge, I do like a naked challenge, and I happen to know our accommodation is not overlooked Baby, and it has a private pool and plenty of outdoor space were you can fuck me. As to my crew stopping here, it is something they always do, unless I am somewhere for any length of time, if that is the case, then they fly back and come for me when I need them, doing that this time is not very good for my eco footprint, so they are stopping with us and using the other lodges, they too can take their pick."

"My oh my, what a challenge to look forward to, your body being mine on an African Safari, do they do badges for that?" He laughs loudly. "Christian, stop laughing, we are being stared at by your employees, and Mr Grey, you are a very nice man to work for."

"I am told I am a tyrant too, depending who you ask, as for a badge, what do you suggest, an open-air-fucker badge Ana?"

"I have my mile high one, which was a nice one to get, so I doubt any badge can beat that one, but an open-air badge sounds good. Hold my hand, the plane dipped." I doubt I will ever get used to this flying thing? I clench his offered hand and I see him grimace. "That grip is nothing, wait till I have these three, you will not be able to use your hands for a week."

"Why?" He looks worried. "Ana, why?"

"Death grip and cussing, and wishing you were dead will be part and parcel of the wonderful birthing experience you get to endure from the easy seat sunshine."

"Great… I think?" He looks worried.

"No, it hurts like holy hell. I was thinking all sorts last time in my crowded head, but was very quiet and reserved when I had Christian, I am not looking forward to doing that three times in one day, once was bad enough, three times Christian, three?" I look at his face and he smiles.

"Okay, so we are down and you are still in one piece and I am now not looking forward to the birth either. I wish I could do it for you Baby, but alas I cannot. Now, let's get to the lodge, I am in desperate need of food."

"Oh, and all I wanted was your body too, I guess I could eat something, if you are off the menu?" He smiles that sexy smile of his.

"I am an all you can eat buffet Baby, and I am open 24/7…"

"Yummy…"

A Piece of Paradise:

Ana is very silent as the cars come for us. She is taking everything in and is smiling, she and Holly are pointing at the wildlife as we make our way to the lodge. I have been on a couple of African safaris, with my parents when I was a young boy, so this to me is nothing new. I always saw the holidays I went on as interesting and educational, but seeing it with Ana by my side is different. It is like I am seeing the world through happy childlike eyes, I am far more interested in this world personally, now I have Ana in it with me to share all this with. What will it be like having my own children with me, thrilling and wonderful I would hope? I watch her, and listen and smile as she laughs and she holds her breath and then lets it out and suddenly says 'wow'. Wow indeed.

She is excited and keeps grabbing my hand and pointing at things she sees. She has yet to see anything really exciting, buffalo and wildebeest, zebras and monkeys are all we have seen so far and seeing them here, is like seeing deer in a forest back home, however she is still amazing to watch, childlike and sweet. We have a short half an hour drive before we pull up to the lodges that will be home for the week we are here, her face and that of Gail and Holly are a sight to see. I am glad Ana insisted Gail came, I am only sorry Taylor could not bring his daughter, Ana asked if it were possible, but her mother said no, maybe next time perhaps her mother will allow it? After a bumpy half an hour, of more "oh gods and look Christian's," we arrive at our home for the next week.

"Welcome, welcome to Lion Sands. I am Kemi, your house manager, my colleagues will show your party to the other lodges you have reserved." He shakes Taylors hand warmly. I smile, and let the poor man off with his presumption that Taylor is the leader of the pack. He looks uncomfortable.

"Mr Grey, have I offended you?"

"No, you have not, but the man stood there is the lead member of the party, he is Mr Christian Grey, I am Taylor, I am the one who your security expert has been speaking to,"

"Mr Taylor, I am sorry. Forgive me Mr Grey."

"You are forgiven, it is an easy mistake to make." He shuffles and I see Ana smile. "My wife and I are stopping in the villa and the rest of our party will be in the other Ivory Lodges, is that so?"

"Yes, yes, sorry. Your party has the whole of the Ivory compound. Do you have any questions which I can answer?"

"Please Kemi, there is no need to be sorry, it is an easy mistake to make, Taylor here is the head of security for us. This looks very nice, now can you please show me around?" My wife the peace keeper. He shows Ana and I to our villa and the rest of our group are shown to their lodges by the house managers assigned to them, Taylor wants to inspect the villa first, so he stays with Ana and I.

"Taylor, thank you."

"Sir."

"Please Mr Taylor, we have top security as requested, it, the villa has been checked thoroughly." They head off together, Ana and I, we stand and take in the amazing view.

"Wow, can you feel the energy here Christian, can you smell the difference in the air?"

"It something else Baby, something spectacular." We are admiring the view when Taylor gives us the all clear. "Thank you. Go and see to Gail. We will be fine for the evening. Kemi, here will see to our evening meal. Enjoy being waited on for a change." He nods his head and heads off.

"Mr and Mrs Grey, your valet will unpack for you, your refreshments are laid out for your enjoyment. Will you require a guided tour through the villa?"

"No, we will be fine thank you Kemi. My wife and I will be fine on our own for the moment thank you."

"Ring the house phone, which is here should you need anything, we understand you need for privacy, nobody will disturb you unless you require assistance." He nods his head and leaves, Ana and I are alone.

"Well?"

"Wowsers… I feel like we have landed on a film set. This is beautiful, thank you."

"I think wow is an understatement Ana, look out of the window, over there the animals are gathering by the river. Look…" I can see a herd of elephants coming in for water, I stare at my wife and watch as the tears fall. "Hormones?"

"No, these are tears of pure joy. Look, real wildlife, look, look the baby elephant is holding his mother's tail." I stare and laugh.

"I think that's his father, well judging by the things at the back of his legs Darling." She looks and starts laughing loudly, I hold her in my arms and we watch as the evening's entertainment fill the river bank. I see the food the cook has lain out and we take a seat and watch the show.

"Bliss, this is pure uninterrupted bliss, thank you, thank you, it's amazing."

"I know. Please stop thanking me, seeing that smile is more than thanks. Look Ana, more elephants, I wonder if one of them is Nonno?" I pour Ana another juice and watch as she eats and stares at the amazing site of the animals coming for their nightly trip to cool down at the river, and for water and I have to admit, the elephants are a sight to see, and they dominate the river's edge.

"I don't know, they all look the same from here. He is a part of a big herd, and to be honest with you unless he has a name badge on I wouldn't know him from Adam. Oh look, there are three more babies, are they cute or what? Oh god, taste this, it's amazing." She offers me a piece of red meat and I stare as she multi tasks. "I think the beef is very succulent."

"Thank you. So, what do you want to do later?"

"Umm, nothing, I want to sit here and watch the live show. You can cuddle me and we can make out."

"That sounds like a damned fine plan. We are going on a jeep safari in the morning."

"All of us?"

"I think so."

"Oh, okay."

"Ana?"

"Christian?"

"You sounded like that wasn't a good idea?"

"It is, but are you okay with your staff coming too, I mean I don't see them as staff, but you do?"

"I am learning that. No, I am 'cool' as Elliot keeps saying, about being more relaxed. It's Taylor who has the problem."

"Really? I would have guessed it was your problem?"

"He likes the boundaries we had in place."

"Until I steam rolled into your life, you mean?"

"Yes, now eat. These I think are plantains?"

"Umm, I had them in St Bart's, I didn't care for them then and I doubt they have got any nicer?" She turns her cute nose up at the offered forkful of food. "I have plenty of other things to eat on my plate. Please do not worry about me starving myself, you will find I love food." I smile as her head turns towards the sound of an elephant trumpeting. "Oh heck if I live to a hundred and one, that is the cutest thing I will ever see." The elephants are holding each other's tails and the mothers are caring for their off spring.

"It is cute, but in a few months' time I bet there will be something even cuter catching your eye."

"You in a bunny suit?"

"Ana."

"Oh, Phewy and I was so hoping to see you as an Easter bunny too. I mean you will have three Grey babies to entertain, is that the cute you meant?"

"I live to put on a rabbit suit."

"I can't wait."

"For a glimpse of me in a rabbit suit?"

"I was thinking of the babies dressed in little rabbit onesies, with their Daddy collecting Easter Eggs... Can you imagine that Christian?" I sigh.

"Yes, and I can't wait for the real thing either." I sip the chilled wine and we eat and watch as other animals join the show, our butler takes away the dishes and brings dessert. Ana is silent as she sees what she thinks is her lion. Her mouth is open and she slowly gets up and heads to the glass rail.

"Christian, it's Christian… Look, he's right there. He is so big, he is a grown up lion."

"How do you know?"

"He has a collar on, look." I stand behind Ana and we stare at Christian's lion. He is amazing. We are so mesmerised, that we don't hear Kemi come onto the veranda.

"That is indeed your lion Mrs Grey, he usually comes alone to drink water, about this time nightly."

"He comes here alone, is he alright?"

"He is the tamest of the lions on the reserve, he is too used to humans to leave the safe area. He has on a collar, but he is never too far away, and as he cannot hunt for himself and is fed by his keeper, he knows where is safe and where there is danger. Sadly, he did not take to being free and living wild. He has no claws and his teeth were filed, so he is not able to kill his own food. He is a favourite of all the staff. He comes and goes like he owns the place."

"He is in good health though?" Ana asks.

"Yes, if anything he is a little lazy. He may one day find a mate, but for now he likes his own company." Ana smiles at me.

"He is like you Christian, he needs to find his mate and be happy." She giggles.

"If you say so dear."

"Mr Grey, the others are stopping in their lodges for the evening, will you be requiring the jeep to take you anywhere?"

"No thank you Kemi, we too are stopping in for the night thank you." He nods his head and the staff take away the food. Ana stares into the night and sighs.

"Christian, did I do the right thing, he is a prisoner here. He is about as wild as a zoo animal."

"He is safer than a zoo animal and well looked after, he would have gone mad in the zoo which had him before you rescued him. He is in a better place. I think he is as Kemi says, lazy, why hunt when food is dropped at his doorstep?"

"If you say so, listen he is roaring and there are others calling out too, this is the best thing ever. Oh god I love it here. Look, look a giraffe and her baby. Oh hell this is too cute!" I watch as Ana stares out and watches the wild show. "How come they don't eat each other?"

"I think you will find the only meat eater there is Christian, the others are bush eating wildlife." I tell her and then she suddenly screams and it chills me to the bone,

"Move Christian, that's a gator, it will eat you for dinner. Move you dumb ass." She has startled all the animals who were peacefully grazing the water's edge. "They didn't say there was alligators in here! They are horrid, but thank god for that big elephant, he has chased him away. He was going for the baby elephant calf."

"It is the circle of life Baby, this is what it is to be wild."

"Okay, I get that, but I don't like alligators."

"I think they are crocodiles Ana, and they have to eat too. It looks like you scared the crap out of Christian, because he's gone."

"I guess so. So now that I have interrupted the live show, what are we going to do for entertainment?"

"I could think of a few things?"

"Really, I wonder what sort of things you are thinking about?"

"There is a pool table, how about a game of pool?"

"Nope… Try again sunshine."

"There is a shelf full of books?"

"Nope, you are really cold now."

"How about sitting by the fire and watching a movie?"

"Really, you want to watch TV?" She is playing the game well.

"I don't watch television at the best of times, and then it is only usually the news and finance channels. What do you want to do then?"

"The hot tub is calling my name, how about we watch the wildlife from there? Ouch, what the bloody hell was that?" She slaps her arm again.

"Mosquitoes, would be my guess?" She dances around with her shoe in her hand swotting the flying beasties. "Hungry mosquitoes by the look of it."

"If I am to be bitten I would prefer it was by my husband. They are nasty little feckers." We head in and the doors are closed behind us. The aircon is on and they do not like the chill. Ana inspects the bite and I go and fetch the first aid kit. What does one put on a bite?

"I have a stick thing in my bag, it smells horrid, but stops it hurting or itching, I never leave home without it. It acts as a deterrent for would be muggers too. It smells of something wicked. Pee…"

"Okay, pee, are you sure?"

"It's a weak ammonia thing. They usually go for Holly, not me." She squirts the fowl odder on her arm and cusses. "It stings like Billy O…"

"I won't ask what or who Billy O is."

"I never asked Mimi who he was either, so your guess is as good as mine. There I am all yours, so, can we be safe in the hot tub?"

"Yes, it's covered and the citrus smelling lantern things, they usually keep them at bay. You must have found a brave couple."

"Yeah that's me, an easy mark. So, if you are sure we are not overlooked, then I suggest we go and get hot in the tub, yes?"

"Like you have to ask…"

* * *

Sorry I am really unreliable at the moment, I am suffering with the shoulder and finger pains and I am in a funk… It is quite the task to get up in the morning. Not good, especially as we are on holiday in Bulgaria. I swear I am such a boring bitch and a whining one too. I also have a crap internet connection, so I am uploading this at a bar. And like Ana I am being bitten to buggery. I will try to update before I go back home. WIFI permitting and bad mood and cranky knickers permitting…


	56. Chapter 56

This story is nowt like fifty shades; I just purloined E.L. James's characters, buildings and some of her other stuff...

* * *

Dreaming of Chocolate and Grey:

Chapter 56:

Christian Grey; the teenage years relived?

Ana and I are watching the animals as they gather again at the river's edge, from the ideally placed hot tub, as she wanted to keep an eye on our lion, Christian, she was teary and worried about him after the failed crocodile attack. She is lain against my chest and my arms are over her shoulders holding her to me. The sounds from the animals are really quite surreal, almost like someone is playing a recording through the villa. She sighs…

"I love it here, it's so quiet and calming, yet so loud and frightening. I mean I know that sounds impossibly stupid, but it is so surreal here, amazingly calm and yet on the edge of your seat stuff too, it's like a wildlife programme, or like a survivor series, well that's a stretch seeing as we are in a 100 star resort and pampered…" She is so funny to listen to, she thinks it and says it, without really thinking about what she is saying, strange, yes but very cute and endearing, my Ana… "I mean listen to those coots, the trees are alive with birds and insects, lord Christian, listen to those growls, it sounds so real, I mean it is real derrr…"

"I know what you mean Baby, it's natures sound system, it is amazing here. There is a natural echoic sound to it. Like we are sat on the edge of a hidden chasm, and the whispered animal sounds are louder and clearer, because of the natural amplification of that chasm. Then, let us not forget that they are wild beasts and though we are watching them from the relative safety of our private villa, it's still a wildlife programme, live before our eyes and our ears, I love it, it's very impressive." I sigh and listen to the real life theatre that surrounds us, she is right, it's amazing and relaxing.

"It makes you feel quite privileged to be here, like we are voyeurs and are stealing private moments from them. Thank you for doing this for me, we needed this after the crappy few weeks we have had. So how about we make a few wild noises of our own, my way of rewarding my kind and considerate husband for making good on his promise to give me the world?"

"What do you have in mind Baby?" She giggles. "Ana?" She shoves her butt against me. She finds her own unique and sexy pace and I groan, god I love it when this woman of mine takes the lead and grinds me down. "I like that, so this is my reward, I get a lap dance in a hot tub?"

"Maybe…" She grinds harder, and I take off her bikini top. "Oh, you are a very naughty boy, stop touching the goods."

"They are mine, why can't I touch?" I ask, like I need the answer, besides I know what's coming! I am going to be handed my own butt.

"Hu, no I don't think so Mr Grey, you will find they are mine, you just have visiting and gawking privileges, that's if I deem you to have been a good boy." She turns around and smiles as she shimmies and dances for me. Oh god, I hit the motherlode, my dick is now above my swim shorts and is heading above the water line. Like a water snake searching for prey, and is rather excitable. She caresses her breasts and pushes them up to her lips and as she does she bites her lip seductively. "You, like?"

"I love the goods. Suck you nipples Baby? Tongue them, bite them for me, make them hard for me Ana."

"You'd like that?" I nod my head, then commence grinning like a naughty schoolboy. "What do I get if I do that for you?" She licks her breasts, the snake rises and I swear it knows what's coming and looks like the damned snakes that are charmed out of baskets, dancing towards my Ana.

"Anything you want, you temptress! Name your price."

"You couldn't afford me, I am very expensive, and very exclusive?"

"Okay, so what will it take for me to buy a lap dance, a very expensive and exclusive lap dance?" She smiles and shimmies her body in front of me. She makes light work of removing my swim shorts off my body. She throws them out of the tub, and runs her hand up and down my shaft, it is rock hard and wants to see action. She has stepped back and is swaying and seductively shimmying her butt at me, she turns… Oh my lord, she's sucking her nipples until they are taught little nubs, she twists them and makes the most wondrous noises, she stops.

"Umm, that's enough of my show, now my reward? Umm, let me see." My hand wanders to my dick and keep the monster hard, by stroking him in my hand. "I know… I want to watch you come, yes, that's what I want, I want you to masturbate, and then relieve yourself over my face, then I will finish giving you the best lap dance you have ever had Mr Grey, is that a fair exchange?" I love the way the words masturbate comes from her lips, like the act of wanking is a rude thing to do, it sounds filthy dirty and I want more…

"I think that's doable…" I know it is, I have come over her breasts, her back and her ass, but her face? Okay, challenge excepted. "Fast or slow?"

"Surprise me." Her hips sway and her hands play with those amazing breasts of hers. She tease with me a very seductive dance, and I squeeze my hand slowly up and down my dick. "That's right, long hard strokes Mr Grey, then pull in down low, let me see your purple headed crown sparkle, with that fertile sperm of yours. That looks good, does it feel good Christian?" I am like a teenager and grin like a fool, I get lost in the process of pleasuring myself. I am helped by my temptress as she shimmies and plays with herself.

"Ana…"

"I'm sure you won't mind if I join you and make myself wet for you?"

"Hu?" She fingers her opening and I watch as I pump, I groan and stretch my legs out, my cock is going to explode, and all as she watches me, watching her. I pull, I release and take the skin all the way back, the pre-come drops are there and I stiffen. Then it happens and I swear I was so involved in my own pleasure I didn't see Ana reverse against me, she bats my hand out of the way. She buries my dick inside her and I gasp as she catches me off guard.

"May I be of service?" She asks, as my dick is buried in her butt, I am momentarily in so much pleasure, I go brain dead. We haven't been doing anal long and for her to impale herself on me, feels so fucking amazing. She seems to like it, I know I do.

"Hell yes." My dick is buried deep within her hot core, I swear for a mastered ex-dom, I am now feeling like nothing of the sort, not right now anyway. I have no power to resist her temptations, she is the boss of me and I am happy to be hers and owned, I am pussy whipped and quite literally, as she tosses her head around, flapping her hair at my face, like a scene form a cheesy porn movie, yes, I have watched a few in my days. This, this is a-fucking-amazing. I swear I feel like my dick is gonna explode. I try to claw back control over my body, but as her ass rides me hard I swear the clawing is all me as I grip the side of the hot tub for some of leverage, I decide not to fight this and go with the flow…

"Ana…"

"Do you want more?"

"Yes."

"So do I, stop holding the sides and see to my frontal needs, they are feeling ignored. Please?" Like she has to ask, my arms encircle her body and my hands find her opening, the search it out and she moans for more, that is until my fingers plunge into her, I didn't realise how turned on she was, sure the gripping of my dick is a turn on but feeling the warmth from both her back and front passages is so fucking hot, as is she. I spread her open and finger her like a fucking teenager, like this is the first time I have done this. "More, give me more Christian. More…" I use another finger and another. She groans and grinds and asks for more…

"Is it safe Baby, the babies? I mean I will be fisting you pretty damned soon, and I do believe you don't like it?"

"Never had it, not until now, but hell you're right, what if it isn't safe?" Way to let the party down you moron, my over sexed part of the brain tells my thoughtful side. I pull out slowly and play gently as Ana continues to jump on my dick like it's a fairground ride, up and down and I am ridden like the horse on a carousel ride. Her hair is sticking to her face as she pounds harder on me, and my dick, he, it and I, we feel loved, it is so good in fact, I am also gonna explode, both she and I are there, almost…

"I'm coming Baby…"

"Hu, me too. Take it out…" What? I almost scream. She does the work for me and kneels before me. "Come on my face, like you wanted too… Please?" Like I needed asking. I pump hard and point at her face, she really looks like a porn star now, as her face gets covered in my come, I love how she licks at it and begs for more. Fuck that, with my dick still hard I position Ana on the side of the tub and begin to fuck her, hard. She opens up and leans back on her elbows and watches as I go all caveman on her, then she lies back and begins to grip me harder and harder, fuck me she is going to rip my dick off at the root. I do not give a shit, it feels amazing, She is close, so close, then the jolts of electricity shoots through her body, her pussy convulses and her screams frighten the second or third lot of animals from their watering hole, as hers explodes with a mixture of our combined arousal…

"My god…"

"I will think Mrs Grey, god had fuck all to do with that. That was sent from the kinky devil inside you. Thank you, very much Mrs Grey…" I gently lie on top her and kiss her, my weight is kept from crushing her and our children by my shaky elbows placed at the side of her.

Security alert in the villa…

Gail and I are in our villa, relaxing and listening to some god awful music, that Gail seems to think of as romantic? It's not… I have been so uptight for so long this down time is needed, and not just by me, but by this mothering loving woman here in my arms too. So, if crap music is what she wants then so be it… My cell fires off the theme from Star Wars, holy hell… Christian is in trouble. Gail knows that signal only too well. I answer the call… It's his butler, Kemi…

"Sir, I think the Greys are in trouble. They are in their hot tub and…"

"They are in honeymoon Kemi, my devises have them in the hot tub, alone. You will get used to it, their private life, let's say can be a little loud."

"Okay, so I shouldn't have called?" I check the security feed discreetly for a second, they are alone and I would think from their red bodies, they have enjoyed themselves.

"No, I am glad that you did, but unless they call you, leave them alone as requested."

"We have to clear the dishes, we will in future, wait till they retire."

"They sometimes don't retire." He seems to sigh. I know, I feel your pain, It can be a long night when they are so loved up. "In future, leave the clear up to Sawyer and I."

"Sir?"

"We are used to their movements and are able to work around them." I am immune to the sight of him, his dick and the naked girls, but seeing Mrs Grey, Ana naked, no, she is something I am struggling to hide away from, not that I am a pervert, far from it in fact, but she is a new full time element in his life and is special so fucking special she is saint like and I feel like a pervert when they are being cute around me, the other girls were in the main sick fucks like the old him. She is nothing like the others is what I should have said, and is not an exhibitionist like the others. She is different, a very nice sort of different, she is going to be treated like my second daughter, with reverence, though if he fucks up, the guns will be out and Papa Taylor will blow his balls off, boss or not, because this woman I do love, but in a daughter sort of way, this is training for when boys bother my Sophie... I laugh... "Please relax tonight and we will talk to our bosses in the morning. Goodnight Kemi, and Kemi, thank you." I end the call.

"Were the lovebirds a little loud?"

"Yes Dear."

"Oh, that's nice. How do you fancy turning this awful music off and making some noise of our own Mr Taylor?"

"I thought you liked this shit?"

"No, I heard it playing in the apartment, when I too nearly walked in on their love life. I don't think this is for me, gimmie good old blue eyes any time of the day. So, are you up for Kemi calling to tell us to shush?"

"Am I? You have to ask?" Gail and I head to our bedroom… Goodnight Mr Grey…

All the love in the world…

Christian and I are naked under the stars, the sound of the jungle, is it a jungle or a savannah? Either way, the hot tub is a nice place to be relaxing, held in the arms of my dream man is a very nice place to be wherever we are, but I feel strange…

"Christian, I am wrinkly."

"I am knackered, pleased to meet you Wrinkly." I slap his arm.

"I am serious."

"Wrinkly or Serious, make your mind up." He smiles and I melt. He looks different here, relaxed and calm almost.

"I feel funny." His smile disappears… I am out of the tub, wrapped in fluffy towels and then checked over from head to toe.

"Ana?"

"I feel like I need to be sick…" I dash to the bathroom followed by Christian hot on my tail. I throw up, and god it is horrid…

"Where you like this with Christian?" He asks, but he looks and sounds almost too afraid to ask.

"No, and yes, dependant on what I ate. Urgh, I hate this part of gifting you children."

"I wish I could do it for myself, but then again, I wouldn't be able to cope. Do you think we were too rough?"

"There is a distinct possibility we may have to let our dinner settle before we do that again, my belly feels like the Moscow State Circus is in town."

"Really, what stopped you being ill before, you know with Christian, before?"

"Ginger biscuits and flat Sprite. It worked so well and I loved it…" He dashes off. "Christian, get some clothes on, the elephants don't need the competition." He stops mid-flight and turns. Oh my god, he has the gift that keeps on giving, but as I am still throwing up, that's not happening again.

"Ana?"

"Your dick is flapping betwixt yer legs, the staff here aren't used to seeing the tool…" He laughs and grabs some lounge pants from the floor of the bedroom where we started this night…

"You are being very uncouth young lady, how are you feeling?"

"Better, I have some homemade ginger biscuits in my bag, I figured I would need them and there are a lot, we have three times as much trouble this time. Christian, please stop apologising for asking questions, you need to know I was well looked after, and it was my own decision to go it alone, last time. I could have tried harder, I could have told more people, I had the funds to find you, just not the willpower. Christian, I could have found you, were I not too hot headed and pissed off with Sasha and you!"

"I will never forgive her Ana, because of her lies, I missed out on helping you, and I will never forgive her of you being mad and angry at me and what that did to you and the part that played our son's death."

"She wanted to keep hold of you, and as much as I hated her, I would have done the same thing, played all the cards I knew and done whatever it took to keep you, can you blame her? You Mr Grey are quite the prize, and I knew how she felt. I was so fucking jealous, you talked about her and told me you were buying her my chocolates, I think it made me work harder on my seduction, I wanted you and after the drink I had for courage, I gave not one shit about fucking Sasha."

"I wish I could remember your seduction, I remembered the red dress. I remembered that, when I got shitfaced drunk the night you told me about it, I remembered you looked damned hot."

"Umm, unlike now, where I look less than hot. I think I may have stopped upchucking, at least for now." He helps me up from the floor, he hands me a wash cloth and tells me to turn around. I do as I am requested. He rubs my hair dry and then brushes it, puts it in a bobble and as I glance at him through the mirror, I see the pain in his eyes. I doubt we will ever get over the loss, and the things that lead up to it, but we had better try to start, or the next few months are going to be murderous. We head to bed, and I swear I said I wasn't tired more than once, then wham, my head hits the pillow and I am in the land of sweet dreams before I know it.

Safari, so goodie…

Christian and I sleep well, we seem to wake at the same time too, which was a good thing too, wake up sex is much needed and boy did he give me all I need. We showered together, and watching the giraffes walk past the bathroom window was a little surreal, and seeing as we are a distance from the river, the other animals seem to be far away, it seems giraffes are safe and respectful animals, and the villas are surrounded by their favourite breakfast munchies, so they come to entertain you as they eat, it is safe to say there are no crocs around. We got a little hot and sweaty in the shower and only one poor giraffe did a runner, and after that we got a little hot and clean. Our other intruders giving not one jot about two naked humans getting it on in the shower, it was almost comical.

After breakfast we are joined by the rest of the gang, to discuss our jeep safari. Gail and Holly, join me for a fresh juice and the men plan the day for us. I yawned…

"Sorry, I seem to be drained today. How did you sleep? I only ask because I felt like I was sleeping on a cloud."

"Yeah, my beds pretty damned comfy too. Gail?" Holly replies. "How about you Mama Gail?"

"Mine was too soft, I like a firm bed and after a little thumping, I was lulled to sleep with the noises out there, I think it was a bird, an Eastern Nicator, if I am remembering my bird calls correctly. Anyhow, it made this noise and it seemed to hypnotise me to sleep. It made a change from Jason's impressions of an elephant. I guess the thumping worked, it lulled the snoring a little?"

"What?" Holly smiles as she says it.

"He snores. He says he doesn't, but he does." Gail says as she sips the orange juice.

"T, he sounds like an elephant? You thump him, to silence his snores? Interesting. I wonder how I can work that in my favour?" Holly says as she eats her umpteenth breakfast pastry. "So, how-da-ya know about bird calls, are you a tweeter?"

"My late husband, Mr Jones, he was a Twitcher, his mother loved the damned things, and our weekends were filled taping them, filming them and bloody following them she was insistent I joined them and learned to differentiate between the birds song or be punished. I hated that woman, I really did. I guess I remember more than I realise. So, what are we doing for food?" She had a bad first marriage indeed, poor Gail.

"Gail, relax, you do know how to right?" I ask. "This is as much as a holiday for you and Taylor too, or as much of a holiday that his head will allow."

"I know, I love that Christian and you allowed me to accompany you."

"Tosh…. You and Taylor are in sore need of more perks of being at our beck and call. When we find our forever home, we will make sure there is space and that Jason has time to spend being a father as well as a head of security. I will make it happen, Besides when we get these little miracles, you will need an away from us home."

"I am not leaving you."

"Who said you were? I simply meant you and Jason will have a separate home for you and him, a place where you get to get to spend your own down time, time to be spent being a couple... Perhaps by then a married couple?"

"I like that idea, and the house, it best not too far away." She smiles as she stares at me. What have I got more jam on my chin? She has already spit washed my chin twice. Holly almost peed her knickers, it seems Gail is mothering me, Grammy Mimi style.

"Right ladies, are we ready for the jeep safari?" Christian asks as he walks over to the table. He's changed out of his lounging gear. Wow, I have my very own, what is a sexy safari guy, besides Tarzan that is? Now there's a thought, we need a loin cloth and a whip… Be still my beating heart… "Ana, earth to Ana." He leans in and kisses my head.

"Hu? Oh sorry I was miles away, what did you say?"

"I asked were you ready for the safari?"

"Oh, yes, sorry yes. How are we doing this?"

"That was what we were discussing, breaking up the party into two or three jeeps."

"Are the flight crew coming too?"

"No, they left for town hours ago, they are cutting loose. It's just we six. Do we take the large jeep or two small ones or even have the third?"

"So, who is doing the driving?" I ask.

"The lodges drivers."

"Do they have security too?"

"Um, yes they have a guide and a driver, both are armed, with both animal darts and guns with bullets."

"So, if they have security we can all go in separate cars?"

"Taylor doesn't want to have three cars."

"Oh, okay, how about Holly travels with us?"

"Eight hours with me. He will be grey in name and hair colouring spending so long with me. Give him a break Annie. How about Luke and I we tail behind you, and you take Taylor and Gail?"

"That sounds good. Yes that's great."

"So that's settled, besides it's what Taylor wanted anyhow." Christian says as he eats a pastry, sexily eats a pastry I might add and I have a vision of him swinging from a rope and carrying me in his arms. Very me Tarzan you Jane.

"Yeah, he loves me really, I guess I am an acquired taste?" Holly says as she goes for her stuff. "You love me or hate me, but I am fun and serious and all kinds of whack-a-doodle. Seriously, I will grow on you Grey, in oh I don't know twenty years?"

"Good god, will you still be here with us?" Christian laughs as she gives him the middle finger and walks off.

"You bet your rich arse I will, oh and for the record, you know I am the best shot you don't employ. Annie, I will be watching your arse from the rear of your jeep, if he gets on yer nerves, throw him out the damned window and I will pick the bugger up."

"Who?" I ask her.

"Either T or G, one boss or the other, Gail, I have a friend who can help you see the light. Gustave, he's built like a Greek God and he isn't a sad sack like T? He is very good at massage and other stuff."

"Holly, now what did I tell you, Mr Taylor and I are fine as we are." Taylor is doing that Elvis smirk he has, "besides he has magic fingers." Gail is not being so meek and silent, at last. Christian is smiling too, good he's relaxing. I wonder when it will go back to yes Sir, no Sir? Or will it stay relaxed like this all the time? Nope, Taylor will want the boundaries back, it's tough enough on him here and now, relaxing and being our security and having Gail here too. I may have caused too much uproar in his usually stoic world? Time will tell. I guess?

"Fingers in ears, I don't wanna know what you and T get up to. Oh god, I am going. Annie, I will be at the rear, don't throw either of them out, use the animal dart." Off she goes followed by a grinning Luke. He turns and shrugs his shoulders at me.

"I will talk to her and try to tame her Ana."

"Good luck, her father and I have tried since she learnt to talk." Then there were three, oh then there were four, I forgot about T the ninja…

"Mr and Mrs Grey, the cars are loaded and ready. Your camera bag is in the back too Mrs Grey."

"Oh good, are you still not up to Ana and Christian?"

"Ma'am."

"Okay I prefer Mrs Grey to Ma'am any day of the week. Lead on T. We have lions and tigers and bears to see." Gail follows Taylor and Christian, who has been unusually quiet grabs my waist and smiles.

"So, how do you like the safari suit Mia packed? Do I rock the Out of Africa look she was going for?"

"Robert Redford eat your heart out."

"You look very fetching Mrs Grey."

"Hu?"

"The outfit, you look very fetching?"

"Oh this? This is Mia's idea too. I don't think I work her hard enough. This is her homage to Katherine Hepburn, it's very frilly and fru-fru, and white. I mean I look like a bloody, what do I look like, a vicars wife?"

"I would say you look amazing, cool and amazing, have you a hat?"

"Have I a hat, how the frig do I know, you and Mia packed, Gail laid these out, and I just put the buggers on. I will get a hat."

"Ouch, grumpy much?"

"Yup. I like the dress really, it's very Mary Poppins like."

"It is. It needs a hat."

"Okay I heard you the first time." I grab a bagel and head to the wardrobe. Wow, its packed. I grab a white floppy beach hat, and the outfits complete, I hardly doubt I need a hand bag. I join my husband and smile. God, I am grouchy. I wave a Kemi on our way out and wonder why his head is down? He's a tad strange that one. Hey ho, off we go to photograph animals.

We have been driving around for about an hour, not the smoothest of drives, but the things I have captured on film are breath taking, and I am thinking of an Out of Africa range of chocolates, perhaps for children? Will I ever switch off? I doubt it. Holly and Sawyer are at the rear and I hear her shout oh gawd more than once. She will be snap happy and over stimulated on the animals, she was always loopy when we did a zoo trip. She wanted for so long to be a zoologist and look after monkeys. She very nearly went down that route, she passed all her courses and is a zoologist on paper, and she specialised in primates. She however is an adrenalin junkie, and found the path to being a stuntwoman suited her better.

The driver and the guide, veer off the road, and head into the bush. Taylor looks at Christian and I shimmy closer into my husband's side. My camera is looped around my neck and I grab at it for some stability, shit thing to hold, but I can clonk one of them on the head with it if I have to.

"What the hell are you doing?" Taylor shouts.

"Sorry Sir, we have a report of poachers, we are the closest to their last know sighting, we are sorry, but we have to respond, please buckle in and when we get to their last known position, we would ask you to be vigilant, the rear jeep is aware of this too. I am sorry but we are an animal preserve first and foremost Sir."

"Taylor, you have to help them." I call out.

"Ma'am, I will, but you are my first priority, you and Mr Grey. There a rebels and poachers here about, do not, I repeat do not second guess me. If I say something do it, am I clear, that goes for you Mr Grey and you too Gail."

"Taylor, we will do as you say. What are the hunting, can you tell us?"

"Lions, and your lion is out of his safety zone… His group is all heading towards trouble and the poachers are on his tail. He is a stupid lion."

"Christian is in danger here, I thought here was safe for him, does he do this often?"

"Too often, the charity doesn't want you to know he is a little stupid, and too tame to be free, he really need Is a massive fenced off enclosure, bigger than a zoo and space for him to roam, but not so much space we cannot see to him, we are not the only ones who have a tracking device, the poachers have them too, but they won't tell you this."

"He needs to be fenced in?"

"Not held captive like the circus act he was, but this is too much for him, he hears a sound and follows the call of the wild, but he hasn't got the skills needed to be free. I am sorry if I speak out of turn, but he is a favourite of mine, my son loves him. We all do, but alas he is a very stupid lion."

"Oh…" I say, shocked about the lies the director told me. "How can we keep him and the group safe?"

"Build a fence and keep him in. Take off his collar and allow him to feel some freedom. With safe fences for him to roam in. But it will cost money lots of money and then and only then will he be safe."

"Okay, what are you called? Can I ask, we should have asked," Christian says, "sorry."

"I am Precious and this is Joseph, we double up as security guards for these private tours, but alas we are always on duty. Will you be okay to continue Mrs Grey?" He asks.

"Yes, please do, and Taylor here and the other man are ex-army, so are expert shots, as is Holly, both with a gun a cross bow and a bow and arrow." Taylor laughs.

"She is a regular Tom Boy then?"

"Yes, and an expert in all of them. I do wonder if she wishes she was a man, but for the obvious fascination she has in the male of the species. Sorry I am on ignoring danger mode and talking shit is taking over."

"Good to know."

"We are approaching their last know whereabouts, Mr Taylor Sir. See the tracker is out looking." He opens the window and is about to shout, I am taking photos for the reserve manager to see, and notice he isn't in the exact same uniform as the others.

"Taylor…"

"I see it too Mrs Grey, Precious, they are not your team mates, this is the tracker you were chasing."

"No, no that is Kemi's son and his younger brother." I stare and watch as they turn and see us. Great trackers if they are only just seeing us. Suddenly we are surrounded. What the hell is going on.

"I am sorry, they made us come." The smaller of the two boys said. "We didn't want to, but they know you are rich…" What the fuck, we are being kidnapped? No...

* * *

Now, apologies are needed, my eyes are gammy again, I can't see very well and though my daughter offered to type for me, I am a writer who needs to see what I type, it's also a part of my dyslexia, I have to see the words I write, so it has been near on impossible to focus on anything. Then I get back from holiday to find my results from my specialist were waiting for me. I have just been told I have osteoarthritis and for ten years I have been on the wrong meds, and being treated for rheumatoid arthritis. So after a none too great holiday was had… not even going there again… Bulgaria was so bad for WIFI too. Then I get home to the medical news I just needed some me time. Writing usually gives me a lift, but alas it isn't working right now, and to the guest who said I was flagging and I should quit it, end it quickly, the answer is no, bear with me I will get back into the swing of posting more regularly, real life sucks when it interferes with fan fic lol xxx Laters…


	57. Chapter 57

This story is nowt like fifty shades; I just purloined E.L. James's characters, buildings and some of her other stuff...

* * *

Dreaming of Chocolate and Grey:

Chapter 57:

Keep calm and carry on… W.T.F?

Christian throws his arm around me. I am stunned and actually quite pissed off, for a change, with Mr T. Taylor, who has that Elvis like smirk on his face. Yes, a fucking smile, I stare and see him crack an even wider smile. This is serious and he is sat like a goon with a smirk on his damned face.

"There is no need to panic Mr and Mrs Grey." I see Christian's jaw clench tight and his knuckles are almost white. Okay, why, I think but do not say. There are at least a dozen, yes, a dozen fucking teenagers with big arsed knives and bloody guns.

"Panic, why the fuck shouldn't I fucking panic?" I hear myself say.

"Because those men behind the 'kidnappers' work for me, and it seems these two little chaps are in for a little bit of trouble when they get home." I then see the men with bigger guns point them at the kids with guns, talk about over kill, whoops don't take my word on the kill part, I pray. What the hell? Christian opens the door and goes to step out, but I hold him back.

"When they get home, try when I get out of this fucking Jeep." I hold Christian back, again as he is liable to get fucking shot, and this time he may not be as lucky... "Ana, why can I not slap them stupid, and Taylor why did I not know of these extra security issues?"

"Calm down Christian, I am sure he had his reasons, right Taylor?" I say as I wrap my arm around my furious husbands waist.

"Yes, I had my reasons, it seems the boys knew of our plans, so I figured we had ears listening in the villa's. After all that was the only place this was discussed, our tour and route. It was a need to know thing, and you had no need to know. As Mrs Grey wisely pointed out, hiring the whole reserve was a security risk in itself. I did try to warn you at the time. The locals are poor and grasp at all chances to make money, by any means possible."

"So, T, who told them to use that tracker to get us here?"

"Ask them, I will hazard a guess that is was their elder brother of the two brothers?" The two frightened boys are about to be brought to the Jeep, as the security guys round up the bigger kids, kids I might add armed with machetes and guns, I am just about calm, though I may have peed a little. They look so little and afraid, the mob that scarred the crap out of me, are all march away, whilst one the security team bring the two tracking kids towards the door. They have been relieved of the tracker and look at us sat in the Jeep, they are crying. I think the little one, has, like me peed his pants.

"Who told you to lead us here?" Christian asks, as Holly and Sawyer suddenly hoot their horn, I jump and see another group of very scruffy boys, the eldest is in his late teens, heading towards our Jeep, and they too are carrying guns and knives, Once in a day is bad enough, but twice. What the fuck? Oh my god. I am ordered to lay low on the floor with Gail and Christian. The next bit was all a little confusing, the larger of the scruffy boys takes a pot shot at us, then I hear a short rally of gunshots and wonder what the hell has happened, the sudden silence is deafening, even the Savannah seems quiet, there is no bird song, just the distant sound of thunder, my hearing is limited at best, its muffled and my ears feel like they do when I fly, what the hell? I check myself over and I have not been fucking shot at, though the Jeep is missing glass from the rear window, Christian is on top of me and Gail, neither of them are hurt. Taylor and the two guys up front are okay too. What the hell happened, and why does it sound so distant when I talk? My ears feel like they do when I swim, filled with water.

"Ana, are you okay? Gail?" Christian asks, again their voices are muffled. "Are your ears sore too?"

"Oh thank god I am not deaf. Are you okay, we are fine. What happened?"

"It seems the security we hired have shot the aggressors." Taylor says as he reccie's the damage done to the kids and the security take heed of the kids crying around us. What the hell happened, were we really attacked by children, and not one, but two lots of the buggers?

"Are they dead?" I ask Taylor.

"No Ma'am, just shot in the arm or leg. However they are in a great deal of pain." Precious, is radioing this incident, to the lodge, the two small kids, Kemi's kids are both wet through and they may have soiled themselves, they laid low under the Jeep and look like they are about to be shot by Taylor. I know I want to hurl as I look at the sight of the blooded teenagers.

"Did Kemi know about this, because he wouldn't look at us this morning Taylor." I ask. He coughs and I stare, what did I say that was so fucking funny?

"Er, no Mrs Grey, he was too embarrassed to look at you, he came to clear the dinner dishes and got quite the show…" Now I know, I am a little embarrassed.

"Oh…" I say going red.

"How did he not know his children were up to no good?" Asks Christian. "I mean they are what, ten? Perhaps twelve? The little one is, how old are you?"

"I am eight, and Joshua is ten. Leman, our brother who is shot and dead, is eighteen and Justice is twenty and he is a bad boy." I see the sadness in his eyes. Justice is not doing so well, as he rolls on the floor covered in blood and one of our security guards seems to be having fun poking his bullet ridden arm, he sees me and bends down and sees to the boy. They seem to have come prepared for bloodshed, the guards, and that thought alone frightens me. So much so I wanna go home, now.

"What are you called?" I ask the little boy and try to distract him from his brothers obvious pain.

"David, David Alexander. Are we in trouble? We didn't want to use the trackers, but Leman said we had to, as we were allowed to follow the lions, and nobody would question us, we didn't want to do it, because Papa wasn't with us, they said we were fine, because they would be with us."

"Following the lions, with that, they would kill you, are you stupid?" I say in a very harsh mother voice.

"No Ma'am, we were afraid and said no at first, we know the danger Ma'am, but when he beat our sister and our Auntie, we did as he said. They dropped us off here and told us to wait. He said the big boys were watching us and they went to the rocks to hide. I heard them say they wanted money from the lions who would be easy to kill. Then they said you were rich and would pay for them not to be shot." I was puzzled as to how that would work, until I realised the elder brother was using his siblings as bait.

"Taylor, find out if their family are okay, where are they David?" Christian shouts, like he needs too, Taylor is a foot away from him, he must still have ringing ears?

"In the trackers shed Sir, she was bleeding, they both were." David tells Christian.

"Where is your Mom." Christian asked him in return. The poor little guy looks like he is set to cry again.

"Sir, their mother died having Kimber, she is a sweet thing, the youngest of Kemi's children live with him here, but the eldest two, they are bad boys and have been banned from the reserve. They are thieves, and fancy themselves as hard men, they have always been that way, unruly and a couple of thugs, they beat their mother and robbed their father. Kemi washed his hands of the two of them many years ago." Precious informed us. Holly and Sawyer were helping with the injured kids and Gail and I watched as they cried for their mothers. I heard one of our security laugh.

"When you play with guns make sure you know what you are doing, but that will not matter, you will spend many years in prison for this." Through the tears of the kids, I heard a roar, and I think I saw something move in the tall grass, oh crap, we are being circled by lions. My lion is going to eat me, the fucker… Oh wait, I'm in the Jeep. Our security are busy with the injured kids, do lions smell fresh blood, like sharks? I think and then realise they are to engrossed with the kids to notice our silent stalkers. I shout out, it seems I am good at frightening the crap out of wildlife, because they stop still, I hope it is long enough…

"Oh my god, Christian and his friends are here to play. Get them in the Jeeps, all of them. Quickly." The injured were taken to the transport the security guys had, and the small two, were bungled into the Jeep, with us. They were shivering and in shock, and I sigh, because I feel their pain. Sawyer, and a few of the security guys climbed on top of the Jeeps and fired warning shots, to keep the lions at bay. This was shear madness and I was feeling a little shaken and stirred, like a Bond cocktail.

"Can we go home Christian, and what will happen to the small boys Taylor?"

"They will be returned to Kemi, the older ones will be tried and sent to Jail, or shot."

"Shot?" I say, in a very concerned way I might add, I want them punished, but not bloody shot.

"They may be shot, I should say, I do not know what they will do to them, but I listened to the security guys I hired talking, and they think these would be hoodlums, gangster kids are responsible for burglaries in the up market lodges here, and for a botched up job poaching, when they tried to shoot at elephants on a neighbouring reserve! It seems they, the twenty or so boys/men, work as waiters and kitchen porters in a few of the reserves here and about, in fact one of them is a waiter, here at Lion Sands, and told the elder boy about the rich white folks his father, Kemi was serving, I was tipped off this morning, and had the extra security follow us discreetly, they earned their pay today Ma'am."

"Hu? Pay? Yes, and pay them a bonus and Christian, no more trying to teach Jason to suck eggs. Let him do his job. Oh, and I want to go to Bora-Bora when we get back, or as soon as possible. Please?" He has been quite silent throughout all of this. He was shot not long ago, I was in danger, so of course he is worried, my man is very pale and clammy.

"I was thinking that myself, what's security like there Taylor? Better than here?"

"Excellent Sir, I would think you will be more secure there than at Escala. The only way in is by boat or hydro plane, and helicopter Sir. It's quite a small island too, and easy to police. There is a staff of nine, five of which are security, we will add in five more to make sure no mishaps like this occur again, if that is okay with you Sir?"

"Of course it is T, and Christian agrees, so do we sail over or what?" I ask.

"Helicopter it is then and Thank you Taylor, I will not try to teach you to suck eggs, I will leave that to Ana here. Ana, I am so sorry, I could have got you shot, the babies are they okay?" I rub the flat surface and assure him we are fine, it is then I see his nose bleed.

"Christian, your nose, its bleeding, are you okay?" I am worried, as he is oblivious to its trickling down his face. What sort of damage has this thing done to him, it wasn't that long ago he was the one taking the damned bullet.

"I think I will be fine, I used to get these a lot as a kid, I bottle up my temper and it makes my nose pop out blood when it gets too fraught." Precious gives him a tissue and we drive back to the lodge. So much for all we had planned, if word of our arrival was known to kids, gun carrying kids, then I don't want to be around when men with guns, come a looking for us. I was worked up enough about kids. I wonder if Kemi has been informed of his children's actions today and if they found the little girl Kimba and her aunt?

Getting back to the reserve, Christian is still in a very foul mood, but silent, and silent with him means he is brooding, not good at all, and I would think everyone and his master is about to get a taste of the CEO, and his dark side. I was right of course… First, he laid into the lodge manager and secondly, he demanaded answers from Kemi. Kemi thought his children were with their care giver, his sister, at home, she it seems was clocked over her head with a cosh of some kind, the same thing that hurt little Kimba. Both were blooded and had been knocked out, the sight was something the little boys did not need to see, but their deranged brother had told them that they would die if they did not follow his orders and find the lions for him. It seems there is a big market for almost every part of a lion? So they did as they were told. I have to wonder would their brothers let them be lion bate?

The police came for the other kid bandits, including Kemi's eldest sons whom he refused to speak to, they left the two youngest with Kemi, they were petrified, as was Kemi, he needed his job, the home they had and the money his wages brought in to feed and clothe them. I for one did not blame Kemi, or in fact either of the boys, Christian and I did not want the two of them to suffer because of what their elder brothers had forced them into doing. Kimba and her Aunt were taken to the hospital, closely followed by Kemi and the boys. All in all we had a pretty wild safari, Christian is still not quite right, losing the plot with the resort manager did not make him feel any better either. I think he said something about black balling him and or giving him black balls, knowing him though possibly both? Christian has threatened to sue them for everything they have, I however calmed him down and made the owner a very decent offer to buy them out, seeing as they were useless at keeping the lions safe and their security was at best next to useless. They were pleased to accept my offer, it seems I won a pigging African Safari Park, something I may live to regret. My off the cuff offer was accepted. I know have to find people to bloody run it for me, because this lot couldn't do it.

The local police, such as they are, are here to take statements, Taylor has given his statement and Gail is arranging for our luggage to be packed, collected, and taken to the plane. I do not need more stress and being here is bloody stressful. I will in future look at my lions, through the live feed cameras, if I feel the need to look at Christian and his friends, distance is the new key to our not being held up by boy bandits. I have also looked at the idea Precious had, and agree to fund the total enclosure of twenty acres of land, just for the lions rescued from zoo's, and circuses. Christian is talking to our security when I enter the room. The reserve owner and manager is here too, discussing the price I agreed to no doubt. Good, two birds with one stone, there is nothing I like more than saving time, well normal day to day likes that is. I giggle, I rather like sexing my husband into heaven or hell, now that is time well spent.

"Ana, are you okay Baby?"

"Yeah, what's a little more drama, in the grand scheme of things?"

"Ana, I am being serious."

"So am I Christian, we escaped with just ringing in our ears, we were very lucky, thank you Taylor."

"Mrs Grey, you have nothing to thank me for, I was doing my job."

"Oh for god's sake, take a damned compliment and a thank you. Christian, you need to change, I kept back a change of clothes, go shower and do whatever you need to do, you are covered in blood and look like you have been shot again!"

"I will do that now, we were just trying to reach the flight staff, they are still in town. When they get back we will set off for Bora-Bora. Gail and Holly have ordered us a meal to share whilst we wait."

"I am famished, can we eat on the veranda facing the river and try to see the animals one last time?"

"By animals you mean Christian and Nonno?"

"Yup, from the safety of the lodge, if I ever tell you I want to go on safari again, lock me up and throw away the key. Please?"

"I will, oh and Christian and his lion posse actually killed a zebra, with no help from any of the wardens, it seems fresh blood in the air returned the posse to the dark side and their natural killer instincts took over, they shot off after the incident and their wardens witnessed Christian's mate and her ladies take down the zebra. It was the first time any of them have acted like a wild pride." Christian informs me.

"So will they be able to hunt in the acreage I have agreed to fund for the born in captivity lions?" The presant owner of the lodge is with Taylor and the others.

"Mrs Grey, there is plenty of land for them to roam free in, if you are sure that's what you want, it will be expensive, but it will bring employment to the area?" Says Precious, the owner is grinning, what's betting my rash offer was too high to say no too?

"I do, I want him to be both safe and free to be a lion. Today has proved he can hunt for himself and I want that to continue. I would also like truthful reports back on my lion, if he can't be safe here, then I want him moved to a safari park, am I clear that the money I will pour into this place is for the safety of him and his pride?"

"Yes Mrs Grey, your man here is instant upon it. I never meant to keep the security issues we had about your lion to myself, but he was, until this incident quite the laziest of the lions we have ever had here." Precious it seems is to head up the reserves animal protection. The old owner has shaken hands with Christian and is smiling like a goon, what am I, invisible?

"Lazy?"

"Um, he was the first one at the truck for feeding, and the last one to wake up after his nap. However he was amazing in the hunt today. They worked well together a true pride of lions."

"Yes, I believe the ladies downed a zebra after we left?"

"They did, their keepers and the warden filmed it, I have given Mr Grey a copy of the film they took, its shows that at some point nature does take over."

"Good, what about Kemi and his children? Precious, are they safe?"

"We fired him." Said the goon I bought the place from.

"You what? I don't for one minute think he had anything to do with this, so why fire him because of his eldest two children?"

"Mrs Grey?" He looks stunned.

"I want him to keep his job, I want his family safe and I want those children to have a home, a safe home, they can have yours, so be out of it today or I cut the price to market value, I have a feeling it won't be as much as the offer you shook hands with my husband for." I sob and Christian, bloody shirt and all comes to my side.

"Ana?"

"They didn't do anything other than care for their sister, it's not their fault that their brothers are nutters, and it certainly wasn't Kemi's fault, he isn't to blame for those two becoming rouges, bloody useless brothers, son and a pair of thugs. He didn't know what was going on because he was pandering to us. I guess like Taylor he is usually on call twenty four hours a day?"

"Mrs Grey, he has to be, our guests have twenty four hours a day care."

"I want to pay for their education and their care, the three youngest I mean, not the elder two. I want their father to have more time off to spend with them, more family time too. A little presumptuous of me I know, but he is struggling and needs some help, perhaps if he knows his shit well enough he could run the lodges and the hotel?" Hormones are to blame, I know I am a stranger sticking my nose into Kemi's affairs, but I have the damned money to help them, so I will…

"Consider it done." I sigh, "The elder boys are looking at least ten years in jail." Says the owner as I pull myself from Christian, his blooded shirt is making me feel very sick. The old owner leaves as dinner is served. It seems I have myself an animal reserve?

"So it seems Mr Grey, that we now have the land for a golf course, can I persuade you to build one here?"

"Nope, I don't think the guests will like dodging the wildlife, it's bad enough at the ones I have near swamps back home. The alligators are easier to handle than lions." I laugh for the first time all afternoon.

"Christian, please get a shower, you pong."

"Pong?" He says as he stares down at me.

"Pong, stink, smell and it's not good, I wanna puke."

"Oh god, okay sorry I was just too busy. Start without me folks I will be back in ten. Ana eat please?"

"Derrr, like you have to ask me to eat. What is on the menu?" I ask the guy standing in for Kemi.

"Ostrich…" I gulp…

"Can I perhaps just have soup?" I am not too keen on trying it. I know I am a chef and should be open to it, but somethings I am not wired to trying, and emu and ostrich are on the list.

"You do not like ostrich Ma'am?" I shake my head.

"No, I don't like eating rabbit, deer, or ostrich, Thumper, Bambie and Big Bird, they are off my menu."

"I don't understand Ma'am, we don't have Thumper, Bambie and yes the ostrich is a big bird, but it is good to eat. It tastes like an earthy Turkey?" Gail smiles as the new butler tries to sell me on the damned bird.

"Ana, are you becoming a vegetarian?" She asks.

"No, I like meat, Gail. I just don't want to eat Big Bird."

"We have beef and chicken Ma'am, the chicken is a little bird, is a little bird okay Ma'am…" He asks,

"Chicken is fine. I feel like chicken. Oh Gail I keep having flashbacks of those kids with guns."

"I didn't see a lot, I was pushed to the floor, quite unceremoniously by Jason."

"Would you rather I let them shoot you Gail?" He counters.

"No, but I was quite able to get down myself."

"Sorry did I hurt you?" He says, as he checks her over.

"And now he asks how I am feeling, typical, men…"

"Honey, did I do something else to piss you off?" Poor Taylor.

"No, nothing else, but you could have said something sooner and we could have stayed home, and been safe."

"You were safe, besides we were told there were only ten of the little bastards."

"Who warned you Taylor? I mean who knew they were going to attack us?" I ask. Gail is right if he knew, we should have been told.

"The young girl in the kitchen heard two of the waiters talking, and came to tell me."

"Okay, is she okay?"

"She will be now the boy who was tormenting her is locked away."

"Okay, so she is safe?" Taylor nods his head.

"Very. The reason I took the path I took was because their plan was to shoot up the villa, taking you and the group on the safari, gave us the upper hand, they had no clue they were surrounded, that's why I hired men not boys, you were never in any danger, I just didn't figure in the two small boys. Now, if I have explained myself enough, please excuse me whilst I make arrangements to get our party to the plane. If you are sure you want to leave Mrs Grey?"

"Yup. I have seen as much wildlife as I want thank you."

"There are animal on your island Mrs Grey."

"I know, but there are no nutters hunting them. At least I don't think there are, No, I know if there were, Uncle Marco would not love the place as much as he does. He is there all the time, he even goes on his own, he says it refreshes his soul."

"I have heard its very nice," Gail says as she feeds me. My plate is laden with chicken salad and crust bread. "More chicken Ana?"

"No thank you, and no spit washes, I never liked them when Mimi got her hankie out."

"Sorry, I didn't mean it, I just did it." Holly walks in and laughs.

"Mimi used to do that, so did Jenny, it was so funny. Hi Gail, how are you?"

"I was just saying I am fine, though I do not want to come face to face with any other children carrying guns and knives. The security made a mess of a few of the boys, but as the security guys said, you play with fire, you get burned, and they should think themselves very lucky they were only told to shoot to disarm and not kill. What is the world coming too? Holly do you want some chicken?"

"Nah, I am trying something called Big Bird? The waiter is ranting about, an ostrich and big birds and small birds? Did you upset him Annie?"

"Yeah, I might have. I just don't like the idea of eating ostrich. I don't eat kangaroo either."

"I know, you don't eat Skippy either. Annie, you have to stop putting a face and a name on all you eat."

"Okay, you and I will have to agree to disagree, besides didn't you say in France you weren't for eating any relation of your horse Daisy?"

"Hey, or hay even, now that's funny, I have had my pony for yonks, and there is no reason to have her in a burger now I can't ride her. Besides its barbaric to eat a pet."

"I know…"

"Annie, you never had pets." She says as I stab at the chicken. It's good, for a little bird.

"I did, on Otter Island. The pet lamb I had, which I later learned hadn't gone to the mainland, but was in fact the lamb on the spit for the worst birthday Papa Frank ever threw for the me. That was not a good day. Knowing I'd eaten and enjoyed Beautiful, my pet lamb, on my own birthday." I sob, over a lamb I ate for my birthday when I was twelve!

"I remember, you puked for days and became a vegan for a while."

"Ana, what's all this vegan talk?" Christian asks as he comes back, looking refreshed and clean. God, that man has some mighty strong he man smells.

"I had a phase of trying out ways to annoy Papa Frank, especially after Mimi died, and changing my diet was one of the many things I did to upturn the apple cart. I was so angry at him for keeping Mimi from me, for sending me away. On the holiday from hell. I mean it, no more crap birthdays for me, but that was the most memorable of birthdays, that's for sure."

"What are you eating now?" He asks as I stare at Holly's plate.

"Little bird. She has upset the cook. By not eating big bird." Holly says as she tucks into big bird.

"Are you having a wing Holly?" He asks her.

"Nah a drumstick, this would not be out of place on the Flintstones. Look its massive, hubba, hubba dooooo…" She is a fool. "It's nice it tastes like turkey." I shake my head. That girl has no table manners. "Have some Annie, it's very good."

"Nope. I am fine with chicken. Gail this is chicken right and not something that tastes like chicken?"

"Yes I saw them kill it before we left for the safari." I put down my fork filled with chicken.

"Really?" She nods.

"Yes, fresh from the farm this morning. Any fresher and it would still be laying eggs. Which is the only reason it is dinner, because it wasn't laying." I feel queasy.

"Ana, where do you think the meat comes from?"

"I know, I know but it doesn't make me feel better knowing it died to feed me, and my meat comes from the butchers and the super market, so I don't usually think beyond those two places. I am a wuss I know. I can't help it. The Italian family and Uncle Ray and the boys, they laugh at me all the time, I guess I like meat too much to be a vegetarian, as I said I am a wuss."

"They share the chickens with the guests and the lions." I burp and then I feel sick.

"Oh excuse me, this chicken is repeating. Perhaps I will stick to salad and get something later on the plane? Which is when Christian?"

"The flight crew have had their bags packed and will meet us at the plane when you have eaten. I am sorry we had to cut the safari part of our honeymoon short. Are you going to be okay Ana?"

"Yes, yes oh yes. It was my choice to go, you are so good to me letting me mess with the plans."

"I will let you into a secret, Taylor hated the thought of Africa. So, you have made his day, his week or even his year."

"I feel a song coming on. Any one for singing the Friends theme tune? No? I can't say I blame you. Holly have you done with the leg of ostrich?"

"It beat me, I mean it really beat me. I haven't got my fat pants on either."

"What are fat pants and why do you have them, neither of you are fat?" Christian asks.

"Annie and I, thank you for noticing how buff we are, but yes, we have a pair of none too flattering fat pants. They are good for all you can eat buffets and for that time of the month. They are loose and baggy and allow for a food baby."

"A what?" He asks, any minute now he will regret asking Holly that question.

"A big belly full of food, the trousers expand and allow for a little more eating of the good food. They are also good for hiding the bloating from periods, anything else Mr Grey?"

"Em no, no I think you got it covered."

"Oh and they are good for hiding the odd bottle of nuff de pap at the posh does she takes me too. No joke, I had Jenny sew me a couple of pockets inside my favourite ones and I am easily able to smuggle out wine and snacks for when I get the munchies at home."

"Does Ana not feed you?" Christian asks, and I shake my head, where is your cut off switch Holly?

"Of course she does, but I hate to see food go to waste, so I take as much as I can fit in my MC Hammer Time pants and give it to the homeless people I pass. I keep the wine, because it doesn't mix well with their preferred booze of choice, cider and cheap larger."

"Okay. Are you being serious or pulling my leg Holly. I can never tell with you?"

"Yes, of course I am, I hate food waste, I also applaud freegans…"

"What is that?" He asks her.

"Freegans, they practice Freeganism, they scavenge for food, which is scrapped and thrown out, it is food which can still be eaten and yet is wasted." I feel sick again.

"Okay and you have had this free food?" He asks her.

"No, well once, but I got food poisoning, the chap who I was dating, his nose couldn't smell the badness and I ate it thinking I was cool. It is only cool if you know the forager is good at hunting for good food, the chap I was seeing had no clue what he was doing. Hey ho, though I hear he is doing well in his bistro, and it a Michelin chef."

"What? He serves freegan food to his customers? Remind me not to eat there."

"I will send you the details. I avoid it like the plague, but it's the new in thing in London, with the trendy and stupid of the borough. Like I said food poison is not a good thing to have, not on top of my hurting period pains. My pants were needed that weekend that's for sure."

"Ana, is she serious? Really?"

"I am afraid so, and no I have never eaten there." He doesn't believe me either. I mean I wouldn't but Holly always goes the extra mile to get her leg over. I shake my head and remember her crush on the mad chef. A crush that crashed and burnt. He liked to go hunting with more than one girl at a time. In fact if memory serves me, she nearly killed him in a wasted food bin she knew he liked to visit, she locked it with a padlock and he and his other lady were stuck in there till the shop opened Monday. She has the photos to prove it, she is definitely a handful my friend and crazy arsed sister. Still Christian thinks she is joking sadly she isn't. Wait till he sees her albums, she is a nutter and most of her escapades are photographed for posterity. Including, ironing whilst sky diving, skiing on an ironing board, for that she had a caste on her arm for six weeks, she and her ironing board and iron hit a tree on the ski slopes in Italy. Still they make for some great pictures, her best are her bungie jumps off of many a bridge and crane. Some say she is fearless, I say she is a nutter.

"I will take you to my fav eatery…"

"Wasted food?"

"Nah, Mc Donald's create your own… I have the ten burger stack. Amazing." I laugh because I doubt Christian has even been in the house with the clown and the yellow arched M's? He is lost for words as he too eats big bird. They all do… On wards and outwards towards Boro-Boro, we go, I leave Africa with a safari park and images of blooded boys and bloody big birds chasing me, still it was good to see Christian and Nonno, and now I own their homes, oh god wasn't I meant to be downsizing not buying more? Lord that birthday treat for my baby Christian has cost me just short of five million pounds, though it sounded more in Rand. Hey ho, the lion and the elephants are safe and I feel good about that. I love the idea of my new range of chocolates too, Animal Crackers In My Zoo…Oh me oh my…

* * *

Thanks for all the good wishes and get well messages, its happening, I mean my hands are getting better and I have more control over my diabetes, which is helping my eyes. I swear I would not wish this pain on my worst enemy and to be nearly blind, through bad diet is a wake-up-call, a call to never eat chocolate and cake again… So thank you for the messages too. And a special shout out to **_Karmen Tigue_** , who was on vacation and was in Anastasia, and asked where Ana's mom lived. She assures me the place is beautiful, as I only ever saw it on Google, I bow to her seeing it for real. How I wish I could see the laces I write about in my stories and my books. Thank heavens for Google I say, and their maps, but for her to remember it I thank you _**Karmen Tigue**_ , 'COS IT MADE ME SMILE WHEN I WAS FEELING DOWN XX


	58. Chapter 58

This story is nowt like fifty shades; I just purloined E.L. James's characters, buildings and some of her other stuff...

* * *

Dreaming of Chocolate and Grey:

 ** _There is no Bora-Bora chapter, but there will be flashbacks in future ones…_**

Chapter 58:

Home the rested travellers:

Ana and I are headed to Escala. Tired and exhausted from the flight home. Though the flight back was considerably less than the one going, thank god. Ana is blossoming and the babies are already beginning to make their presence known, she has put on weight. I have been the gentleman and assured her she is not at all fat. Which she isn't, though her clothes do not fit.

 _Bora-Bora, two weeks ago… Nine days into honeymoon from hell…_

She had the mother of all melt down on Bora-Bora and tipped all her clothes into the sea. Was I shocked? You bet your ass I was, because she went at her cupboards and wardrobe like a woman possessed, it was so damned frightening. I can tell you. The retrieving of the clothes was another matter altogether and though it was retrieved she hated the skinny clothes we got back for her, Gail assures me it's a touchy subject, the weight gain and the small clothes. Gail has noted for future use, she will order the next size of clothes up and replace the tighter of her outfits in future. A plan that will save us these bloody awful temper tantrums she has, I swear she can go from angel to demon in the same conversation, and Taylor the fucker, he seems to love seeing me get my ass handed to me on a plate. Gail understands, but even she laughs when Ana starts. Anyway, Ana cried all day because her stuff was ruined. She threw the fuckers in the bloody ocean, and yet it was my fault for not stopping her. Go figure that one out, I tried to and gave up the ghost?

We had our first row. Actually, she did all the shouting, I just replied yes Dear where I was threatened with becoming a Eunuch if I laughed, I may have smirked, but I wouldn't dare laugh at her. I like my danglies, as she calls them, and don't relish her hacking them off in the night either. So, thinking with my wallet, again, I ordered her, through Caroline Acton, a replacement wardrobe of maternity clothes. Did I expect thanks when they were couriered to the island? No, but neither did I expect to be sleeping in the spare room for calling her fat? I did no such thing, but stayed silent for fear of having said balls cut off. I fear she meant it at the time. So I went to bed alone, only to be woken when her sobbing hit fever pitch. I rushed to her side…

"I'm a cow." Do I say something? "I am a fat moody cow." I still say nothing. I am in that deserted place called new husband, soon to be father territory, and lost, what do I say to get back in her good books, I tried lying earlier, to no avail and all that got me was a filthy look and the spare room…

"Hormones, I read in my book it's your hormones fault, you know all these mood swings Baby?"

"Hormones, book, mood swings, what the hell Christian?" Now, what do I say? It seems I have fucked up again. "Well?"

She taps her foot like a petulant child, so do I stop her and tell her to man up, or in her case woman up and act her damned age? I really am no good at sussing out my wife's mood swings, they are more, I don't know? More up and down than the escalators in any god given busy office block, and they are likely to land you at a whole different floor full of these fucking thrilling times we have had of late. Though a couple of the floors I love getting off on, and I do. Yes, I have to add the only good mood swings she has are when she needs sex, now those I do not mind, but given I seem to have pissed her off, a lot, I hardly doubt I am in line for a sexathon tonight, now am I?

"Ana, stop stressing over the stupidest of things, yesterday it was the weather, it's too sunny here, you cried because it is not London, where the rain is in fact forever falling, and yes much like Scotland, the place you love and wanted to go to, then changed your mind and wanted to go back and see the damned lions again, which I did not take seriously because you told me not to take that suggestion seriously, so I didn't, and seeing as it took you all last week to stop having the dratted nightmares about those damned kids the answer to that was fuck no and I meant it, I didn't want you to cry all day about it, but you did.

You seem to think I am not God, but sometimes woman you expect me to be more than the mere man I am. If I were he Ana, Baby, I would make it that men had the babies, okay and feel the pain you seem to think I deserve? Today it was the cooking schools, the television studio and Elliot of all people who took it on himself to piss you off. By the way he didn't mean to say you were fat, he simply meant you could tell you are with child. Then, earlier it was the damned bastard birds that were being too loud. What do you want me to do Ana?" She stopped sobbing and was now red, and about to pop that tight fist in my face. Damn, I don't know if to be afraid or turned on by this behaviour? Damn it, I may be a little of both.

"Nothing, I expect nothing, so I get nothing." She stormed off. Okay, that was not fair, I do fucking everything I can to make her feel better. What more can I do? Holly is faring no better either, she was at the brunt of Ana's more uppity moments last week, lack of sleep and nightmares about the kids, yup, our kids were the ones with knives and guns, shooting us. I think she needs therapy, serious therapy. Her dreams used to be of me and our son, now they are nightmares, which range from the Non-Nonna and the bodies in New York, the kids who ambushed us coming back as zombies, even though none of them died, to Elena and I fucking, those were particularly hard ones to bare, for me and for her.

So, yes the lack of sleep meant she was extra crabby and poor Holly and she had three days apart from each other, may I add it was quiet without her oh godding all the damned time? They made up when Ana made her lunch and took it to her, humble pie. The biggest Apple pie I have ever seen, and the fuckers polished it all off too. They are an odd couple, but they work at it, almost like sisters, and I get why they are close. I just wish I knew Ana like Holly does.

"Ana, Ana come back here, I meant…" The sight I saw, or rather didn't see as I walked out of our bedroom was one that frightened the crap out of me. Ana was nowhere to be seen and I panicked. I headed out of the villa and looked everywhere, I was about to call Code Red, when I spotted her, she was going at some pace to the bay she loves so much, to watch the baby turtles as they head to the sea, and boy she can run if she has half a mind to, and fast too. I chased her down the beach for what seemed like forever too. When I caught up with her she was red eyed and teary. A sight that tore my heart into bits, she was taking photos of the turtles. Crying, snotting and sniffing up. A most delightful sight. Not!

"I'm sorry, I was such a miserable cow. I swear I was not like this with our son. But these three witches, The Witches of Eastwick, have nothing on these three, no, they are making me into a raving monster. Christian, you must hate me?"

"No Baby, far from it. What's caused this melt down?"

"I picked up a dress, and it was so pretty." She has done this because of a fucking dress? "I fit in it, but I swear when I tried it on last week it didn't. Am I going mad? I think I may be doing? I can't see it, but I swear it didn't fit last week. It was the one that hit the surf first in fact, so am I losing weight, if I am then that's a bad thing, right?" She is right, it was one of the dresses Gail swapped over.

"You like the dress?"

"I love it. I just don't know how I fit in it when I didn't last week, are you not listening to me Christian?"

"Gail ordered all the other clothes you had, in several differing sizes. Did I fuck up again?"

"No, no, you didn't I just thought I was going Lady Gaga for a moment back then." I smile and sit and we watch the tiny turtles scurry to the water's edge. They are very cute! I lost my man up balls then.

"Ana, does it get better?"

"What, than this?"

"No, the damned mood swings? Baby I swear I am on pins all the time. I just don't know how to handle them."

"I don't know. I was depressed having Christian and on my own most of the time, so I only had myself to piss off. I told myself off a lot too. So don't think you have to handle me with kid gloves either, I mean it tell me. Chances are I already know what an uber cow I am being, besides, being nice to me pisses me off a lot of the time."

"Hu?" I say, I'm a confused as fuck mess. What the hell? I will have to call Mom and see what I need to do. The damned books no good, the internet was next to useless, though the Mom and baby forum I went on was very enlightening. I know now more shit about trimesters, birthing, sore nipples and the no sex for six weeks after, than I did before, and as much as I love sex, with my wife, I would think six months would be too soon, unless we have some serious contraception in place. I love her, love the fact that we are having three babies, but the thought of doing this again, chills me to the bone…

"Look, aren't they wonderful?" She says as we see the differing nests let loose their tiny occupants. "Of all those babies, only a handful will make it Christian, that's awful to know that it is just the strong who survive." I think about it, is she having a weepy moment about our son? "It's just one of the things that I guess mother nature sends to try us."

"Indeed, but sometimes the weak do make it Baby, their survivor instincts kick in and they get clever, they hide and make it."

"I guess so, so am I forgiven for being a bitch?"

"Yes, if I am forgiven for making you gaga?"

"You are… Do you want to have a here to eternity moment?" Is that a new chocolate? "I wanna make it up to you Mr Grey?" With a chocolate? "I want to frolic in the ocean and roll around in the sand as the waves crash over is?" Oh, that here to eternity… Fuck yes. We roll ion the sand, clothed and naked and end up looking like two blocks of sand paper, though the naked swim helped afterwards. We both love beach sex and sea sex, we love it loads, so much so when we set about finding our forever home, it has to have a beach, if not we will import the sand and make one. I am having my cake and eating it right now, we are not done making up for time lost...

"Christian, Christian…"

"What Dear."

We are in the car heading home. Christian has had the patience of a saint with me, he is a keeper that's for sure. He what dears me when I am complaining or having a strop, it's our code for change. Whilst on honeymoon it was used a lot. I was far more teary than I have ever been before, I need to see someone, I wonder if it is worse because there are three babies? I am forgetful too, which is not like me at all. I need to get back to work and focus, and get back to being the head honcho for a bit. I still don't know if and how it will work, my being a working mum would mean I have to travel. There are so many things we didn't talk about before we were gifted the power of three. I mean we talked, on honeymoon, but I tended to fall asleep, or we had sex, which was really quiet nice, though sex in the sand was a problem, a nice problem… I sigh… I so want him, and now…

"Did you get to look at the houses we have to see?" I say as I stare at the familiar streets of Seattle, as our cars travel to our for now home, Escala.

"I did, and I like the look of another that Mom found."

"Is it near them?"

That sounded awful, but I want some us time, it's bad enough we share with his staff, which is something I guess will be tested now we have had a month of seeing Taylor and Gail as friends. I really did change the dynamics of the staff to friend thing, it was awkward at first. I like it casual, but I am sure Christian and Taylor don't, they may just put up with it at home and be boss and employee at work? I will never call Gail my employee, though technically she is Christian's employee, she is my friend first, a second mother almost. Which, when I told Christian about, he smiled and said he agreed, she did mother him and he liked it too.

"No, and yes, its facing the Sound, but it's quiet the drive around the coast, so its close but not."

"Close, but not? That is as clear as mud." I look at my husband and smile. We are home. At last. Why did we not just stay here and lock the door, close off the lift and spend the month here? Hindsight is a wonderful thing I guess? Escala is just as imposing as I remember it, we head to our own garage, I mean there are three underground garages here, and one floor is just for Christian's cars… Mind blowing… There is enough space to have my little collection shipped here from my various homes, I guess? I may just buy more and be flippant with my wealth, and become my husband? I only splurge once a year for myself, but I guess I could learn to be like Christian? I smile as his hand grabs mine.

"What are you smiling about Ana?"

"Buying cars to fill this place of course."

"Okay, if buying cars makes you happy then do it."

"I will. How is this all going to work Christian?"

"What?" He says and looks confused.

"Combining our homes, our cars, our things?" His reaction is priceless. Yup, I am not willing to live forever with his old stuff, and I doubt he wants to live with my stuff. Practicalities we should have sorted before we rushed head long into marriage.

"I guess we don't, we start a fresh and work out what to sell, what to gift and what to keep. I mean we have several homes in the same places. We have businesses in the same places too. So we start a fresh with new homes. Homes that are for us, not for me and not for you but us. Don't worry Mrs Grey, we are going to be fine."

"I know, but I just need stability at home, because work is hectic. For us both." We head up in the lift, sorry elevator. Seeing as we both speak English you'd think we'd have the same name for stuff, but we don't… I am suddenly up in his arms, my feet are taken from beneath me. Again…

"Mrs Grey, welcome home…"

"Thanks for having me." He kisses me and my heart does a flip. Will I ever tire of being kissed by my man, nope, never, or I hope not. The elevator stops at the top and we head in. The others are loading our things into the service elevator, minus Holly, as she flew straight to Vancouver from the airport, to finish her commitment to the film she had on the go, then she is going to be with Sawyer, and they will then be my own security detail. I don't need two here, not just yet anyway, as we live and work together Christian and I.

"Wow, its bigger than I remember." I say as Christian carries me to our bedroom.

"Will you be okay Ana?" What did he mean? "With stopping here, at Escala…?"

"Why would I not be fine? Christian, this is your home here, why would I not be fine?"

"It's my past…" Then I smile.

"You mean the others being here?" He looks coy. "Oh my god really?"

"Yes…"

"Has your red playroom been removed?"

"No. Not yet. Their room has been changed, whilst we are away, into a room for your parents, but the playroom, is still as it was, I didn't know what to do with it? Though it is now cream, and is supposed to be a lot brighter, as per your wishes."

"Oh good, I'd hate for you to get rid of it. We can still use it, can't we?"

"Now?" He asks. I laugh.

"Perhaps some other time, right now I am knackered and my feet feel like I am lugging water balloons around with me."

"Okay, so when we get in we will eat, yes?" He is a funny bugger with my eating, but I guess it shows he cares?

"Can we order take out? I am not in the mood for cooking and Gail is sorting out their things and doesn't start back at work just yet."

"What do you fancy?"

"Surprise me, please? I trust you implicitly. I am going for a shower and to change into my comfortable stuff. Feel free to join me, when you have ordered food." I wink and head in to the shower. I am not joined in the shower and when I get out I dry my hair and put on my baggiest pjs and head in to see where my man has gone. I stare at the sight before me, Christian is fast asleep, I mean he is dead to the world. What the hell? I grab a cover from the back of the seat and throw it over him. He seems to be a hell of a lot calmer than he was on actual holiday. Why is that I wonder? I head to the kitchen and make myself a tea, a green tea. I grab a book and sit on the rug and watch him as he sleeps. Taylor coughs, to get my attention. He has our Chinese food.

"Can you and Gail eat it? Only Christian seems to need sleep a little more than food?"

"Is he unwell?"

"No just tired."

"I expect he is sleeping a little more soundly because here he knows he is safe, he did voice his opinions about your safety quite a few times whilst we were away."

"He was worried?"

"He always worries about you. I will leave this on the counter, Gail has already made our dinner, Ana. We are going to try to get some sleep, Mr Grey and I have to be up early in the morning. Is there anything you need?" Work, oh god, we are back to real life.

"No Taylor, I am fine, I will wake him in a little while, thank you for the food, please go and eat yours." He nods his head and disappears as quietly as he arrived. We are back to real life with a thud. Tomorrow I have to see to the new building and see what has been going on in my absence. I must have a back log of stuff to deal with, I have had a month off, a whole month and apart from the odd e-mail from my gang of workers, they have left well alone and Kate has been dealing with things for me. I wonder how she and Elliot are enjoying married life? I guess we will find out tomorrow? Christian is murmuring my name. I finish my tea and put the food away. Then head to the sofa and lay next to my husband. His arm comes over and he sighs. I guess, we both need to sleep?

A new day, with added trouble…

Ana and I are woken by the sound and smells of breakfast being made, how the hell did we get here? Ana turns to face me and smiles.

"Good morning Mr Grey, you fell asleep here, so I joined you. We it seems needed a day off sexing each other to death."

"We did? My bad. I was heading into the shower was I not?"

"Yup. You didn't join me and I came a hunting for my man, only he was snoring."

"I snore?"

"Yup, really loud too."

"Oh, really?"

"Nah, but you are nice to snuggle with. So I joined you."

"Thanks for that. Why not wake me?"

"I needed sleep too. I felt a lot safer here and I don't know, a little more secure in the knowledge this place is like Fort Knox, I guess the last month has been as bad for you Christian?"

"I didn't know you were worrying too?"

"Oh hell yes. I loved the island, it was all it was meant to be beautiful and sunny and restful, but I didn't feel too safe at night."

"Well in future tell me, I could have had more security added to the ones you had there and Taylor could have done more."

"I had you, so I didn't need anyone else, and you had some fears too, didn't you?"

"A few… Taylor?"

"Yes, your right arm told me you were very worried."

"I have more than myself to think of now, I have a wife and three children, whom I need to protect."

"Okay then communication is the key to a happy marriage. So, we best get breakfast, if my nose is not playing tricks with me, someone has made fresh bread." We each peer over the sofa and see Gail doing her wonder woman impression. She has cooked up a storm. We smile, turn and as we do Ana kisses me, thank god, she seems to have woken up happy and not hormonal, for a change.

"It's good to be home Ana. Good to be home."

"It is. The honeymoon is over and we have a couple of businesses to see to. Christian, we need more down time, can we work out with each other to have the odd days off, and together time, time for shared lunches and sneaky office shenanigans?"

"I don't see a problem with shenanigans. Though Ros has earned her holiday time off with Gwen. So I may be a little snowed under for a couple of weeks, but I will work something out. This is where and when being a married power couple gets risky. This time we need Ana, and that is going to be tricky for a while."

"I know, but we need to try to work out a routine, and included in that is to be dinner to be eaten at home, because when they get here Daddy and Mommy will be here for their dinner and bedtime, that is a given."

"Yes, I agree, and breakfast is to be had here, a family breakfast, it's a must, it's one thing Mom insisted on, that and Sunday Lunch. Though most of the time she was the one not there because of an emergency, but I guess saving a life of a child, it comes before a breakfast date."

"Yes, it would. I would ideally like no weekend work, unless it is really, really, necessary, please can we keep that for strolls with our children and picnics and family fun are to be had? Christian, think about it, please?"

"I have to work some weekends and it tends to be when the social side of our businesses, comes alive and it will mean we have to socialise too Ana."

"Balls and benefits?"

"Yes, balls and benefits Ana."

Oh god how did I do this before her? I cannot be away from her, not for weeks like I was before and neither can Ros be made to cover my ass, I think it is a good time to start downsizing and regroup my businesses into smaller branches of the massive Grey Tree and bring in some big guns to run the smaller businesses, I used to be a work mule, now I want to be a family man. As much as I love running this company, I love my wife and family more. I think Ana will have the same problem, though she is more willing to get in the help needed to free her up to create. I am very reluctant to do that. I will have to though, because I am not willing to lose Ana, not ever, if I have to sell it all I will. The old me would be laughing this me into a padded cell, the new me is going to try to make this work, this is a new me and a new day. The first day of the rest of my life. Hell I am screwed, I love working…

"Christian, where did you go to then?"

"What?"

"You zoned out a little, are you okay?"

"Did I? I didn't realise I had, but don't worry, I'm fine. How are you?"

"Fine I think? Worried about what a month's absence will look like. I mean apart from the times I took off because of Nonna and Nonno, I have never been away from the business for as long as this, it's been chaos since we got together, a crazy nice chaos, I will add in case you think I am regretting the time off, because I am not, but back then I had my trusty laptop and phone."

"It's the same for me. Ros has been great, she has stepped up to take my place perfectly."

"How are you going to manage? I mean I know you will, because that's just who you are, but what did you mean cutting back and defragging your company?" I hadn't really given that more than a passing thought, until now, but I was and am serious about focusing on perhaps three or four of my businesses.

"We will have to, as you say defrag, and I, like you, will have to employ people to take over the day to day running of the branches within the Grey Tree. I know I do too much and am not great at giving the power I have to someone else. Ros tells me all the time, to take my foot off the peddle and I can honestly say, until just lately I would have laughed at her and pushed the peddle harder, to prove I can take the heat and the pressure, but…"

"…Being with me has added to your load, not released some of it, am I right?"

"Yes. I still have the pressure Baby, but now you are the single most important thing in my life, not the business, but you and our family now come first, as it should be."

"We seem to be going around in circles, chasing our tails, don't we?"

"Yes, yes we do. Now let's go and eat I am starving, by the way, where did the Chinese I ordered go?"

"It's in the fridge, I wasn't feeling up to it when Taylor brought it up. So I too am ravenous. I could eat anything, including Emu or Ostrich, if that's what is cooking. My belly feels like my throat has been cut."

"What?"

"Another old Jenny saying. I do miss her Christian, I really do." And cue the tears.

Ana and I we eat the pancakes and the fresh fruit Gail has prepared, she is a little uncomfortable with using my name, though Ana's falls easily from her mouth. I realise that a month of calling me Christian has messed with her head. I hear her say Sir again.

"Sir, do you want more coffee?"

"No thank you Gail, and please keep calling me Christian, it is how Ana wants her home to be, relaxed."

"Okay, if that's what you want, then Christian it is. Though I do know Taylor is going to struggle with that change." I know it is funny to hear him handle the change.

"He said as much, Ana and I will call him Taylor, he prefers that and he can call us what he is easiest with. But if any of the security team say Ma'am Ana, you are to heed their words, because it means the shit got serious, okay?"

"Yup, after the last incident I know what you mean. Now, I have to be off, back to work and check on the progress of the ever expanding chocolate house I own. Gail as ever your pancakes are very moreish, thank you." She nods her head and clears away. After picking up our electrics, phones and work 'stuff' Ana and I head down to the car. This feels very weird, not wearing board shorts and flip-flops. I love my suits, but this, this feels very confining. Ana is in her power suit and looks as hot as fuck, as we head down in the elevator, so much so I have to kiss her.

"Ana…" She smiles and leans into me. I kiss her and as the elevator stops, she smiles and pulls away.

"Christian, you goof ball, I need to redo my lips..." I am a goof ball? "Thanks though, I needed that. So here we are back to the real world."

"Indeed, take it easy and do not do anything to hurt yourself or the babies, okay?" We are in the car, and heading out, with Sawyer and Taylor. The front of the building is being pestered by the press, really why?

"Oh my god, what are that lot doing outside the building? Taylor, do you know what's sparked their interest in us being home?"

"Apparently, the press have been speculating to your whereabouts Mrs Grey. The Nooz is running a story, as it has done for a month, on why you two have married and where do their readers think you have been and why?"

"Okay, where did they think we were, I mean the last statement said we were going on a much needed honeymoon, really they have no better stories to run, than where's Grey? It must have been a slow month at their offices. Christian, can we buy it and shut it down, it is just a muck raking on line paper?"

"If we do that, they will just open up another group and start a fresh, best we leave them to it. We will be old news soon." I am though livid. I will ask Barney to play with their servers and make being a 'newspaper' difficult. Ana, she doesn't need the stress and neither do I...

"I guess so. So, I am very anxious to see my new base of operations, and Kate of course. I am really excited about it all."

"I know, you did say that a few times a day. You have an office next to mine until yours is finished, please feel free to come and visit anytime you want?"

"I may bring you lunch. I will bring you lunch. Sorry I am just so excited." I see the smile and smile with her.

"I am happy for you Baby. Now Taylor and Sawyer here are serious about your protection Ana, do not go anywhere without Sawyer."

"I won't, I promise I won't. I want to make an appointment to see Liv, Dr Naylor, she has to be settled and set up. Yes?" I nod.

"Yes, Mom sourced her an apartment, its next to Ethan's surrogate too, so you and her will be covered, in case of emergency."

"Oh lummy, we have loads to catch up on, I had forgot about Ethan and Jose and their Baby Mama."

"We will host a dinner."

"Nah, we will have a get together."

"That's a dinner."

"Nope, yours is a posh meal affair, our get togethers are beer and pizza nights. Pretzels and a movie, with plenty of popcorn too."

"So you do this a lot? Throw a get together?"

"Yup, when I am in town and they are, we get together, it's been harder with Jose running his side of my business, so we make the most of it whilst we can."

"Okay, well when you find out what day they can get free, call me. Here we are and look the buildings are still standing."

"Yes Grey House Two is looking very busy, I can't wait to put my hat on and see what your brother has done." Ana and Sawyer get out and I kiss her through the window. "See you for lunch." She smiles and Taylor takes off for the garage. I miss her already…

* * *

Sorry still not feeling it, I think I have just about had it with my shoulder and my general bad health, so since being back from holiday I have been eating healthy and rereading a few of my old stories. There will be, as you see some time hops coming up, as I said in the beginning it was only meant to be a short story and now its massive. And with my books being re written and republished, on Smashwords and amazon, I have very little time for life lol… MAKING IT THOUGH… I hope you are okay with me taking an extra week between chapters? My daughter offered to type what I say, but it's not the same I have to actually see the words before me. as I think I already said! Anyway the focusing of my eyes is getting better. The shoulder is still being a pain… Thanks for reading for the pm's and the reviews, they make me wanna write more… LOL…XXX.


	59. Chapter 59

This story is nowt like fifty shades; I just purloined E.L. James's characters, buildings and some of her other stuff...

* * *

Dreaming of Chocolate and Grey:

Chapter 59:

Calm and relaxed, it's how the Grey's roll:

I leave my beloved husband, god did I actually think that sounded, right? Nope, it sounded so darned cheesy, but he is my whole world, I stare at the back of the car and already I am missing him, Christian and Taylor are heading to the garages in Grey House, and me? I am supposed to be heading towards my new shops fronts, when I gather my senses, I stare at the building before me, and I am like the kid you see entering an amusement park for the first time. Excited doesn't quite describe the inner childlike Ana.

"Okay, this is a much changed building Mrs Grey." Luke says, as I continue to be amazed by the amount of progress they have made. The gray building looks similar to Grey House, with the same slate finish and the steel frames and glass work, though mine is a shorter and broader building, my building has fewer floors that are visible. I laugh and Luke gives me that look.

"Mrs Grey? Ma'am?"

"Oh gheeze Louise, this is too real for words, Elliot works quickly. Look Luke, we have his and hers buildings, and what did I say about the name Luke? It's Ana when we are alone and I have agreed to the Ma'am when there is danger, I am only in danger of drooling right now Luke, and it's Mrs Grey when we are in the company of other employees." He nods his head and I admire the store fronts, they are just the same as my others. Amazing. We head in, to take the tour. Elliot is at the door with Uncle Marco. I missed my lug of an uncle. He of all my uncles I am closer to and work with more.

"Hey if it isn't my beautiful niece. Come and give me a hug, and where's my present?" He grips me hard and spins me around. "Are you okay Bambino?"

"I am feeling great, how are you?"

"Me? I am tickety-boo, knackered and under pressure, my boss is a ball buster."

"Why?"

"Why? Are you mad? I have worked like a speed demon to turn an office block into these wonderful, and I mean fabulous stores, and the café is amazing." I look at his happy face and smile.

"Who are you seeing Uncle Marco? Don't deny it, you have that look?"

"I am seeing someone, but it is early days and as yet, I have nothing I want to share with my niece, just yet. Now, come and see what me and this guy here have done." He stands aside for Elliot, and yet again I am span around and hugged.

"Hi Sis, we have been awaiting your arrival."

"No red carpet?"

"Hey, we have been too busy with getting this done for our demanding client. Where's my oaf of a brother?" I point to the twentieth floor of Grey House.

"Up there, and probably spying on me. How are you?"

"Me, I am great, in need of a holiday and your approval of the changes I made to some of this guy's plans."

"What changes? Uncle Marco? Elliot?"

"Nothing really Ana, we just had to comply to stricter building codes, because of the school kitchens and those in the studio, being on higher floors. It was epic actually, but we went with what they advised so that you could be up and running sooner. Had we not done the changes, adding in other escape routes and extra flame retardant building materials, we may not have been given these little beauts." Marco hands me a file of papers.

"We passed code? Really?"

"Yes Sis, we did, but it meant throwing more money at it. We have overspent, a little bit." Elliot says as he stands back.

"How much?"

"Not a lot Bambino, not considering that this is the flagship of your American stores and your head office and an all singing and dancing television studio, I mean it Ana, its three times the size of any of the other stores you have."

"All I am hearing is money, more money, a lot of money, hit me with it then?" I hold my breath.

"Ten million…" I take a step back. "The television studio was a costly set up, the fire precautions were the next, and the sheer size of the building took another chunk. Ana this building is enormous and you can easily fit two or three of the Swiss set up in here. Oh and be warned, you have a competitor too, they opened shop last week." He points over the road, and I smile.

"I bet they are going to wish they had waited a while before opening. There should be enough business for both of us though. So, show me my money pit."

"This way Ana." Elliot and Marco take me on the grand tour. All I can say is wow. The scale of this set up is huge. I wonder if Seattle is ready for their very own House of D'Acciaio Chocolates? They had better be. I mean if my husband had not gifted me this building, this new venture would not see a profit for many years, I'm already in the hole for sixty million. I look at what sixty million gets you and smile. I am getting the dream. That's what!

"Is this it?" I smile as I see the chaos that I am mesmerised by. "Well, you don't get much bang for your bucks here then?"

"Bambino, shut up and walk. These units are handcrafted. This floor is Roman Travertine tiling, the lights are Austrian crystal, the velvet…"

"… I get it, and I asked for the best, so that's why it's an expensive baby?"

"It is, but Ana, it's going to be wonderful, and in a month, we will be open for buisness." I didn't see how, but they both assured me it would be. Elliot's team worked well with Uncle Marco's design team too. I also took in the bakery at the back of the shop fronts and the rest of the associated kitchens behind the three store fronts, I have yet to start on the gelateria plans for all my stores. I think they will have to be slipped in with the confectionary stores, but they must be able to service the café too? More money… More machines, more everything, including more creating ice cream from my families old recipes. Then I have a sad and mad moment, my Nonna's ice cream was amazing, fake or not their mother must have taught them well. I haven't given them much thought in a while, the imposters and the dead bodies. Then I realise where I am and snap to my senses again. Lord I do ramble, both actually and in my darned head. I need a check-up with Dr Naylor and soon, I need to know if I am meant to be this bloody bad tempered and forgetful.

"Where is Uncle Sonny?" I ask as I inspect the floor and the chandeliers in the café, but something this size must surely be a restaurant? "Is he here or at another location?"

"He is with Barney, they are working on the networking for the business. All I know is wherever there is a man of mine, there are two of his. They were fortunate to get the wiring in with the second fit." Blah, blah blah… I zone out. I don't understand some of it, but I will fake it till I do.

"So, where is he then here or there?"

"He's over in his lordships pile. Did you have a good holiday?" Elliot asks.

"You should know, Kate and I did skype a time or two."

"Yeah, about that…" I laugh as Elliot goes a tad redish...

"… The less said about your accidently Skyping me whist you two were getting down and dirty the better Elliot."

"Hey, how did I know I had hit the right buttons?"

"Umm… So you are enjoying married life then?"

"Hell yes. Now, the next two floors are offices, the Kavanaghs have made one floor their on-site financial floor. The tech guys are in there, do you want to take the elevator to your floor?"

"My floor?"

"Umm, your floor."

"I thought they were all my floors?" Elliot playfully pushes my arm.

"They are Willa."

"Good to know Lelliot."

"Bambino, did you not rest?" I smiled and winked. Then he mouthed a very big gay oh, for god's sake. What? I was on honeymoon, pregnant and bloody hormonal, so, yeah it was like swings and roundabouts all the damned time. "You look amazing. So he was doing something right then?" Marco, he is a joy to be with, but he is a bloody nosey sticky beak, yet is good at keeping his own secrets, and he has someone, because he is glowing…

"I had a very nice three weeks on the island, which you have very tastefully updated, I approve of the renovations you have done to the place, though it needs a few more of the smaller family suites adding to it and the master hut thing, which was amazing, needs to be replicated on the far side of the island, we have a massive family now and need more huts." I tell Marco, the man responsible for my islands very native feel and look, plus I have to say they smelt so nice, so good in fact that I want one in my new house, or we need to live near a wood yard, I was in love with the smell of the damned huts, it was so woody.

"I left the manager with a few lists of upgrades, he can do without you, he is upgrading the staff quarters and adding in a decked area to the rock pool too, so I don't stub my toes. Everything else was perfect. Though the rope bridges were a little daunting at first, but I soon conquered my fear of heights. Though the flat paths and slow inclines to the fabulous wooden hut we stopped in was perfectly shaded from the sun. It's a definite me Tarzan, you Jane type of place. With the option to be a floor walker, if the need took me, which it did."

"Did you have the master cabana? Did you like the doors? They came straight from an Indonesian temple."

"They what? You robbed a temple?" I do the sign of a cross on my chest. You can't rob a temple. Did he? He is laughing, has he learned not to piss me off yet?

"I joke, the buildings start off as flat pack, and like your on-line-stores Ana, I too ordered you huts on-line, it's the way it's going, huts of the future. You point, click pay and swooooosh, they arrive on a big boat. Yes really Ana, they were made, dismantled, packed away and shipped over by the building firm, and their crew came with them and rebuilt them there. It's very de rigueur, dear heart! It was time saving and very cost effective, though the locals can do small things, they are not able to do it as cheap as we got them."

"We did? Whatever you did, and they did, it was tastefully done. I love it Uncle Marco. You did well. I thought they came with the island?"

"Nope, there was literally nothing there when I first went, a few fishing huts and a fragile and dangerous jetty, where the few locals you inherited landed their catches. I went straight back to the main land, went on line and ordered them, they are actually based on the Huf Haus's, you know the German flat pack house company? Their base is in Australia, and each one is and are a little unique, and not quite like their basic drawings. I went a little mad with the ordering finger and hit buy to everything and anything extra they had, including the steam room and the hammocks, I got everything they had. Yours was meant to look like an Indonesian temple house, though they are near as damn it, they are missing some of the stilts that the originals had, I mean they are on a mountain side, so only needed the front ones and they are not near any rivers. I am glad you liked my pad." I laughed. "Thanks for appreciating my finger pointing skills, oh and I am going back after I finish here, it still needs some tweaks and pizzazz adding to some of it, I have a ship full of sparkle to throw at them..." I hope they are not too flamboyant though. It was a perfect getaway, even if my attitude wasn't the best, at all times. I feel the need to get back, and for it to be just me and Christian, deserted and alone. I wish!

"Can Kate and I have a borrow sometime? Your Aspen place kicks ass too, very Swiss family Robinson."

"It does doesn't it, it's even better for the skiing. Did you get out and explore?"

"Nah, we barely left the bedroom." I laughed. "I guess I don't need to tell you that, right?"

"Right…"

"So, this way if you two don't mind, talking about marital bliss. I have work to be doing, so I can finish and have a holiday."

"Are you taking anyone special with you Uncle Marco?"

"I may be doing." He winks. "So, I am taking the heat off me for a while, as I am not quite at the point of showing him my mad family, yet. So, how are the babies?" I smile.

"Growing nicely. Making me cranky. They are making my clothes a little snug. Giving me all sorts of cravings and making Christian very nervous."

"Why, are you not well Ana?" Elliot asks.

"I am fine, but I have so many mood swings in just one day, strike that, I should have said, in any one damned hour that his neck must be suffering from major whip-lash. I swear I wasn't this bad last time, although I could have been I guess? Had I had people around me to piss me off, I could have been. Knowing me though, and I in all probability spent time shouting at myself."

"Is it the same as the mad chef Ana, because I have seen that Ana and she is every inch Italian hot head?" Uncle Marco says as he shows me to the new outside glass elevator, it looks nice, but it's not for me folks, I walk on as he makes fun of me and my bad temper.

"We had to put the extra escalators in, so we put this one the outside, and I went with the glass one, it seemed fitting for the best chocolate maker in the world." Elliot says. "You know, to have a glass elevator, like Willy Wonker?" I did, and though I loved chocolate I hated the film, it made a mockery of chocolate making and the little folks made me hide behind a cushion!

"How old are you Elliot, ten? It is very nice though, but I won't be riding it, I am not too great on seeing the dizzy heights, but I like how it looks, how many are there?"

"Just the two to the sides, the back of the building has an wrought iron fire escape, which means there is an outside fire exit from every floor, again because of the kitchens."

"I guess it meets all the code specifications yes?"

"Your building exceeds all the current ones." Elliot and Marco walk with me to the stairs, they tell me about the codes, in great detail, but for some strange reason I am only hearing background noise. Boring, please stop, pointless talking to me stuff. We do a look around the differing floors that will deal with all my stores. The communication suite is like something from NASA, I see a massive screen, covering one whole wall, and a table big enough to seat at least fifty people at. This is a bit big. Is all I can say. What, I am losing it right now, the will to live.

"Bambino?"

"Yes?"

"Are you with us?"

"No, not really, I mean sorry yes, what did you say?"

"I said do you want to see the studio?"

"Yes, its cost me enough. Did Kate look at getting a production company in?" I ask Marco and look at Elliot.

"Yes, the local college and university are going to be training here too, their training will be funded by the studio, and they will intern here, instead of going to the bigger studios, it is a smaller and a better learning experience for them. Kate has actually wants to see you about the various deals that have been offered, for your show to be affiliated to a network."

"Okay, and that will pay for this will it?"

"Yes, according to Ethan, Kate, the studio accountants, the studio will pay for the whole kit and caboodle, as in their estimations for networking the programmes you make here, will fund the whole buildings refurbishment, and not just the studio set up." Elliot seems to be in the know. Now, I don't feel too bad about the overspend and could seriously look at the ice cream parlours being added to each of my stores. Though I am now not calling them Nonna's as I was going to. For obvious reasons they will be called Nonno's after my grandfather.

"Really?"

"Yes, really. My wife is a tad excited about those deals she brokered." I am very happy to hear it will pay a few bills. Like I need the money! Though I do like the idea of allowing the students to get their first leg up, as it were, in the television game.

"I need to see everyone, and get caught up. A month is far too long to be away. I bet Christian is swamped too."

"He will be." Elliot says. "I doubt he has ever had that long of work, just for enjoyment that is. I know he had the time in hospital, but even then, he sneaked in some worked. Though I am assured that Ros has done great."

"I bet she loved it." I say as the elevator opens and I step into the faux kitchen of the 'studio' and wow it's an all singing and dancing affair. There are even seats for an audience. Then I wonder how secure it will be having an audience? "Has this been okayed by Taylor, Luke? Having an audience?"

"No Mrs Grey. I doubt that Mr Grey would approve of it either."

"No, I know he won't, and given the past two months have been horrid, I don't want an audience either!"

"Jose, actually said it would be an ideal for the students to watch you create. Either way, students and the audience, they all have to pass security to get into the building, and each floor has a great many security features the eye cannot see. There are cameras everywhere, metal detectors and scanners. It's all very futuristic Bambino. Besides, you are used to having an audience, you were always so good when you did your competitions, not that I saw many being where I was. So next stop, your school floors, three in all." We head there and I watch the workmen doing their thing, it's a bare shell, so they have had to start from scratch. I know the top three floor are not being touched yet, I may have to expand the school, so they are being used as storage for the time being.

"Okay, now call me a fool, but where are we meant to put the chocolate machinery? The factory and the stores? Because I have yet to see the production side of things?"

"For that dear Ana, you have to go down into the basement, as with Grey house, you have three underground areas, so because of the weigh, your actual chocolate making plant and stores, they are in the basement. Its accessible from the rear of the building, and has its own entrance. It has a massive food storage room, and I mean big Ana. There are service elevators that are just for the factory set up." Elliot tells me.

"So, has Jose seen it?"

"Yes and so has Ramone, he, sorry they have given their seal of approval, we are just waiting for your approval." I ask.

"Ramone has been here?" Uncle Marco smiles… Interesting!

"He has, he likes it here." He says.

"It's a pity he is earmarked for New York. Until I can get another teacher in that is. I will have to find one, or two or even more. I really have spread myself too thinly." We spend a lot of time walking up and down my new tower block… So much time in fact, that I lost the track of lunch, coming and going.

"Luke, can we head over the road for lunch?"

"Actually Mrs Grey, Mr Grey has asked you to join him for lunch. A late lunch."

"Oh heck, my phone is in my bag, its… Oh god where did I leave it? Luke have you got a clue?"

"It's in the security suite. Mr Grey wanted to know why you hadn't moved all morning."

"He is tracking my phone? Really?"

"All our phones are tracked. I wouldn't worry about it." I guess, again, that old thing the failed kidnapping is coming into play again, damn it!"

"I suppose it's better safe than sorry. What are you two doing?" I ask Elliot and then Marco.

"I am working, we are pouring concrete out at the back today, for your delivery lorries and trucks. We had to do an alternate entrance too."

"Let me guess, out back Elliot?"

"Yes, it's too built up at the front for it. The car park is in the lowest of the basements and your visitors will be using the shared parking between Grey House and Grey House Two." Elliot tells me. I didn't need to see a garage.

"And I dear niece, I am taking delivery of the new stores signage, when that is up the whole of Seattle will know we are here. There has been speculation for the whole month as to what is behind the wooden wall. When those go up, we will no longer be Seattle's worst kept secret. I have been fielding calls all month. So, I will bid you farewell, they should be here by now." He gives me a hug and disappears.

"Luke, thanks for today. Take me to eat. Are you going to be okay Elliot?"

"Me? yes, I have been getting my lunches at the new shop over the way there. You might want to go and introduce yourself. The owner, is a very peculiar looking man, but his shop is anything but, you have some serious competition there Ana."

"I do, do I?"

"Sort of. I like his cakes. Sorry, but I do, and he makes great pies."

"Does he now, what is he called?"

"Howard. Jon Howard." I shake my head.

"Nope, I don't know of him. He must have slipped past my radar. Is it a chain?"

"No, I think it's his first café. That's all it is Ana, a café. It has nothing on this place."

"I bet there is enough customers for everyone. I need to try his cakes and pies then. See you later, perhaps for dinner?"

"Hell yeah, what time?"

"Eight?"

"Book me and Kate in. Let my wife know will you, she is waiting for you in your temporary office." He gives me a hug and he leaves too, and then there were two, me and Luke. I head with Luke to see Christian. I am a very happy lady and my feet are sore. I stand bavk and stare at my Grey House Annex and grin, then I turn and head to see a woman coming from Grey House, and head to a red car, I stare for a moment and notice it's an Audi, my head races to the worst case scenario, he's got another submissive… Luke sees what I do and he leads me to see my husband. I have no doubt he will find out whom the tart was and why she was allocated a parking space, meant for Grey House visitors. Her and the red paid for being a pussy pleasure wagon…

Walking in to Bedlam…

I watch as Ana goes to visit the new place. Taylor and I disappear underground to park. It seems someone is in my place at the front, they will be moved on as soon as Taylor finds the owner of the pink range rover. Pink, bright pink. I shake my head and exit the car. I take a deep breath and press the elevator button, I expect I have a lot to do and have mentally prepared myself for dealing with many problems, I have been a boss in hiding for a month and prior to that I had to recover from being shot at. So I expect they will be running around like headless chickens.

The doors open at my floor and I amazed it is just as I left it, calm as a mill pond and no sign of having been turned into Bedlam as I expected, am I pleased or upset? I don't fucking know. My number one is at the door to my office, she looks okay, has she got thinner, is it okay to tell her she looks better than I left her? Nope…

"Hello Boss Man, it's nice to see you, you look great. Tanned and relaxed, did you have a nice time?"

"Ros, what has happened, are you easing me into trouble?"

"No, I have a very detailed report for you, on your desk, You know where I am if you need anything. Thanks for noticing my diets working by the way. I have quit smoking and feel better for it. Thanks for asking."

"I did notice actually, but I wasn't sure if it was okay to tell you. that you looked better than when I left you!"

"Yeah, I have been in the gym at seven every morning, it's the only way to take the calls I needed to hear, the baby crying with her teeth, left me totally unable to focus at home, so I worked here. I make up for it when I get home, she rests and I take over with the kids, the baby is getting better at sleeping and would be better if her brother let her sleep."

"And Gwen is happy with that is she?"

"Yes, she is better left on her own to the kids, I mess her routine up. I am a super night time parent, and it works for us. Her parents are always at our place, and we get our date nights in then. You have all this fun to look forward to, times three, I do not envy you at all."

"I guess I will learn and quickly. I need to talk about splitting the company up into more workable sections, and look at getting people in to help us run it. If Ana can do it, then so can I. What do you think?"

"I will search out the plans you said no to a while back. Are you sure?"

"Yes, I am, we have too many fingers in too many pies, you know this, how did you find it being in the big chair?"

"Okay, but I delegate and don't micro manage things, I can still rip someone's brains through their shitter if they fuck up, and so they work all the harder to make me happy and keep their brains and their jobs to impress me another day, you they are just afraid of all the time."

"That works for you, but I am having to do this slowly and I am getting there, I have had a rough couple of months so I figure I will carry on delegating, but not all to you."

"I like it and now I am not coughing and fighting for breath, I am even better at seeing the bigger picture."

"Really?"  
"Yes, yes I am. I loved being in charge. As you can see we are still in business and we are still flourishing, we did not hit the skids because you took some well-earned time off."

"Thanks, so when are you Gwen and the kids going away?"

"Maybe when the baby stops waking us up with her teeth?"

"When is that?"

"I don't know, I keep away from her mouth, she tends to snap at my finger, I just know she has most of them now, so perhaps in a couple of weeks, we could go to our place in Barbados for a couple of weeks?"

"Take a month off, and enjoy the time, I did, and I wish I had done it sooner."

"Gwen would kill me, we will take a couple of weeks, and perhaps I will have a week golfing and she can drop the kids off with the in laws and do her girly holiday for the week, then we could have a week in Vegas and let our hair down? I will speak to my better half, but thanks for the offer."

"There will be more down time in the future Rosalind Bailey. I promise you, we are going to be a family friendly company."

"As in getting the creche in place?"

"Yes, so have Gwen run her ideas through to Ana, and they can hammer out a good place for it, either in her building or over here."

"Wow, when that woman shot your ass, she really did work miracles Boss!" We sit down and plough through a months' worth of work, and to my surprise I am not surprised Ros is good at running they place, I am just surprised how relaxed we are and how good the ship runs without the captain at the wheel. The building did not collapse, we are above target on the goals I set with Ros and we are stronger than we were a month ago. I don't know why I am so relaxed, but I am and it's good to be back at work. I notice the time and Ros has to take a conference call with the new ship yards. I call Sawyer and ask him where my wife is, as she hasn't moved all morning, and I ask is she sleeping? He tells me her phone is in the security rooms. I ask him to bring her over for lunch, seeing as she has not got her phone with her, words will be had about that! I have to warn her she has competition, the new deli over the road has many new customers and they have been regulars at their doors. We are having a picnic from there, in hopes it gives Ana a taste of the competition. I hope it's not as good as my employees say it is, because she may have competition. Speaking of my wife, she is on her way… My phones is off and I smile, I love her no phones at mealtime rule… I daren't break it because if I do there is no sexy dessert.

I smile as I see her from my office window, she looks damned happy, so I suspect the building is to her liking. She smiles as she walks from the elevator and talks to my staff, all of whom she treats like friends, she is amazing to watch as she treats everyone who stops and talks to her, with that infectious smile and bubbly personality she has. It must be just me that pisses her off at the moment? My book says she is venting at me because she is hormonal, like I don't know that already, because she has four seasons in an hour some days, Winter is cold and ignores me, Spring is the tears and her crying, Summer is the fun stuff, the rampant stuff, that I don't mind, and Autumn, wow, that is when you don't know what's coming, she over thinks things and always brings herself down, usually about Christian, and that mood always ends in a sadness that breaks my heart. I usually end up joining her with the tears.

"Christian…" I am snapped out of my daydreaming. She gives me a look I have not seen before, as though she was surprised to see me.

"Hello Wife, where is your phone Baby?" She smiles, what has upset her?

"It was in my bag, and I left my bag in the security office, sorry. It's here now, and so am I. My building is amazing, bloody amazing and they say in one month, one month it will be ready, can you believe that?" She is off, but given she changes all the time, I say nothing.

"I can, Elliot works miracles for a guy who looks like a bone idle surfer..."

"Hey, he is an amazing contractor. It's wonderful and it will all be paid for by the television syndication of a House of Chocolate, at home…" What?

"How, I mean really?" She changes again and is all smiles again, I swear she is like my damned elevator, up and down all the damned time.

"Yup, there is big money in it, and there were three television company's vying for the rights to it."

"Good, and you will be presenting?"

"Yes, one slot a week, pre-recorded so if I am having a bad day, they will always have something to air, it's an hour long, so I can promote and invent new chocolates, have other guests come to the studio and there is even talk of a competition to offer a placement in one of my stores factories, to an amateur chocolatier. Ramon and a couple of my new heads of house will do a slot or two, then they will use old competitions I was in to fill another section in, the winning producer has a great many ideas too."

"So, moving here was a good thing then?"

"Yes, the best. So is your business still running?"

"Yes, and Ros has done a great job, as I knew she would. She has earned her month long vacation. Now, are you hungry?"

"I am, but not for food…" Good… I missed being at her beck and call for a nooner, a mid-afternoon nooner and her all day nooners… "I have a great big desk in my office, just like this one actually, a desk that if I feel like being adventurous on, I could and will want sex on it, or under it."

"Under it you say?" I wink.

"Umm, do you want me to show you how it works being under it?" I play dumb.

"I think I may know what you mean, but just to make sure, you may have to show me the ropes." She takes off her jacket and her shoes and pushes me towards my chair… "I am glad to see, you are pleased to see me Mr Grey." I smile. "Sit down and ne a good boy." I do. Like a good boy. She pushes my chair back and sits on my lap and kisses me, she pulls at my hair and kisses me hard, our tongues fight their usual battle and her murmurs of delight and my groans of anticipation means my dick is stretching the cloth to get out. She slivers like an agile gymnast to my foot nook, or as I am now going to call this our fuck nook. Rather childish Grey, I think, but don't say, as her hands are working on freeing the beast form my trousers and I remember when I said the wrong thing on honeymoon and ended up going without my nooner.

Ana went for a swim and I cooled my problem taking a cold shower, which turned out to be a good shower as she realised what I said was not an insult but a fact, her boobs have got bigger… Anyway we had an amazing couple of hours in the pool. I am suddenly aware of her damned hand squeezing my dick, she got my attention with that snatch and grab alright, wow that was like a frustration grab, but and I watch as she smiles up at me and I see what she has in her hand, oh my god I love my wife, the ring of doom and the bullet have made a welcome return, where had she kept them? I flinch as she attaches those rings of punishment to my already erect member and as she snaps it around my balls I simper, I don't remember it being so hash before?

She smiles as I swear a little, okay I whine like a puppy, it isn't as nice as before, what was different. She throws me a look and for a moment I stare into those pools of blue and see a questioning look. I watch as she takes me in her mouth. In and out she takes me and she bobs her head up and down as she feasts upon me. Then the ring starts to undulate and it makes my dick throb, she speeds up and the changes the pace of the bullet. This is nothing like the other one, this is moving to a tempo, my dick is being wooed by a tempo, that's what the difference is…

"Its new on the market, this little beauty has a programable doodah in it, so Mr Grey, is your Sex On Fire, yet?"

"Oh god, fuck me Ana…"

"All in good time Mr Grey. All in good time." She continues to suck and the damn thing has me singing the tune in my head as my dick pulses to the Kings Of Leon, and my wife pleasures me like never before, whatever this bullet is, I am getting one for my sister in law as her Secret Santa… Elliot would appreciate this, I bet? I am in a hedonistic state of mind. My dick is being pleasured, my ears hear my wife sucking and gagging, and my eyes watch as she massages my balls, as if they need more help in helping me blow my load faster.

"Ana, stop, please stop I'm coming…" The pulse is still hammering my dick and as she stops sucking she stands, removes her panties and turns, she eases herself on my shaft and groans, as she does, the sound of her enjoyment makes my heart sing and as she bounces on my lap, this is more than a reverse cowboy, this is a fucking rodeo ride, Ana, the damned rings of doom and the bullet are making me lose control, I'm riding a high like never before, and I feel her, I feel her tense, I feel her climax coming before she starts screaming and moaning. She grabs the desk for support and I don't have to do much more than hold her as we both come together… A.M.A.Z.I.N.G…A fucking mazing, and as the bullet suddenly stops pulsing I am drained. Ana is still pulsing and is breathless.

"That was better than seeing my new place. That was so good Christian, so good…"

"Hu? I can't see straight… Ana, what the fuck was that?"

"It was waiting for me at home when we got back. Apparently, I am still getting the samples for Satin and Steel. Good eh?"

"Very good Baby, we need to shower, we are definitely a hot mess."

"Good thinking, let's eat in your nookie bedroom."

"Nookie bedroom?"

"Um, I know you said you used to sleep here, but did you never have sex in there before me? Really?" What the hell. Is this a test? I told her I interviewed girls here, but not in that way. What's got her so wound up about my past, is this normal?

"Ana. Where is this coming from?"

"Nothing, I mean ignore me. I am just an idiot."

"Why do you doubt me Ana?"

"I don't, I'm sorry, but you are an amazing lover and I just get a little, I don't know, paranoid occasionally. I don't know why I am as I am. But I am. There were an awful lot of I am's there. I was coming over here, and I could have sworn I saw a girl who looked like me coming from Grey House and getting in a red Audi."

"What?"

"She looked like me and got in a red Audi."

"And you thought it was one of the others? You thought that I wanted more of the old me? Ana, I fucking love you and need only you." I hold her tightly, as she sobs. What the hell made her think I was seeing a submissive? I pick her up and carry her to my bathroom, she is helped from her clothes and I strip quickly and as I clean her she continues to sob. What the hell is happening? She had more than three season back in my office. I need answers as to why she thinks as she does.

"Sorry. I am being so stupid. So stupid. I don't deserve you Christian. Why are you with me?"

"Oh god Ana, I love you, that's why, you have a serious chemical in balance, these hormones are horrific and are making you worry about things that are never going to happen, ever… I love you and only you, and as much as I want more children with you, these are going to be the only three, because I hate what it's doing to you."

"More… Are you crazy, three babies screaming to be fed, changed, loved and played with at once is going to be all the baby time I need. I mean it, the three in here are going to be the last three."

"Good. Now I suggest we get dry, you change outfit and after we have eaten, you and I are going to see Dr Naylor."

"I agree… I don't want you to divorce me."

"Never, we are signed sealed and you are mine, that is what you are Mrs Grey. Mine and I am yours, only yours. Only yours Ana,"

"I went all gaga after that amazing time in your office too, what the hell was I thinking about?"

"I'm fucked if I know what was going through your head, other than killing me with a bullet and sex on fire."

"They want me to name it. I think I will call it the King of the Rings…" We both laugh, but I need to know who it was she thought she saw, Leila is dead, the others are all accounted for and only three of the remaining ex-subs have a car still… I need Taylor to look at the CCTV. Ana must have seen something, or she really is struggling with the hormones, because they cannot be blamed for everything, or can they?

* * *

Thanks for all the new readers reading my stories and all the other stories I do. I can assure you all I am going to finish this story soon! Also thanks for all the people reading my novels too...Thanks xxx thats either on smash words for free or amazon for a couple of dollars... shameless plug lol christine wood, all covers have a sexy black n white image... thank you for the amazing messages wishing me well. I am on the mend, but my addiction to scones and jam is doing nothing for my sugar levels. Wimbledon is over and yet I still have afternoon tea... in the wer tain of manchester. not actually say in tain, but watching rain from my window... I thank you for reading my stuff xxx leave a smile and or a word or 3 please zz


	60. Chapter 60

This story is nowt like fifty shades; I just purloined E.L. James's characters, buildings and some of her other stuff...

* * *

Dreaming of Chocolate and Grey:

Chapter 60:

The Girl In The Red Audi:

Ana is taking a rest before we head to see Dr Liv Naylor. She is napping in my bedroom, after she had worried herself sick, over nothing. That said, I hope she wasn't one of the others, and if she was she will know how mad I am and she will know what I say I mean, if she is one of the others she will lose everything! I am about to pick up the phone, but I don't have to make the call to Taylor, he has just knocked on my door.

"Taylor, I was going to call you." He nods his head.

"Sir, Sawyer informed me of the problem Mrs Grey seems to think she has?"

"She seems to have?"

"Yes, the lady with the Audi?"

"Yes, the brown haired lady with the red Audi."

"I saw her arrive, and had her checked out Sir."

"Is she…"

"… No. She works with Kavanagh and Associates. She is called Sarah Leon, and she is a trainee forensic accountant with them. She was there to deliver Katherine Kavanagh legal papers from the teams working on Mrs Greys new premises. She is no threat. She is happily married, and has a small child. Sir, she is not one of the others under an assumed name, here is her file."

"I don't want her file Taylor, I just needed to be able to give Ana some answers, I was not about to hire a new submissive."

"Forgive me, I was asked to do a full work up on her." He looks kind of relieved, and happy to hear I am not in need of extra marital sex. I can't blame him for thinking the dark side of Christian Grey had returned.

"And you did, and I am grateful, it will give Ana some peace of mind." He nods his head, was he seriously thinking I wanted to travel that road again? I'm not mad, I have the best of both worlds with Ana, seriously the best of both worlds, if I can put a stop to those damned hormonal in balances she is having, things would be perfect. "We are leaving in an hour to go to see Ana's doctor. Can you have the car waiting, send Sawyer home as we will be going back to Escala after the visit. Can I ask you to look into the guy who opened the Deli across the road too, it seems its very popular, I believe he is called Jon/ Johnathon or Johnathan Howard, Ana does not know of him, but he must have known she was opening her stores here, and if he did, why did he go ahead, knowing she could wipe the floor with him, how is his business financed too?" He nods his head and leaves, happier than he was when he came in. I do a little more work whilst my wife sleeps. She is getting tired easily, and I would love to hear how I cope with her mood swings too…

Dr, I have a question…

Christian wakes me, after what seems like hours, but as I catch the time it's been a whole two hours since I fell asleep.

"Up you get, we have a doctor to visit."

"I know, babies to be seen and answers to be sought. I swear, my mood swings are like a fairground ride, and I hate them."

"I would like to know what we can do for that too. Perhaps there is a pill for that?"

"I don't know, I'm not a doctor just a snappy chocolate maker who needs to get back into my old routine, and soon."

"Where will you practice?"

"Hu?"

"Ana, where will you practice?"

"At home, I guess? I can't do anything here, other than chase up various refits and start an advertisement campaign for the Seattle opening. I hope the man over the road is going to fair okay?"

"He must have done his research before he bought it, surely?"

"I only decided eight weeks ago to come here and set up the stores and a new head office, and we both know it could have taken him longer than that to get his premises in order, he may lose out and I would hate that to happen, his stuff was amazing."

"It was delicious, but it isn't as good as yours, though it was very good."

"Nice catch there Mr Grey." He smiles and puts on his jacket. "Did you get Taylor to, you know, see who she was. Is she a threat?"

"No Baby, she is no threat to us, in fact she works for your friend Kate, and was here to deliver papers, to Kavanagh and Associates, whose temporary offices are in this very building. She is called Sarah Leon, and she is a forensic accountant, happily married, with kids and she just happens to drive a company car, the red Audi. Ethan uses the same dealership as I do, he gets the same deals I do because he does their accounts and finances. It was nothing more than a worker returning to her car. Taylor assures me all the girls, women , the others are where they are meant to be too."

"Sorry. I really did over react, didn't I?"

"No and yes, perhaps we have had too many frank and honest talks? I can assure you Ana, I don't need anyone in my life, because I have perfection and she is here looking adorable."

"I am? I think you will find I am a messed up freak at the moment. The list of questions I have for Liv are never ending. Included and at the top of the bloody list are the things that from hence forth will be known as The H Problem."

"Okay, so can we get going? I am eager to see the babies that have made me a very happy man, despite The H problems."

"I wonder if they will look any different? They have had five weeks to cook?"

"To cook? Our children are not cooking, they are growing." I giggled.

"Hu? I like that they are on a slow simmer. All the good things happen slowly, simmering is much better than cooking full steam…" I reach over and kiss my man, my worn out and wonderful man. "I think we can take things easy tonight."

"Um, that sounds like a challenge."

"Which will have to wait, till we go to bed, we have guests eager to see us."

"Your Mom?"

"No, your brother and his wife and I would guess possibly your parents will tag along too? Mine are still away in Anastasia, relaxing."

"You called your mother?"

"Yes, when we got home. They are coming to Seattle in a couple of weeks. They need more them time, both Bobby and Mum, have been hitting their keyboards hard and are writing up a storm, Mom's new book is almost complete. Oh, and my publisher has told me today that my book tour starts in six weeks. I told them that all the studio ones are to be done here, I lied and told them I cannot travel, but will do it all from here. I will do a few local meet and greets and the rest of the promotion will be done here, which includes all the press calls and news outlets, who will be wanting their headlines. I also told them the publishing house will foot their stays here. To sweeten the pot. Can we put them up in your place here?"

"Yes, if it keeps you here, with me."

"I did a mammoth tour with the first book and really soaked the news with Ana's Chocolate House and the Queen of Chocolate by-lines. I just haven't got the patience to sit through that brain aching stuff, like I did last time, my pen hand hurt and my head exploded with the sheer number of times I had to smile for a selfie."

"Is it that bad?"

"And some, don't get me wrong, I am very happy with my fans, they made the book a success and the charity did really well from it, so I will try my hardest to pay their love forward. I had a foreword from Michelle Obama and that helped me and the book sales, the chocolates sort of did that for themselves. This time it's a few words from their Royal Highnesses, the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge. I did bags of Dark Desires, for their wedding, they were very nice favours given to their friends at the rather nice disco in the Middleton's back garden."

"You have rubbed shoulders with Royalty?"

"Haven't you?"

"No… I have been in the same building with a few Arab Princes, and some European nobility, and high powered Russians, but alas never the British Royals."

"Hey, they are nice people, just like you and I, they all have to put one leg in their pants at a time, just like the rest of us in the morning and then the other, they have to eat drink and use the toilet like everyone else. I know that they fart and belch, and general let their hair down like everyone else."

"You heard them fart?"

"No, they blamed his grandmothers Corgis, or rather Harry did." He looks shocked, "what? I do business with many King and Queens, and not just of the gay variety either. I have a customer list that would blow your socks off, and now I have my original recipes back, I will get many more orders for Lust too. I was missed and they were missed more. I can never thank Sir, for giving me them back."

"My dick rose just then, hearing you say Sir like that."

"You have a one track mind, Sirrrrr," I said rolling the R's as I teased poor Christian. "I may have to see what other gifts the toy shop sent me… I may feel like a turn around the freshly painted cream room later…" He smiles so salaciously that I would ordinarily go straight home, but I need to see Liv before my man has one too many mood swings to deal with and he divorces me. Thankfully, I am not going off sex, because that would be the cherry on top of the divorcing me knicker-bocker-not-glory dessert of maddening proportions he has to deal with. Wooing him with sex and playing dirty, whilst we holidayed was epic, we did it everywhere and anywhere besides in the bedroom, bath, hot tub. We had a gentle night locked together on a hammock on the veranda. It was not at all steady to start with, but amazing when we were still and locked together. The rock pool, that was a little sharp on my ass, being a rock pool it was not meant for crabby me, but for the actual crabs that attacked us. We christened the kitchen and almost got caught by the cleaner, not good rushing to get rid of all the mess we made with the cream and fruit! The beach, the beach was very gritty and we ended up looking like two blocks of sandpaper, it was fun washing it off in the sea, somehow, from here to eternity was not the look we ended up with I can tell you, it was horrid, the sand got in all the wrong places and made me fume, I swear it felt like Christian was fucking me with sandpaper, there was not one bit of my doodah being sanded that I enjoyed. We agreed it was better in the movie. That was not the worst place we tried making out, no that honour was gotten by our doing it against a tree when we went for a walk, we didn't see the occupiers, not until they started crawling out and over us, Christian now knows I hate spiders and I can run faster than him when faced with one… My sex drive was and is on fire, and during our honeymoon, I had as much of him and me time as I could get. I have to admit I think we all got hot under the collar on my island. Christian made Taylor and Sawyer they too were made to relax a great deal on the island, for which Grace and Holly thanked me. Ana Island needs a new name, at the moment, I am thinking of nothing but smutty names.

"Ana…"

"What?"

"You were laughing Baby, did something amuse you?"

"No, not really, I was thinking of names for the island, I mean Motu Tipaemaua, is a gob full."

"It is its given name Baby. A beautiful name for a beautiful place."

"It is, isn't it? I am going to have to build homes on a tiny part of it, it's the law of the South Pacific Islands, that I have to employ people and add to the local economy, and it took a lot of work to get me it, I could have rented it for thirty years, but I wanted to own it." Kate hated my impulse buy for months, because that's how long it took for her to do the paperwork.

"You did say that a time or two, whilst we were there Ana!"

"I did? Oh god I did. Hence ordering the improvements to the place. Crapfess, where has my brain gone?"

"It's still swinging in a hammock on Ana's Island, Baby."

"What I wouldn't give to be back, this real life things hectic Christian…" I breathe deeply and think of the weeks were we did nothing, but even when I was doing nothing I wanted to be busy working, perhaps I really do, as Nonno always said, have an overactive soul in a perpetual flux state of mind, I know I am ever changing and more often than not, my mind is never content with doing things simply? That case is proven because not only are the new stores being updated, but I now want to add Gelato stores to them? I am juggling so many balls that I am, if I do not de stress and calm down I am going to burn myself out. I look at Christian and I cannot believe he is sat here with me, I have finally got everything I want and should be happy with what I have, so why can't I be just that? Be happy and contented? Questions, questions and more damned questions…

"We are here, Ana." What, when did we even set off? I swear I am juggling too many balls if I didn't realise we had even set off. Christian helps me from the car and Taylor follows us in. The place is amazing.

"Christian, your parents fund all this?"

"They do, through their fund, Coping Together. The one started by the crazy doctor with the hot husband and son!" Poor Liv…

"She was so mortified, when she realised she was ogling your father. I think, it's spooky how Liv was here and took the position they offered her, and just when I needed her the most."

"It was indeed very fortuitous, for both you and her, and it seems for my mother," we get to her office. Where we are surprised to see Grace and Liv are chatting, "Mom, what are you doing here?"

"What he means Grace is it's wonderful to see you."

"Sorry, yes it's great to see you Mom." She hugs Christian and then I get the look as she hugs me.

"I'm only here for a post-holiday check-up Grace, I having been having a terrible time with my moods. I know its usual. but I am not sure it is meant to be so bad. I mean I want to cry, scream, laugh and all in one conversation." Both Grace and Liv laugh.

"It's different for everyone, changing your diet helps. I have booklets and pamphlets for you to read." Grace goes to leave.

"No, please stop, we are having a scan."

"You are? And you want me to stop with you?"

"Yes Mom, as you are here, it would be a shame for you to see the blobs, if you would like to that, that is?" I see the smile from both the proud daddy and the impatient lady, eager to be a grandmother.

"I would, I would love that so much. If you are both sure, and if it is okay with you Olivia?"

"Hey, when you pay as much for this appointment as they have, they can have the whole family here, space permitting. I need to do the usual tests and bloodwork's before the good stuff."

"I am in my office doing paperwork, call me when the fun stuff, is happening."

"Okay. See you soon." Grace leaves and I see how happy Christian is and I cry. Yes, I cried. "Ana? Is this what you meant?"

"This is nothing Dr Naylor. Nothing at all like the usual thing she does, she can change from calm to evil, from happy to sad in the blink of an eye, tell me please, is this really all due to a hormonal imbalance?" Christian, at last has someone to talk to, because the damned books he reads seem to make him worse.

"No, not all of it is down to the pesky hormones, though given Ana's past, she has a little more to worry about, but given she is not too good at sharing she is keeping her concerns bottled up inside her, and I bet she is keeping it to herself, and given her past, it seems to be making her a little more worried than usual. Which is to be expected."

"You know me so well Liv. It's hard for me to share that stuff, especially with Christian, when I get worked up I go on line and talk to my friends from Sands, they know like me what it's like. Poor Christian must have whiplash, with the constant variation of my mood swings," he smiles, oops, got the wording wrong there! "I wasn't this bad with Christian, so why am I such a mess now?"

"Every pregnancy is different, and there are three babies in here to worry about, we will know more when we get the bloods back and run some tests." Liv calms me down and then the vampire takes loads of my blood. Christian watches everything she does and asks poor Liv a book load of questions, which are all answered and his master computer of a brain processes it all and he questions her again, poor Liv! My blood pressure is fine and weight is the same, good-oh, I say.

"Now, for the fun part. Walk this way. Someone, not mentioning names, but someone, Christian," she coughs, "someone donated a couple of those state of the art 4D scanners to the Wellness Centre, just so the ladies could see their babies better?" I smile, as I hear a calming voice, paging Doctor Trevelyan, to radiology. I take in the fresh and cheerful rooms and the children's play area and the soon to be Mum's, all waiting with their rounded bellies, and hug my little bump.

"I read up on them, I think they are the best are they not, the company said they were?" He says as we walk to the Radiography Suite, where we seem to have two extra faces with us, Cary and Grace.

"Dad, did you come for a look too?" Christian asks his father, who seems as happy as Grace is. Then I see her blouse is not buttoned correctly, umm, they have it seems a reason to smile.

"If that is okay with Ana? I mean I can wait outside, if it's too intrusive? I am however keen to see these machines your mother says you have gifted the centre Son, they are supposed to be very good, I read up on them. You are supposed to be able to see them, our grandchildren, in great detail." Christian asks for permission to share the moment with his parents, I happen to know my mother wants to see them too, but hers chance comes around the same time as finding out what we are having, around twenty weeks… I cannot wait. I nod my approval and he smiles.

"No, I don't mind, but I doubt you will see much, I'm not even twelve weeks yet. Hopefully you will see more than their homes this time? There should be something to look at, right Liv?"

"You will be able to see more, but the fun ones are at twenty weeks." Christian tells his father as Grace, Liv and I smile at the men going gaga over a scan, I suppose they like the techie stuff, more than the practical stuff?

"You will be able to see more than the first one and we can date this a little better, but yes, the later ones are amazing."

We all gather in the darkened room and I lay down, I feel like a pigging offering on a high alter, the eyes in the crowd are watching the event on their very own television screen, as Liv tucks up my top and she smears warm gel on my little bump and concentrates on her little screen. I hold my breath and hope for good news, my fingers are crossed tightly as she moves the dopplers head around my belly and the screen comes alive with the gold tones of the scan, it takes me no time at all to see why the three people sat at my side are sighing, because there on the screen are three quite clear babies, all three look like aliens, they seem to have massive heads and bulging bellies and arms and legs. Christian claps his hands and exclaims he has three boys, by fist pumping the air. I smile.

"No Christian, those are their Umbilical Cords, dear boy!" Grace tells him before he does a lap of honour around the room. "You will not be able to tell until the later scans, but they are all healthy, all three of them." She looks at Liv and smiles.

"Yes, they are all very healthy, they are, as before, two here in this sac and one on its own in this one. You are ten weeks pregnant Ana, well done." She snaps pictures of the three Blobs, or Aliens, as Christian calls them, and she frees me from the icky gel. The three faces at the side of me are now taking in the many, yes, the many scan pictures Christian asked for. He gives his father and his mother one each and admires his babies, with what can only be described as a look of sheer wonderment.

"They are good and healthy Ana, well done!" Liv says as Christian helps me from the bed and gives me a kiss, which is much needed. "We will see you in a month Ana, or before if you need me. If that is the case, call me any time, I am only a phone call away or down three floors from you at home." I smile. "The apartment is amazing. Thank you Christian."

"You are very welcome." He is still looking at a scan photo, and is busy counting arms and legs and looking for the clues to their sex, now he knows what he is looking at that is! I give Liv a hug and we head for home, all four of us, it seems we are having more guests for dinner…

Dinner with the Greys:

We arrive home to the smells of Gail's cooking, I could get used to this, though I do love cooking, its feels like being home again, I loved arriving back from school, college or even work, to the smells of Nonna's pasta dishes filling the house, I stop for a moment to talk to Gail, she passes me a diary of sorts, apparently this is the dinner menu for the week? Oh what a pampered young man he was…

"This is good is great Gail, but can I ask you to include a vegetarian day in the menu, and the weekends you will be getting off as you used to. We can fend for ourselves Friday, Saturday and Sunday."

"Very good Ana. Did you have a good day?"

"Weepy!"

"What caused the tears today?"

"Everything and nothing. Apparently. it's something we have to get used to, though there are some foods that help. In this book here." I pass her the leaflet Liv gave Christian, as if he knows how to cook? She takes it from me and smiles. "Oh and these are the Aliens." I pass her the scan photo. "They are healthy, and have all the bits they are meant to have, oh and they have their father's big head, as you can see." Grace is by my side.

"They are all head and belly, and so cute. Do you need a hand Gail?"

"No Dr Trevelyan, I have everything in hand. Do you want drinks served Mrs Grey?" Both Grace and I say yes at the same time.

"Sorry for that, it's a force of habit. I do forget there are three of us now, speaking of which I do believe we are having the pleasure of Kate and Elliot for dinner too?"

"Yes, we have a lot to catch up on and I was too busy for her earlier. What with sorting out the new hub for my businesses, crying and eating and then seeing Liv, that I didn't get to see her."

"You need to rest as much as you can, and take it easier, or try to at least?" Grace, she knows I will try, for a little while anyway. I have two speeds, fast and bullet fast…

"Speaking of work, I am sorry for being very rude, but I have to catch up with Uncle Ray. It won't take me too long. I am hoping my new cousin is about to make her appearance."

"You go, we have plenty to occupy us, Christian can catch us up on the safari and the island getaway." Grace says, I hope to god he doesn't tell them everything.

I hope too he tells the crab story better than he told it to Holly, he told her I had crabs, not that I had them attack my poor behind. She laughed so much she rushed by me to get to the littlest room. What? I didn't think having my bits bit was that funny. I realised later, she only laughed when he told her they had bit my fanny, and because fanny does not mean in England what it means in the USA, he looked at me for the explanation as to why she nearly, and I can quote Holly here on her return. You, you idiot, you need to learn to speak British Chris, 'cos I sure as shit nearly pissed myself then, crabs on your fanny, did it hurt?' I swear I am not giving him the chance to re run that story to his parents, besides I think the poor crabs were way more afraid than I was, because I did pee on the little fuckers…

A New D'Acciaio:

I make the call and I am greeted by the sweetest sight ever, my Uncle Ray has in his arms the cutest baby, wrapped in pink. Mariah has had her little girl. He looks at the screen and he beams…

"What do you think Little One? Isn't she the sweetest thing you ever did see?"

"I think she is beautiful. Is Mariah okay? Does she have a name and what is it?"

"She is called Ana, after the nicest girl we know. Ana Louisa Maria D'Acciaio, she is just six pounds and is beautiful. Yes?"

"Yes, very, how I wish I could hold her. How is Mariah, happy she has got herself a girl, at last?"

"She is very happy and sleeping. How was the honeymoon, we heard about the safari from hell, was the island all that Marco says it is?" I spent a few minutes telling him about the honeymoon from hell and the island that more than made up for Africa. Then I hear the best sound in the world, Little Ana, she cries, her cute, yet heart breaking tears have me in tears too.

"It won't be long Ana, and your children will be here, I have sent this week's figures to Kate and the problems we had where sorted out with no fuss. It's a good job you have no new stores here to worry about." He shows me my cousin for one last look before she is swept off by her mum for a feed. Uncle Ray and I talk shop for about a half an hour and when I say good bye, I have one last look at Ana, my namesake, she is too cute for words. I head in to see Christian and his father nursing a glass of whiskey.

"Ana. Are you okay, it's just we heard you weeping?" Cary asks the question Christian dare not.

"Ray and Mariah have their first little girl, and they named her after me and her grandmother, on Mariah's side, I hardly doubt she would call her Vita, do you?"

"No…" They all say together.

"Talking about Vita, well we weren't but we are now. The new Forensic Girl Kate hired has found her missing money."

"Vita's money?"

"Yes, and it's a lot."

"Where was it hidden, and how much is a lot?"

"The Kavanaghs say her family, your family are set to get back just short of fifty million. It was hidden in plain sight in several bank accounts, when I say several I mean about a hundred small, you know Mom and Pop banks. All of which fed into a bank in New York, it sat there for a week and then was sent to her Swiss bank, where it was added to daily. As she died before your Nonno, according to her last will and testament, everything she had was to go to your uncles and your mother, It seems as though the Vita who you knew never bothered changing her sisters will, so as it was to go to your Nonno, her surviving children get it, and it is to be shared equally between them."

"Okay, really?"

"Yes, really, because she made herself into Vita D'Acciaio, and lived as her and never opened an account in her given name. It all goes to your family."

"Wow. Who knew being a backstabbing whore paid so well."

"Ana…"

"What Christian, I hated that woman and that name is not to be heard again in this house. I never knew the real Nonna Vita. The one who stole from me and tried to wreck me and kept me from my mother, I hated. She got what was coming to her and I am glad they found the money. I am sure they will do something good with it. I don't care what they do with it, it was blood money, people died to make her rich and one of those people was my real Nonna. I am glad the money was found, I just don't like how it was earned and how it was going to fund my businesses downfall."

"Your mother and Uncles have asked us to fund and charity in their fathers name. They will talk to you about it, because none of them want her dirty money either. Grace said I was not to tell you, but as they want you to decide where it goes. I thought you should know."

"And I thank you for that. We could add it to Coping togethers coffers or to the safari park, or to fund a scholarship programme in, what baking?"

"That's up to you, but all charities need funds. None of them including our charity, will not turn down any donation made in his name. Think about it, there is no rush, its gathering good interest where it is."

"Thanks. I need it to do good, to take balance the bad things she did to get it." I sighed, when will the bad Vita go away? I am stopped from sobbing by the arrival of Elliot and Kate. They look loved up and happy. Much like my man and me…

"Hi, family. How are we all tonight?"

"Son, have you been drinking?" Grace asks Elliot. "Kate?"

"He has just landed the job of a life time. Apparently, he beat off the competition."

"I have an in with the new owners…" Christian smiles.

"We got the plans passed, really?" What?

"Yes little brother, I am here to tell you Mr and Mrs Christian Grey, we break ground on your Sound House, in three days."

"Christian?"

"Surprise, we are building the home of your dreams Baby, I had already bought the land, and was going to build a golf course facing Elliot Bay. But I want to knock down the old mansion there and build you the house of your dreams."

"You did?"

"I did."

"Can I see this building before you demolish it? I like old houses, as in I really like old houses."

"It was you who said you wanted an underground home."

"I did, I know but I also like old American colonials and mansions. Like my place in Calabasas. That was the oldest house there, and it is way better than the modern throw ups next to it."

"Okay, we will go and see it tomorrow, before my brother's wrecking crew get there. You Mrs Grey are very confusing."

"You wanna try being me Mr Grey. It's murder." We are called to dinner and I see Christian and his family smile and it makes me smile too. I love the Grey's so damned much and I think I am going to enjoy being a part of their family. They give my world a balance, which I need. My family are mad for it, crazy Italians, but I love them and to have Christian and his family, have a different type of family love, they bring, into my world, a calmness that my lot do not have… I cannot wait to add these three babies I carry into a very blessed and loving family. I then start to cry… Poor Christian…

* * *

So I manged to post in a week, who knows my muse could be back, my hands are not hurting as much too, so that's a bonus… Read review and be aware the time hops are coming…


	61. Chapter 61

This story is nowt like fifty shades; I just purloined E.L. James's characters, buildings and some of her other stuff...

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Dreaming of Chocolate and Grey:

Chapter 61:

My Happy Place:

Walking around the building that will, I hope, be the flag ship of my company, here in America, and I smile, polished surfaces and brand new machines surround me. These machines I know like the back of my hand, but two floors up is the floor of the television studio, and I panic. That floor is a mystery to little ole me. Though I know all about the super swish television kitchen, the television side of this floor, actually and laughably floors me. I know it has to work, we have to sell this idea of mine and sell it well, not that I need the damned money, but I need for it to work and flourish, so that the people I employ are not having to seek out new employment and the students have to be shipped to a television studio miles away, and I am for some reason doubting myself, again. I flop down on the guest sofa and take in this mega giant, and decide I am going to be my usual, great self. I am just being stupid, with reason, because a great chef and chocolatier I may be, but a star of the small screen, I aint.

My doubts stem from the cocked up the many test runs I have had, I have to think of the massive audience as nothing more than spectators at my competitions and shows were. I know the list of guests to sit on this sofa is amazing, it seems quite a few of the calls Kate made on my behest, were met with great enthusiasm. Mrs Grey's expert persuasion has yet to come into play. She, with the motormouth and sunny disposition, is loving the new head office and studio, unlike me, the moody bitch with a belly that looks like I am smuggling melons out of the farmers market. I am a little better with the tears, but the sarcasm, wow, that is a mood killer. Poor Christian has to have more patience than a saint. I know I am a 'Grade-A' bitch. Even fucking him into oblivion isn't reward enough for the amount of abuse he gets from me. Though sometimes I swear he does it for the soothing he gets afterwards! It has heed a rough ten weeks since we returned from honeymoon, but its a learning curve we have weathered well. Albeit with a few storm clouds from time to time, aka my hormonal imbalances and though they are getting better, I still have the odd tear and wailing session.

I sigh and go across to Grey House, to see my husband. He has been away for five days, to see a man about feeding the trawler yard he bought before we got married, and hopefully he will win the contract off a very big in fish Japanese fishing fleet owner, which will keep the yard busy for years to come. He will be arriving back soon, by helicopter, and god I missed him. He and I have called each other texted and facetimed each other. I swear the five days he has been away, they have felt like a month. Have I missed him? You bet your ass I have. Luke is by the elevator and watches everything I do. He is such a perfect protection officer, and he knows when to avoid the bad bitch, he, like Christian is hoping it goes, my not too sunny disposition, when the three of these bouncing aliens are out of my belly.

Later today we are having another scan, twenty weeks is the important one, or so his damned book assures him! The one we had done a month ago, it didn't show their bits any clearer than the ones we had after we returned from our honeymoon. The one were Christian thought his children were all boys and had huge boy parts! They were too squished together last month, so this month I have decide to drink so much water they are going to look like they are bobbing around like apples in a barrel at Halloween. Which is fast approaching too, the factories and instore kitchens have been churning out the special chocolate treats and lollypops all month. I was reminded that children here, they love trick or treating, and we had to capture as many of them as we can, after all, as Mia keeps telling me, they will be our future customers.

Mia, is going to be an amazing chocolatier and is sitting her exams to make her a master patissier, she has worked so hard and has some amazing ideas. Which we have used for the Halloween chocolates, and for the new Animals of the world chocolates, which I thought of doing in Africa. I am not as controlling as I was with my colleagues, I let them voice their opinions more and take on board their suggestions too. I think it shocked my old staff, Jose and Ramón especially, the amount of control I am letting go. I needed too, because of the sheer amount of stores we have now, the business as a whole needs way more management than the few I had before, I have over two hundred stores and about twenty of those are yet to undergo refurbishment. Marco and his team have been stretched to the max.

"Luke, any word as to where Christian and Taylor are?"

"They are at SeaTac and are heading towards Mr Grey's hanger to get the helicopter, as we speak." I get in the elevator and we head to the basement and walk towards Grey House, using the underground walkway, we had made to connect the two buildings. Which sits under a huge pond like thing we created to make the buildings conect in a good way and add wildlife to the business district of Seattle. I cannot wait to see the pond lilies and the trees come alive with colour. Christians buildings are a little too stark, this pond will soften the edges a little. I hope!

"How is Holly?" Her dad and my godfather Uncle Wolfe had collapsed whilst doing the last concert of their last tour. She rushed to his side and has been there ever since and I miss her, as does Luke!

"She is arriving back in three days, and has missed you."

"I bet she only went to get away from me." She has been in England for too long, Uncle Wolfe has had a few heart scares in the past, but none as bad as this one, and she needed to be with him. I have been told he is fine and to stop worrying, but worry I do. He has had the best specialists available and they inform me he is fine. I don't doubt them, but I still worry.

"Well worry no more, her father is fine and is coming to stop here for a few weeks."

"He is? When did they decide this?"

"Yesterday, when you had the teary session on the phone with him."

"I didn't mean to cry like a baby, but he is the nearest thing to a father I have left. I would hate it if…"

"…He had a minor heart scare, not a full blown heart attack Ana."

"A heart attack is not funny, minor or not he was in pain and rushed to hospital, and those stories that hit the internet that he had died took years off my life and I nearly had the babies. We wouldn't have known, but for that damned article, I am glad we did read it or we would have been none the wiser." Yes, the fake news ran a story, as they have done with many stars, about their deaths, but this one was so close to being true, it was scary. I swear when Barney and Welch find out who is behind this so called Star Obituary Site, they are gonna feel the full force of one pissed off redheaded Brummy girl and me, with my bad temper and bowling ball belly! I swear it took all I had not to rush over, but I was denied a certificate to fly, because I was suffering with high blood pressure and couldn't fly or get anyone to agree to it either, I sear Mr Grey poked his nose in and lay down the law to Liv... Anyway, a week in bed was had, and I ran my business from our bed. I don't follow orders well, and was pissed off I couldn't comfort Uncle Wolfe.

"Ana, stop stressing, he is really great. He has been spoiled and fussed over, Holly went above and beyond, you do know he is fed up of her and you fussing, right? He was seriously thinking of going to your island and not coming back. He really is fine Ana. He is rested and he will be here to give his daughter away, when she decides where and when that is happening."

Sawyer and Holly got engaged the week after we returned from honeymoon, in secret, I only sussed when she did the ring flashing, in the not too subtle moves, like the nose itch, the overdone hand movements, and funny finger pointing gestures, and when that didn't work she shoved it in my face. What? I had head up my arse syndrome. Anyway after I saw the rock, she and I screamed a little and laughed a lot, because she was mad I didn't spot the Rock of Gibraltar on her hand, We discussed when, and where the event extraordinaire will be, but she wasn't sure, she still isn't. I know she hates big weddings and refuses to wear a puffy dress, no matter how much her father whines for the big white wedding, and the walk down a really long aisle! No, Holly is not impressed with her father's grandiose plans, she wants a drive through wedding on the back of Luke's bike, then burgers and fries with cheeky grown up milkshakes, she adds liquor to her shakes. A drive through burger place with the big gold m, a vodka and vanilla shake is her preferred wedding drink! Uncle Wolfe is not going to win that war, no matter how much he plays the heart card! She isn't a wedding kind of girl. She is hoping just wearing the ring is enough, but knowing Luke Sawyer as I do, he wants the whole nine yards. I change the subject.

"I want a burger now!" Luke smiles. "What, I am passed being a vegan. I want red meat."

"I will order take out."

"Nope, his lordship will not allow crap to be eaten. You know this Luke Sawyer, he has food police make sure I eat, and don't think I don't know you tell him if I skip a meal or two."

"Sorry, but he worries, and I don't tell him all the time, just when I think you are over doing it. And Mrs Grey, you do this more than you think."

"I know, but I skipped meals before and I do not skip more than one meal a day. I might remind him, you and everyone, that I am not eating for four, just me. The amount he expects me to eat is far too excessive, I am sure he thinks he is feeding an elephant. Not mouthy little me." Luke smiles. I think he has forgotten the chat about worrying my over worrying husband!

Christian, he has read so many first time parental advice books that he could pass the OBYG tests, and deliver our babies. I hide them and often, but he finds them again, or orders more. I swear a little knowledge is a dangerous thing with Christian Grey! I am on an uber strict diet, and there are so many foods I cannot eat, that I decided in one of my many rants, to go vegan. He was all for this, until I started getting very bad wind problems, I could and did, rip off massive stink bomb farts, which made Mr Grey put an end to my craving for red lentil soup, kale shakes, cabbage and veggie burgers. It has to be said, I could empty an office when I farted, and I did. All I can say on that matter is, I am glad my weekly store meetings with my shop managers and the schools, were on facetime, and they don't, as yet, have smelly vision telly. or I'd be alone, all alone with my nose blind to what people tell me smells like something has crawled up my ass and died...

"I hated that phase of this pregnancy. Ana, please don't forget who was stood behind you when you let loose those bottom burps, those were some mighty horrid shit yourself wind episodes, my time clearing the latrines in Kandahar were not that smelly! It was brutal to my nostrils!" I laugh, what I was nose blind and didn't smell them and I couldn't let them go discreetly, because they were so damned long and loud, heyho, I ain't keeping them in, they were killers for stomach pain.

"Sorry, but its better out than in. So, did they land on top yet?" We are in the Grey Elevator going to the rooftop, to meet Christian, then we are heading to our new home, facing Elliott Bay, the pull down which I saved from demolition. Now, we have a perfectly restored Sea Captains House, it is amazing, a very good mix of old and new, it also complete with a very dubiously named Widows Walk, I prefer it to be called a wraparound balcony, because I don't relish being a widow of any sort. Elliot and I had the last walk around prior to his lordship's return yesterday, and I think he will love it, it's not quite an underground bunker, but it has rooms beneath the gardens, because Elliot cleverly expanded on the already massive cellars, and we do have as much room underneath, as we do up top. the staff have rooms here too and Taylor and Gail have their own home here too, it is laughingly meant to be modeled on an English agate house, but it is so big its like an entry arch into a fun fair, which is good for security and Taylor, there is plenty of room for Sophie to come and stop longer too.

The doors to the lift ping open and I see Charlie Tango heading our way, I have hated this separation more than I will admit to anyone. Five days has seemed like forever. Charlie lands, and Sawyer and I head towards it. Christian is piloting his toy, Taylor steps out and helps me into the back seat. What no kiss Mr Grey, you are slipping? I put on the 'cans' and his voice bellows through the ear pieces.

"Miss me?"

"I may have. Did you miss me?"

"I did, it was quiet without you, too quiet. So, are you ready to show me our new home?"

"Yes, and then I have a surprise for you, we are going to see the babies, I rescheduled."

"You didn't go to your appointment this morning?"

"No, I wanted you to see them too. Besides I have a good feeling we will find out what we are having."

"Good… I need to say hello properly Mrs Grey." He signals for Taylor and Sawyer to remove their cans…

"What are you up too?"

"I don't want them to hear me talk dirty to you, do you want them to listen in?"

"Nope, but for now can we just get to the house? I seem to have gone right off talking about it and I think actually doing it too." He laughs. "What, it seems I have hit that drought thing the books you got warned you about. It does nothing for me anymore."

"Ana?"

"Yup, I have gone right off sex."

"Holy fuck, I didn't think it was true, what the hell? I am gonna have blue fucking balls."

"Why?"

"Are you fucking kidding me Ana, I need you in the morning, at noon and all night long some nights, especially tonight, I have had as much jacking off as I can handle."

"Sorry, I don't make the rules. I just went right off it." The guys put on their cans and I smile as Christian seems to be muttering about blue balls and fucking pregnant wives with more mood swings than he can handle. Oops, I may have taken the joke a little too far. My bad! I will have to make it up to him, and hope he still loves me. It seems I have got a great poker face after all… He thinks I lost all those times on honeymoon because I was crap? Nah, I liked being naked and him watching me dance when I lost the next hand and had nothing left to lose so a dance was my 'punishment', the sight of a nearly naked husband and the feel of the pole between my naked body and legs, did very rude things to my husband, all as I channelled my inner pole dancing me to be amazingly sexy and flirty. He loved me losing, but what he didn't know was, I liked losing more than winning… I will have you know I sing Rude boy, just as good as Miss Rihanna and dance even sexier than Miss Von Teese. I watch him get angry and wish I hadn't pulled his leg. He flies his toy to the house on the sound and lands in the yard, which will eventually be a wildflower meadow, and the large H will be over his underground garages, which houses our joint plethora of cars, motor bikes and bicycles.

The rotors blades of Charlie T, stop whirring and security go and do their checks, he is still in a mood, but he helps me out and I kiss him as I fall against him.

"I think seeing you in the flesh has reignited the hornie Ana you left behind. You and Little Christian will be pleased to know, I need you like mad Mr Grey."

"Thank fuck for that, I hate having to do it myself, you witch, I believed you too."

"I am your witch, and I have not had sex in ages. My husband left me to go and see a trawler man about a few poxy boats."

"I am not doing that again. Ever… I had so many bloody erection problems, I lost count and there are only so many times I can excuse myself at dinner."

"Oh? Please pray tell me what gave you the hard willy? If I was not there?" I smiled and held my body as close as I could get it and stroked my hands across his lumpy mid-section. Umm, he has missed me.

"I can never get the thought of my mother's old gardener, when you say Willy! So, please don't keep calling my dick a willy, or a little Christian. I have visions of children with bibles sneaking up on me when you throw in your British colloquialisms, and we both know he is far from little! Now where was I, umm, making sure my wife knows I was not turned on by anyone but her. No… It's even weirder than that, it was an old man who made my dick harden."

"Eww, a man an old man? That's another name for your todger…" He smiles. Yes, I have a fair few names for my favourite bit of my hubbies body.

"Well, when you put it like that, it isn't that nice an image to be having. No, it was the man I was trying to coax into buying a few trawlers off my company, but he wasn't interested in talking shop, instead he kept asking questions about my wife. He is eager to see you when he comes to Seattle next month to sign off on the designs and pay a huge deposit. He is a family man and only does business with family men, men working for their children's futures, he says providers for a family are the best men to build his new fishing fleet. I had to agree that family is a good reason to work hard."

"Hu? He does know we are both billionaires and don't need to work for our children's futures, right?"

"I am sure he does, but if it makes him happy then who are we to disagree. Now, why tell me you have gone off sex, do you know what that did to my ermmm, ego?"

"Nothing, it would have done nothing, because you have a mighty large kinky arsenal at your disposal, for sexing me into oblivion. Your face is enough to melt the coldest of glares, and you know it. Now kiss me, you idiot, I missed you so much and you have yet to kiss me, are you going off me?f" I pout and see the erection he has going on, nah, he still likes me, but a wife always likes to be told they are all their husband has thought of.

"I missed you too. More than I thought possible. What have you done to me Ana, you witch like mermaid?"

"I am a mermaid today am I, I will begin louring you towards me, your true love, and I will do so with my angelic and hypnotic singing voice?" He kissed me, and as he did I swear I feel like I am floating off into the clouds. His tongue sucks me in and we get lost in the heat of the moment, and it takes a discreet cough from Taylor to bring us to heel. We are being watched by the few remaining ground staff. Okay, I guess we are forgetting where we are. "I will finish luring you to my bed later, I wonder what tune I should sing to get you there quickly?"

"None, there is no need for luring me, I am going to carry you to our bed and make up for lost time."

"Oh, I think I'd like that, very much. Now, this way, they have yet to finish my surprise for you, so ignore the massive hole in the ground. Oh, and keep away, its bloody deep. They put in all the electric and techie gubbins yesterday, and it's not quite as safe as it should be, hence the men stood around doing nothing, they are there to stop idiots falling in." He strains his neck to see what I am going on about.

"A diving pool?"

"Nope. You will never guess and I am not spoiling the surprise either. So do not ask. All I will say about it is, you will love it I swear you will."

"Umm, have you decide we are having a cream room here?"

"No, here is home, where we will be raising our children. Though I did consider it when they put in the safe room. I really did."

"Umm, I bet you did, so the hole, how deep is it?"

"Deep."

"As in how deep?"

"As deep as the garage is to the house, there is also a walkway between the two. Now, this way. We may be able to move in at the weekend. If they finish the surprise as they said they would." He keeps looking towards the men standing guard. I am having a parking garage thing for his helicopter built, I presume the builders know how to do it, I didn't, Elliot knew a man, who knew another and he knew someone perfect. Apparently to Elliot it was like we were building our own Tracy Island, I mean we have the all glass basement, which runs all around the old home that was here, the one I saved with my whining. I have the olde-worlde that I love, and he has the ultra-modern, high end gadgets he craves and the next generation, fuel efficient geek stuff he loves is there too and anywhere else it could be done without ruining my beautiful old floors and walls and ceilings, with their original plaster coving and sconces, it is an amazing home, for my amazing husband.

We have made a home that suits us both. Elliot and his team have done it in the promised ten weeks, even my adding on the take off and landing pad and new home for Charlie Tango, at the last minute hasn't made him over run, he just dug the glass cellars out a little wider, the amount of dirt they pulled out, we could have had another island made, but they managed to fill in an old dried out pond, and several large holes that seemed to be everywhere. I didn't listen at the time, but apparently, they were an old ice house and other stuff the old sea captain had built way back in the day.

I fell in love with it when we did a recki from the Grace one day, and Christian made up a wonderful story about a widow woman, who walked the widow walk every night waiting for her true love to return, Christian told me on some nights people out at sea see a light which comes on to welcome him home, which it never did when the widow woman was alive, their souls he said met by the slipway seconds after she took her last breath, and they walked hand in hand to the sea.

I cried so much that I had to have the house, he smiled and handed me the key, he knew full well I would never allow it to be flattened, not after that beautiful story. I did the research and it wasn't as old as he had me believe, it was built after the great depression, and was in the same family for three generations, the forth one managed to lose the lot after a series of bad investments. Christian picked it up for a song and now we have spent a fortune on our beautiful money pit, our forever home…

"Mrs Grey, Mr Grey, the house is secure." Taylor nods his head and Christian carries me to see the difference five days makes…

"Well, what do you think?" Ana asks me. "Christian, what do you think?"

"I love it, and I think I know what you are having them build Baby."

"Oh? What gave it away?" I smirk… Should I tell her the team leader asked for permission to see Charlie Tango and see what changes we have had done to the production number, to make him unique. Sawyer swore me to secrecy. "It was those damned doors with the yellow H on it, wasn't it?"

"That and the garage we scooted through had the plans on the wall. Thank you, and Charlie thanks you too, it means we can leave him here, instead of having either Sawyer or Taylor take him back."

"I live to please, however Ryan and Reynolds have had the cars brought to the front, we have to go and see Liv, hurry or we will be late."

"We can reschedule."

"This is the rescheduled appointment. We are five days over already Christian." She is glowing and so damned happy that she makes everyone around her radiate happiness too. This admiration everyone has for her is charming to see, and Mr Tanaaka will not know what's hit him when he sees my wife, he was the reason we had to reschedule, and I hope it was worth it, because spending five days away from her was murder. I used to love chasing my dreams, but now I am just happy to be here with Ana, she is my future and is in all my dreams, she is the better half of me, and my everything. I take her hand and walk to the waiting cars.

"Earth to Christian, where were you Angel?" She reaches up and rearranges my fringe, "are you okay, only you look like you are in another word?" I am in another world, one where she and my children feature quite heavily. I cannot wait to see them again, if I could I would have her not work and lay on a bed scanning her blossoming mound of baby bits and watch as they grow and become something resembling babies and not aliens, which is what everyone is calling them. "Christian? Are you okay?"

"Okay? Ana, I am fine, a little tired after the trip, but I am eager to see them, do you think they will flash their things to the good Doctor Liv this time?" I have my fingers crossed that there are three boys in there, Taylor has said he worries all the time about Sophie. We clamber in the cars and head to the Wellness Centre. Getting there we head straight up to see Liv, who has stuck to her word and been very vigilant with Ana, and the care she has given to the four most important people in my world. I wonder if my mother will be there? She seems to be working or dropping in at every appointment. Her mother is the same, she is a frequent visitor to Seattle, both her and Bob.

"I wonder if we will have visitors this time Christian?" She says with that jaw dropping smile she has. "Everyone has seen them, that matters, and all have had guesses to what their sexes are. Mom thinks I am having all girls, Bobby says they are all boys. Your mother just keeps smiling and says they are Grey Babies, which is what they are. Now are we having a secret gender reveal? Have you decided?"

"Yes, we will have Liv write it in the envelope and get one of your employees to bake them their cakes, then tomorrow when we have the party, we can then cut the cake and all find out together, I like that idea."

"What the reveal or the cake?"

"Both, you know I am hooked on the bakeries cakes. When you open the doors on Monday, I know my staff will be queuing around the block to sample the bakeries wares."

"I think we will be busy, I think all the stores will flourish thanks to the large amount of offices in the catchment area. You put down GEH's roots in the best place ever."

"Fortuitous, some might say. How did your competition take the news?"

"Not very well, he is being a little mean, I told him there is room enough for two of us, but he is not having it. I am sorry for him, but he does not have the rights to all the customers, just because he opened first, and he is lucky the contractors have taken longer to complete the back roads in to the building, or he wouldn't have had the extra weeks to feed, capture and keep the customers, he has had going in, but he will miss the builders and our outfitters, because they do keep him full throughout the day, but Christian, if he is that good they will stay loyal to him."

"Has he done anything?"

"Nope, and with the security we have, we will spot it if he tries to sabotage us again." We, or rather Ana and her builders have been hit with a few odd 'mishaps' since it became known she was about to become his biggest competition, and he was, we think responsible for the many complaints we had thrown at us for hogging the roads and causing him and the other businesses to lose custom, and it resulted in us having to apply to the city planners, for the extra road having to be done behind Grey House and Ana's building, which turned out to be a good thing, for both Grey House one and two, we now have a dedicated road into our buildings. I will have the man's balls if he stoops to dirty tricks, like flooding the basement again, or trying to. Ana says I am allowing my imagination to run wild, but I know the smarmy bastard was behind it.

It was too coincidental that happening when they were pouring the new road in and out of our buildings, delaying us pouring the slabs for three days. Three days in which we had to install all manner of drainage, but thanks to that 'accident' we are covered now, and are safe from whatever water is sent our way, and it was better doing it before we poured the slabs than after they were down, our massive manmade pond between the buildings acts as a drainage pond, and somewhere pleasant for our employees to sit out, and eat their lunches. We had a nice two page spread in the Seattle papers, for adding some green space to a busy Seattle landscape, his stupidity was lucky for us. Though we still cannot prove it was him, I have my suspicions!

"Christian, we are here, are you still worrying about Jon Howards mind games?"

"I am not worried, we always come out the winners when he does something to fuck us over, but I have an ace he doesn't even know I have in the hold. We own all his loans he took out, or rather the Kavanaghs do."

"Christian, it isn't him, call me stupid all you want, but he hasn't got the brainpower to know how to override the automatic underground pumps we had in, nor where they are run from, that was an inside job, who but someone who works for you knew where to tamper, and actually get in Grey House two?"

"I had them all checked Baby, anyway we have changed the codes and Barney is on it like shit on flies."

"I think you mean like flies on shit Mr Grey?"

"Whatever, but the delays are all down to someone who hates us."

"No, someone who hates me. You have been established here for a long time, I am the newbie, not you!"

"We are here, and stop worrying, we are covered and there are no black, dark or blind spots in the cameras we had installed Ana."

"Umm, big brother is definitely watching over us, or at least Welch and his team, that is. Hi Liv…" I missed her sneaking towards us.

"Mr and Mrs Grey, walk this way. How are you feeling Ana, you open this week, right?"

"Yes, yes we do and it's taken forever to get to this point. So, I have drank a load and desperately need to pee, can we get the stomach prodding over with so I can empty my bladder before the three of them act like a battering ram and make me pee."

"There isn't a lot of room for them to move in there Ana." Ana lies on the bed and Liv does the gel thing on my wife's ever growing belly. It seems we are going to witness this alone, nobody has stopped by unannounced. I sit and stare as the wand sweeps over, back and forth, until the screen shown Baby One, the single alien, and I grin, it seems we won't be doing the gender reveal to include us, because right there on the screen, my little girl can be clearly seen and I am so happy to see her. Despite my being in shock I say all the right things, she is very clearly a girl. She has no added extras.

"Christian, we have a girl. I am right, aren't I?" Liv nods and smiles. She then pushes Ana's stomach and the back of the identical twins is towards the screen, and you can quite clearly see it's spine and the bottom, the cute bottom of god knows what, this kid is being a pain and is not for revealing anything. Typical, I will have weeks of wondering if I have annoyed someone up there enough to warrant getting three girls. Liv sticks out her tongue and I laugh as she looks to be concentrating hard on twin two.

"Umm, right you little beggar, give it up…" Ana and Liv swish my wife's stomach, and they succed in disturbing their sleep, and as she settles, Ana smiles again and I look at what they are both looking at, the third baby is a boy, and yes, I checked that his cord was out of the way, before I air pumped my fist before I was sure that the little one had a penis and not a cord.

"Congratulations, you are having two boys and a girl. The twins boys are a little smaller than the girl, but all three are good weights and sizes. I have explained that the twins share the same sac, so will be identical, right? Only you asked so many questions last time Christian I wasn't sure if we covered the twin thing?"

"You did, so are they still okay?" Ana asks, she looks at the screen and sees what I see, their cords are well away from their neck. I know this will be something she does all the time, and she has every right to fear the reoccurrence of her worst nightmare, happening again. Liv smiles and shows her why it won't happen, they trace the cord and all three are downward facing, whatever that mean, but because Ana is so slight and the babies big, they will not have the room to bounce around in there as Christian had. They are going to be safe and delivered my caesarean, that much we have all agreed on. Ana is not going through that awful delivery like she did last time, nor is she doing it alone, this time we are going to do this together. I didn't realise I was crying until Ana passed me a handkerchief.

"Here, dry your eyes Angel, we are having two boys and a girl. Get the cakes and balloons for the party and try not to tell everyone before the reveal Mr Grey, the worst secret keeper ever…" I can't help it, I am over the moon with the three of them already, I am going to be the worst one for spoiling them and Ana knows this.

"I am sure the party will be a big hit. Now let's do the bloods and the nasty stuff. Oh and can you manage to give me a sample when you pee Ana?"

"Yup I have drank loads so there should be loads, thanks Liv." I stand and help her down, and Ana goes to do her toileting, alone. I learned that lesson last time, and the hard way too, no sex was had when we got home.

"Is she really okay Liv? I mean it, was as you said, and they are safe from their cords getting in the way?"

"Yes Christian, they are packed like sardines in there, I promise if we get any sign they are in danger, I will do something, but I doubt you have anything to worry about other than having that dreaded girl?"

"It could have been three girls Liv, and then I would have had more peppering of my hair with those pesky gray hairs." She laughs, but I am serious I pulled three or four out the other day. I now know why Dad was gray at an early age too, I was the cause of most of them and Mia the cause for the rest. He says Elliot was not the cause for any of the gray hair, he was the cause for the missing bits…

My brother was a mad brother and a worse son, he was always in trouble with his horsing around, and the girls and their mothers calling, but me? I gave Mom more sleepless nights than she cared to remember and Mia, princess Mia, was every parent's nightmare, in a good way, not like me and in a bad way, she was too beautiful for words, from the moment when we got her, until she fell in love with Ana and her chocolates, but whilst she was at school, that beauty has made all the boys come a calling. My dad has a very large, but fake gun collection, which is strategically mounted in the entry hall of Casa Mia, which he has shown to all her callers, and it has chalk marks on the side, which he tells them are the near misses others have had, I may have to invest in a collection of my own, or get the guys to wave theirs around, but my daughter will not be allowed out alone until she is thirty, at least. I then sigh, god this is his punishment for my past… I am getting a girl… Oh crap, thank fuck there was only the one, it could have been three, and then we would have had to move to Bora Bora…

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I hope you liked that, I was in the mood for writing for a change, read and review, I am looking at baby names next... Oh and Ana is twenty weeks and ten weeks was the time hop... loves ya all...


	62. Chapter 62

This story is nowt like fifty shades; I just purloined E.L. James's characters, buildings and some of her other stuff...

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Thanks for reading this, and leaving your kind reviews, all are appreciated, as are the sales of my books, purchased by you, my kind readers. I am also on the last leg of my new book, and at the moment I am burning the candle at both ends… Have too, because there is only one of me, unfortunately, lol… It will be available on Smashwords and Amazon, soon and will be called, The Road We Pass… So I am very busy, thanks for reading my fan fictions. I am having a break at the beginning of September and going back to Kos for a few days... xx

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Dreaming of Chocolate and Grey:

Chapter 62:

Karma, is just one girl in three for me:

As Ana and I head out of the wellness centre, I am still in shock that we are having a girl, it's great that they are all well and putting on the required weight, and that Ana is in good health, but him up there has gifted us a girl. Ana is having a sugar rush I think, because she is super excited, and god that sounded so bloody un-manly, she is really excited sounded better, and manly. I gather I am becoming softer, more, what was it mother said I had become since the rings were exchanged, approachable. Mom speak for finally getting my head out of my arse. I must admit, my life has changed, changed for the better, I am a different man, and that is because I have found I am more than capable of giving, and be more accepting of the foreign concept of love, and it being and needing to be a two way thing. Ana has changed me, having had a son softened me, and having a pregnant wife has turned my world into confusion, the only thing that has not changed, is work, though some would say that yes, even that has changed, and it has, because I am no longer a workaholic. I make sure I am home at the same time as my wife, and if I have to travel it is for as short a time as possible. I believe Elliot calls me Pussy Whipped. A term of endearment I am sure? But hell, I like both her Pussy and how she handles the leather, but he isn't to know that was why I laughed.

"Christian, we are having two boys, and a girl." Ana is so damned happy and it's catching. She is smiling from cheek to cheek. I smile too.

"I heard that too, I was half expecting he who hates me up there, to send three girls to taunt me, although I would have loved three guys in my corner, one little baby girl, I think I can handle."

"One? I think that will be a struggle. So, can I call her Scarlett?" She asks and though I like the name, it was one of the many names my mother now calls she who shall not be named, Elena... Fuck her... Another! I sigh.

"As in a scarlet woman? I don't think I particularly like that? How about Skylar, I heard that once and liked the name."

"Nah, I went to school with a Skylar and she is a prostitute now. Which shocked me I can tell you, it was such a surprise seeing her the last time I filled the car, she was near the petrol station touting for business, that was not what I expected to see filling up my car. She tried to say she was meeting friends, but when a car pulled up, he asked her how much and she drove off with him, so not a great name, but not for our daughter. Besides she will be called skies are Grey, or dreary skies, because you have to be so careful when you name your children, I mean, crazy seems the way to go, I am not naming my daughter after a fruit, a city or a damned car either, though I now know I wasn't named after a Russian princess, but took the name of my father's favourite retreat, Anastasia, it makes me a hypercritical. sort of...

So Christian, love of my life and father to be of two boys and one darling girl, I am sure as hell not calling my girl Skylar, Skylark or bloody Dove, Mercedes and Porscha, I have a pretty long list of girls who taunted me, even the bitch with the sleepy and beautiful name of Dove. She was a bully of the worst kind, she was head bitch at my first school, and was only my friend because I lived on the island and had money and my father was famous, she was a horrid two faced creature, a truly evil wee girl, and I found out the hard way that she was no friend of mine, friends, true friends are not easily found, she made friends with me for all the wrong reasons, I hated her and all her bitchy hangers on. So I will have a very long list of no-no's, how about you?" Are those tears? There are real tears, does that mean another Armageddon of rage and tears is coming? "She was always an odd bod, her parents were hippies and were far too, too, I don't know? I mean Skylar, not Dove, though Dove had the hippy dippy name, she was as far from love and peace as you could get. Skylar's parents were far too soft on her, they let her be free to do what she wanted, and so she had no boundaries and though the name is beautiful, the memories I have of my old friend are not happy ones. I would like to use Olivia in her name though!" I expected that, she was her best friend. Her and Holly. Though she has my head in a spin about a bitch called Dove, but our daughter is not being named after a posh flying rodent, the wedding dove and dove of love, that is nothing more than an albino Pigeon, and those fuckers I hate.

How the hell I agreed to them being released at my proposal to Ana beggars belief. I have a fear of those darned flying shit dropping birds, and will never forget Elena making me stand in a fucking bird prison, whilst smothered in honey as she and her friends threw seeds at me, and I screamed for dear life, as they let loose the birds, and they fucking pecked off the seeds, that she and they had fucking stuck to my body, she did it knowing full well they would touch me and hurt me, and they did, when she untied me, I hit her so hard that I gave her a black eye and the other friends a busted lip and the other lost the use of her vagina for a month as I kicked and screamed to be let out of her torture chamber filled with fucking doves and pigeons and some equally horrid parrots! I guess I could be afraid of birds, I know I wasn't happy using feathers in my scenes for quite a while, and they were never used on Elena, no she after that lost my trust and I vowed never to ignore a safe word with my subs, I shouted red so many times, mom said I woke in the night for weeks shouting red, red no more red, please no more, red, red.

After that I hated fucking birds like the guys in the film of the same name I feared there being more than a dozen in any one place, and I quite liked the lead actress in that too, Tippi Hedren, she was a very sexy lady I perved over, because I loved all things Alfred hitchcock, sadly, it was a conversation Ellena over heard Elliot and I having about my ideal woman, and she exacted her revenge for a teenage crush I had on Tippi. With the birdseed hell she put me through. I had to think on my feet and told my poor mother that Ella, she had ran a light and the police chased us and I felt crap for lying to her. I shiver. My ass paid for that the weekend after. I shake and forget who I am with for the briefest moment in time, why did she pop into my damned head again? The witch is dead, burnt and is fish food, I try to forget what that bitch did to me, and to the others, I try really hard, but she sneaks in all the fucking time and I have to regroup and try all over again to put her behind me.

"Christian, why are you crying?" My hand wipes away the tear. "Christian, what's the matter?"

"Ana, I don't know who I was, I know who I am now, but not where I came from Baby, and I think I need to know who I am."

"We should ask to do a genetic test, that Grace suggested, or we can take life as it comes and worry when we have to, of we have to." I often wonder who I am, I know nothing about Ella, apart from she died and loved drugs more than me. Never will my children come second best to anything, they come first, as it should be. I clench my hand and make a tight fist. What the hell has come over me? I hear Ana's soft voice and realise I am away in my own world for the briefest of moments.

"Christian, release your hand and relax, your nails are cutting into your skin, Christian, come back to me, come back Angel, come back." She rubs my back and I release the grip I have on my palm.

"What happened Ana?"

"You blanked out again, was it something I said?"

"No, well yes, the dove thing, it brought back some unhappy times for me."

"Was one of the others, the girls called Dove, and please tell me if you had a Dove, it wasn't a girl called Dove Maribeth McMorris?" What the hell?

"No, I have never met a girl called Dove. I hate the damned birds and white pigeons especially."

"Okay, but doves are not pigeons."

"Okay then, how about Eve Olivia Grey, after the first woman on earth and your best friend?"

"That's a definite maybe. How about Sarah Olivia? Its nice and simple Christian?"

"Nope, I'm sorry Baby, but that was the name of one of my subs. I like Eve though. It's cool short and snappy and cannot be shortened. You like it? Eve I mean?" She nods her head and places a tissue over the four puncture lines in the palm of my hand.

"Why did you look angry Christian?"

"I was remembering a particular punishment, a cruel punishment, which involved Doves."

"Okay, How do doves fit into BDSM? I must have missed those lessons, unless it's covered in bestiality? That was something I found to be too much and not at all fun, I mean what sort of monster has sex with animals? I mean I know there are all sorts of sexual deviants out there, but really a defenceless animal?" I listen and then laugh. I must admit it's not on my wish list, neither is fire or blood play.

"I guess, there are all sorts of demons out there, and no, the birds were a passion of Mrs Lincoln's, she liked their sweet coo cooing voices." She gave me a look. "It's something I never understood, her reasons for having hundreds of the fuckers in a dove cot thing, until it was too late that is." I explained how she used it as a torture chamber. Then turned the conversation back towards the babies names, thankfully, she was okay with the snappy me..."What about the boys names?" I ask her.

"Oh, I am stuck on those too." She says as she stares at me, she kisses my sore palms and gives me a look. Okay I lost it back there. For a short while, at least. Shit, I think I need to see someone about having my memories of her wiped from my brain. I hate thinking about her, but she creeps into my thoughts a lot lately, her giving me self-doubts about being a father. "Anyway Christian, we have fifteen names and names of the others those whom we hate, many good names are already on the auto reject list. The boys are okay for second names, Carrick and Franklyn, but I want something that is not family connected for their christian names, and I am sorry but Christian is already taken by our first baby, sorry."

"That's a given Baby and don't be sorry, I am glad he has my name. I love Adam and Elijah."

"Nice to know I have no female competition, and what is it with you and holy names?" She is laughing at my slip of the tongue, at last her witty banter is back and I agree I seem to be going biblical.

"I like some of them and very funny about Adam and Elijah, I happen to be a red blooded male, happy with the feisty woman I married, oh and we are going to have to reveal their genders at a pop up sort of party." She looks like I have spouted an extra head. "So are you happy to assign their gender for them Ana?" Wow, she looks like I have asked what came first, the chicken or the egg.

"What?"

"It is the in thing now, for parents not to assign a gender to your child, or rather be non-gender pacific?"

"Oh lord, I am a traditionalist, they can be who they want to be after they grow into their own bodies, they can choose their own personalities, when they realise and fully understand what being alive and living a good life is all about, if they want to be themselves, whatever that is, because shock horror, they may b plain old males or a female, if not then when they understand that they may be different, and not know why, and if that happens we will more than likely know they are struggling, or I hope we will. I know Marco knew he was gay from a very early age, and I know you can grow into yourself, as Ethan did, he was an all-star quarterback, a sports god and a man's man, and then he came out when college was over.

Kate says she always knew, and she knew he was struggling. His dad, Eamon sat him down and had the talk. He told him he was okay with him being gay, and not to hide out wherever he hid out and to live as he wanted. He was a lot happier going into university being a gay man. He was such a loner, even when he was with his peers, now, now he is free and to me he is the same boy he was growing up."

"Oh, I forgot you knew them. I keep forgetting they went to the island too."

"He did, Kate was banned, so she went with her mother to Spa's and had fun." I had heard her mother had a much younger toy boy, but least said about that the better! Another conversation for later. My thinking it was and still may be Elliot.

"So you are an expert at this then?" I say as we get in the car. Taylor is still happy or he has now had a proper stroke and the Elvis smirk is here to stay? "Taylor, do you worry about Sophie?"

"Being gay?"

"Yes, is it a worry?"

"Nope, being a parent is hard enough, without all this modern parenting shit, sorry Ana."

"No offence taken Taylor. I can't wait to move into the house and see her running around the place, I hope she likes it."

"We have already ordered the fun stuff, for the back yard. Alas, most of it is boy stuff. Gail has made plans for her room to be so girly and pink to even out the girl/boy ratio of stuff in her life. Sophie is a keen sports girl, Ana, and loves her cousins, they are all boys so she rough houses a lot and they forget she is a girl. Her mother is worried she is too boyish. I happen to know she likes boys, but that's now, she could change and be like her bloody mother and change her mind and like women." Oops. I think I should have told Ana that she left Taylor for a woman…

"I guess so… How did we get on to this subject Christian?"

"I asked a stupid question, sorry." I see Taylors shoulders move, he's laughing at me, the fucker. What, I have a lot to learn and quickly.

"Hey life is what you make it and we have three lives to enjoy as babies before we have to worry about all the crazy in the world being added in. I mean, we know what troubled childhoods are about, so we can help them, though I never intend divorcing you or not being here with you to co parent our sprogs…"

"Sprogs?"

"An English term of endearment dear, sprogs. Like frogs, how about Jeramiah?"

"Hu?" I ask sounded stupid. "Jeramiah?"

"Yup, he was a bullfrog, and a very good friend of mine…" She laughs and sings the damned song I know have on repeat in my head. She has the sweetest voice to sing lullabies to our children with, and as she belts out a little Creedence Clearwater Revival's bullfrog song, the car is awash with her wonderful voice. When she gets to the end of the song, I realise my sons, neither of them is being named after a frog called Jeremiah.

"Nice song and a good reason for not using Jeramiah." I say as she finishes the tune.

"What made you even add this conversation to our vast amount of worries?" She asks me as Taylor puts on the car radio. I think about why I did the unthinkable and added more worries to raising a healthy kid, or sorry children, as is our lucky case." We have between us, a plethora of help for them, namely those family and friends we have that have gone through their struggles, so hopefully have they got issues and we are too stupid to realise it, they won't. I mean Ethan, Jose, Marco and Gwen and Ros, and I am good as long as they are health and kind, and they will be, they will be raised to be kind and courteous, and hard workers and curious about all life has to offer. Oh god, why am I worrying about their lives way down the line, I have to get them here in one piece first."

"Ana?"

"Nothing, I am on the change again, so ignore me, I am in what if mode again!"

"As soon as we can, we get your diet full of theses hormone replacement and banishment foods."

"Amen to that, now you a reaching to the choir."

"Ana, we are meant to worry, I think its gods punishment, we get back what we did to our parents, never did I imagine, that I would be stood in my poor father shoes. How is he not bald?"

"He said the gray hairs he has were not all down to you. Elliot was responsible for most, which he agreed with."

"All that crap I put them through."

"Hey, I was a very good kid and look what life put me through, I was part raised by a psychopath, who I learned I was not related to as I thought I was, now that's something to worry about. Either way their cookie crumbles, we have all sorts of people ready to help the Grey Triplets when and if they need help. then they have my blessing to be what they want to be. But, until then they are our two sons and our daughter, whom will be loved to the very best of our capabilities."

"Wow Ana, all this was started because of a work problem we are having, I was just paraphrasing an article I read that Ros threw at me to read, concerning the future and planning office space and the shared happy space we have to create to keep our employees happy to work for us. I laughed at the time and put it down to them having nothing better to do, the different people of the world, god is there even a word besides human that does not offend folks these days?" Ana smiles. I think the world has gone mad. No, I know the world is already mad.

She like Ana, believes in being loving caring and non judgemental, her boy plays with dolls as well as trucks and her baby girl, she is a princess and the apple of her eye but as yet hasn't got a favourite toy. Gwen did everything pink, so I would think pink it will stay, at least until the teenage years, though Mia is still in a powder sick pink room? I guess as long as they are loved and know they are loved is all I care about, and hope that I can manage the hardest thing I have ever undertaken, being a father. There isn't, according to Dad, a better job to be had. The rewards are infinitesimal for the work he had to put in with me, I doubt he got rewarded taking me into their home, the grey hair he has is not a badge of honour, each one was something to remind him of the things we three rebels did to toy with the poor man's once very black hair. Ana brings me back to the here and the now, which she seems to be doing a lot just lately.

"All that gender neutralisation crap, is just that, utter shit, and gets on my nerves, I mean what was wrong with just being alive and kind, because that's what I said I wanted for our off spring? That too is seen as patronising, its damned hard to be just a kid these days, I mean it, just being alive as an adult is hard, so god help a child, I mean staying healthy is hard and someone, or something has to say, just be happy being a kid. Christian, they shouldn't have to worry about being different. No child grows up hating other kids, unless the one being awful has learnt from their parents to be hateful. I have yet to go to a school where there hasn't been at least one mean group of girls." What the hell, did she slug on some of her energy drink, because my head is getting whiplash and not in a good way? Lord, she has had time to think about this crap and I had just caught up to the last lot of questions, I thought we had settled answers on? Apparently not, because she has started on her audience of one, thanks Taylor for putting in your earbuds, his shoulders are a sure sign he is relishing the rant Ana is having with me, her poor stupid husband. Do I dare plug in mine? Nope, best not.

"I understand without all the added peer pressure and parental pressure vying for top spot? I realise that trying to discover why you feel left out, or why you are different is a hard thing to do, and I understand why a kid gets so confused with being different, that awful feeling and struggling with the fact they were born with the wrong parts? I realise saying being homosexual is an old and very patronising label, but the need to put everyone in their own little boxes and adding in extra boxes just to be sure all the boxes are ticked, is over kill, the world has gone over the top mad, for boxing stuff with correct labels. Christian, the world has gone really mad, I mean it, they invent some new name for everything sooner or later and every day more does and don'ts are thrust in our faces. The world has gone to hell in a damned handcart. It gets madder and madder each and every day. I think being Human is enough. You were right." I was? Good I think, agree before I get even more confused, god she likes to fight the good fight and argue the point of a question we have yet to be asked. Dare I tell her the point of the original question? Yup, whilst she is a talkative mood and to get her away from the on coming months and a good delivery, because the conversation was heading to them not arriving safety, again. My poor Ana… Liv had best be bloody good at her job. Ana looks like she has thought of something else, quick speak up and calm the beast that is my argumentative wife.

"I am just mentioning it because there has been a suggestion we have a few non-gender specific toilet facilities at Grey House, and I was going to change them all to mixed bathrooms, I am, if nothing else listening to my employees."

"Yeah, I have had a few changed in the shops. I didn't know what to do, and if I had a rainbow on one, would that be seen as wrong? I mean even that may be condescending, but hell, what do they want me to put on the damned doors? More little silhouettes of half and half man and woman, or a man in a dress, it is bad enough people want me to add a breastfeeding room to my places, because men perve over naked boobs and women sometimes ask for a safe place. As to the loo's not all women feel safe using the same toilet facilities with a man in the room, and unless you are dating that man or married to him, I am afraid I wouldn't want to use the loo with a strange man on the other side of a none too safe door. I am not happy you watching me pee Christian and I damn well, do not want to be washing my hands where a couple of feet away a man has his todger out, peeing in a urinal." I laugh, because she has a valid point. I won't ask what todger is, I think its his dick?

"Did you add them?"

"No, did you not hear me, I have three separate, multi-use toilets not sex specific, which are used by one person at a time, and I made the baby change room into a comfy space to sit and change the babies or feed them, so far I have not had anyone complain, but if we do have complaints, the complainer is to be told they are free to eat and drink elsewhere, especially if the image of a mother feeding her child offends them! Actually it only happens in England and here, the Europeans are very light minded about mothers feeding their children."

"I once had the same problem, and did the exact same thing. Now, names can we get back to the fun stuff of our babies happening?"

"We have plenty of time for that, let's do a list and see if we agree on any?"

"That sounds like a plan, Mom wants to throw you a baby shower, where you are, or we are expected to do this reveal thing, she is backed by Kate and Mia and Uncle Marco, he says he's in charge of the fun stuff, so you may not be able to escape having one."

"Erghk, I wish they wouldn't, but I hear they are really popular in America. England is catching up, as it with everything American. Actually I get requests for baby reveal cakes all the time, cupcakes too, they are nearly as popular as wedding and christening cakes, which we do a really good trade in, because everyone likes to celebrate with a cake. I will ask the girls to bake two pink cakes and two blue ones and we will reveal the colour of the twins, with the second blue one, and I can bring home the second pink one for my cake eating husband, the man who likes to have his cake and eat it too."

"I do, like my cake Baby. Can we not just tell people? I mean just tell them it a girl and two boys? When did life get so complicated?"

"When we allowed overzealous political ner-do-wells, with too much time on their damned hands to issue rules and papers and congress and parliamentary debates on something that common sense will eventually prevail, they are the worlds silliest of argumentative points, and make up silly laws and what not. Anyway, let's go out for food? It's been a while since we had time on our own."

"I was thinking that too, do you fancy going to New York for a couple of days too, I have a few issues there?"

"I can't, its hectic here and we are so close to opening day, and you know how mad the last opening you attended was. Funnily enough in New York. I have yet to do a chocolate for Seattle, everything I have tired is like something else, what do you suggest Mr Grey? I like New York, its where we got friendly again and where you followed me to. Do you remember that, it seems so long ago now Christian?"

"To New York, yes, yes I do. That was when we talked about our son together for the first time."

"Yes, it was." She sighed. "A hard time indeed for the both of us."

"The start of something good too. Let's not forget that Ana."

"I am hardly gonna forget Mr Grey, because here kicking my bladder is the proof. Quit it you little buggers, I will need to wear a nappy soon."

"A nappy?"

"Sorry a diaper, an uber big assed pair of padded paper knickers if you will!"

"Hu, paper knickers? Oh paper panties, I have seen adults in 'nappies' plenty of times." I laugh.

"I know so have I and that is bloody gross. Yet still it is very popular with the paying guests at Satin and Steal. I laughed when I first saw it happening, it was a funny game to get into seeing as I was so naive and wet behind the ears, so to speak, about all things sex related."

"Where I was over educate in that world. Ana do you ever regret meeting me again?"

"No, god no, where is that coming from?"

"I don't know, it just popped into my head."

"Well rest assured Christian Grey, I have loved you for most of my life and though I was angry for a few years, seven in fact, I still loved you then and will always love you, I thought it was me who was the wacky one? What made you say that?"

"I don't know, I was over thinking."

"Okay, then I have just the cure to ease your over thinking mind, and I can use the gift I had delivered this morning, at least I hope that was the delivery Gail has just informed me has arrived."

"It's not my birthday, or yours, did I miss an event, where gift giving is a necessity?"

"No, this is one gift you will not mind getting. Shut up and let's eat at home, whilst we still live there. I cannot believe we are moving home next week and I am opening the doors to The House of D'Acciaio, right here in Seattle."

"The gift Ana, what is the gift?" She smiles and instructs Taylor to take us home.

"Oh and Taylor, I have given Sophie's mother a job in the store we recently refurbished in Tacoma, so she will be needing you to have Sophie a little more often now that you and Gail have your own home. It was a part of her contract that weekend work was necessary."

"You did Ana?"

"I did Taylor, besides she has an amazing resume, even though I know it was padded in a few places. Unless she did actually run the inter net sales department in her old home town?"

"She ordered the people around a lot, and she did work in sales, but to be honest with you, it was just behind the counter at her father's sweet store and she hasn't worked a day since she had Sophie, and the store she says she ran closed when her father died."

"I know, but it means she will need you to have Sophie, and besides, she talked the good talk according to Kate. So we will see." My wife is amazing, I am sure Taylor is smiling, the shaking shoulders means he is laughing. When does she find time to meddle in other people's business, when she is so busy with her own and our own? I find more reasons to be in awe of her, every single day. She smiles and lays her head on my lap and looks up at me.

"I hope the babies have these beautiful eyes, when you have them Ana."

"I figure they will either have gray or blue ones, and either my thick useless hair or your natural colouring and perfectness."

"I cannot wait for the day they arrive. I am forever dreaming of who they will look like."

"Do you ever wonder who you look like Christian?" I shudder. Why would she ask such a thing? "I only ask because Liv asked me where there any medical problems she should be aware of, as she did when I had Christian, that's all."

"I only know in that in the midst of my birth mothers drunken rages, she would ask, no tell me to get out of her face and stop reminding her of how good she had it before that man, my father, had ruined her career and a chance at being famous. I don't even know what she meant by career, I wasn't aware being a drunk, drug using prostitute was a career. For anything medical, you would have to ask my mother, she did the tests before they adopted me." Way to bring the mood down Ana. I think but do not say. She senses my uneasiness and pulls my face down to hers, and kisses me.

"I am sorry for raking up the past you hate so much, but I needed to ask you about your family's medical history, and I know you hated her, and for a good reason, but she is half of your DNA, and as such, the other fifty percent comes from your father. I will ask Grace to do the genetic test she suggested and because I know thinking of her hurts you, and that is something I never want to do. Hurt you I will not mention her again."

"Thank you, but you have every reason to ask, how do we know that our first child didn't die because of something my birth parents brought to the table?"

"Christian, he died because he was an overactive baby, who choked on his own cord, and that isn't an inherited illness, it was just bad luck and happenstance of his being an energetic baby who made me crave sugary foods, and it was nothing more and nothing less than his being so very bouncy, damn I should have stayed silent, way to bring down the good mood I was in. I am a fool, sorry."

"No, the questions need asking. I am just sorry I don't have all the answers for you."

"We have all the answers we need for now. I am sorry to bring the good mood we were in, down."

"Hey, I am in a great mood, we are not having three girls. So I am more than a little happy, can you imagine how high my blood pressure is gonna be when my one daughter starts dating, when she is thirty, I might add. Then times that with the possibility of there being three, so having two more girls was not something I was looking forward to, and you get how possessive and over fatherly I could have been, one I think I can handle, two maybe at a push but three, god I would be hiring the federal guard to watch out for them, especially if they are as beautiful as their mother."

"Smooth Mr Grey, very smooth. I doubt I have that type of dominant gene Christian, excuse the pun, but we get to have two more beautiful boys, who I hope look like you and our baby boy Christian, because he did look like you. Boys, who will love me forever, because they do say boys love their mom's forever, and for your information, girls do love their daddies and they do say all men pale in significance to their father, I know I loved Nonno, and the memory of my dad…"

"I know, I was steering the conversation away from the past and I thought we had done that with the melee of fighting for the rights of our not even born yet babies to be anything they wanted to be, and straight back into a conversation I was avoiding, because I know you worry about it all the time."

"I do and I don't, besides, we already know I am too small to deliver three babies out of my hu-hu, so I doubt anything bad will happen like it did before, Liv told you as much, and they have very little room to be the entertainer he was, the footballer and trampoline bouncing champion." She laughs and I laugh with her, god we have some fucking weird ass conversations the pair of us. "Christian, I feel very moody."

"Oh hell, what does that mean?"

"Moody, up and down and back and forward and back again. I was discussing the chocolate for Seattle?"

"As well as everything else you mean?" She smiles, and then sits up.

"I have to work out some things, I just need to let loose with everything in my head, to make way for the other stuff that's needing answers to. Like the pigging chocolate for Seattle. Like children's names, like room colours for their rooms and weather or not to fuck my husband on every surface of the apartment before we leave it next week." That I liked the sound of.

"Now that's a game and conversation starter, you should have started with that one Baby, and the answer is yes. I will give the staff the night off. We have some surfaces to fuck on, and there's a lot Mrs Grey."

"How about the elevator, you do naughty things in the elevator Grey…"

"Mrs Grey, you lead me astray…" She grins.

"I hope I am able now you are looking forward to it."

"I am. You bet I am. My wife is super flexible and very bendy."

"Umm, I am, for now. Then I will be a little too round for sex, make the most of me whilst you can."

"I have ordered us a padded tailor made swx swing, to ease your worries. Its in the secret room I had Elliot put in. He thinks its your overspill wardrobe, but it's a mini room for the times we have to be adventurous."

"Umm, and I thought I was the one good at keeping secrets, because guess what?"

"What?"

"I had Elliot put a room in the back of our office too. Oh god two sex rooms, how spoilt for choice are we?" We both laugh and as we get home, we find we have a group of family all eagerly waiting news of the sex of the three babies… Mom is heading the parade. What the hell? We were on a mission too. Ana smiles as we join the rabble.

"There is always tomorrow Mr Grey, and after they have gone, we can make use of the shower and steam room. You are a little tense." Tense, I am fucking livid and have a dick that's hard a s fucking steel… Fuck, I hate sudden unexpected arrivals. Elliot is laughing. Wait till he starts… Fuck me my family suck… Ana laughs and we head up, my family of fucking cockblockers. Granny is already on her way to drunk, and Pops, he is laughing at something funny Ana has said about polished surfaces. Does he know it was her ass meant to be polishing them? I do hope not…

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Sorry time jump next time to opening day and the tale of a swing that broke... a lol ,moment, when two people get locked in a room at Ana and Christian's new home... Read and review and tell me what you think xxx


	63. Chapter 63

This story is nowt like fifty shades; I just purloined E.L. James's characters, buildings and some of her other stuff...

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Dreaming of Chocolate and Grey:

Chapter 63:

Chocolate Cups and Kisses for the Mrs:

Ana and I have been rushed off our feet, with the house move and her Seattle store opening within two days. At least she has been able to focus on those two things, and seems to be getting back to the impressive CEO she was before we met up again, she is back and in charge, not a bad thing, because the hormone thing seems to have been curtailed, for now.

"Christian… Where are you?" Did I speak too soon? "Christian, come to the kitchen in the studio. Please." Her voice bellows through the phone. "I have chocolates with your name on them."

"Ana, as in Grey?"

"No, as in the Seattle Coffee Cup. I have finally chosen the signature chocolate for the store here. My humble homage to the first Starbucks being set up here. I also have used Tully's and Seattle's Best in it too, because I don't want to have just the Starbucks bean in it, they are all great coffee places and beans. So it's a three layered coffee lover's dream, but I need an expert coffee drinkers opinion. Can you come down and across?"

"I am on my way Baby." I smile as I head over. First, I tell Olivia I am popping to see my wife, her face never gets any better at hiding her displeasure in my marriage!

"Mr Grey, you have an appointment at eleven."

"I know, but thank you for the reminder, can you make sure the refreshments are ordered."

"From the cafe across the way?"

"Yes, and it will be their last order, as Mrs Grey's kitchens are up and running. From tomorrow we will use them." Another smug look is headed in her direction, and I head to test out the chocolates. Ana, she has been honing this damned Seattle chocolate for a week, she has made so many, that I am actually fed up of all coffee chocolate tasting I seem to have had to do. So much so that seeing her is all I am going for, because I cannot stand the taste of chocolate right now, having been her tester for the past week at home, enough is enough, the idiot brother and her security can fill their boots, as she keeps saying and test away. Luke and Elliot are like a couple of kid type fiends for the damned things. Gail and Taylor, like me, have been overindulging in the samples too, and what was a once a week treat has for Gail, is now a chore and my mother and grandmother who pop by whenever they want to, too. They seem to have taken chocolate flavours to the next level, as they help Ana hone the many signature chocolates she needs for all the new stores opening, which seem to be happening now, at the rate of one a week, her public seem to have to have her there too, this is easier now she has the jet and several of her openings co inside with trips I have to take. I love that we can juggle our work schedules to accommodate a joint trip, and I am sure it will make the trip more enjoyable, but sadly that won't be possible soon, Dr Green has already told her she will have to start taking it easy in the next couple of months, because her back is aching all the time! I arrive and see the commotion around her and there she stands, dishing out the orders, my dick moves at the sound of her domineering voice. I pray to god it dissipates before her staff get a look at the bulge I cannot hide!

"Christian, here, try theses and tell me what you think?" I head to the part of the set where her guests sit and look at the mini coffee mug shaped chocolates. "The factory moulds for the cups came today, aren't they cute?"

"I guess so, are they what you wanted?" She has sent lord knows how many back. Thank god that she only needs them for here, or the poor man who makes them would be in a mess. As it is she has left it to the last minute and he has been ran ragged, but I am assured he is the best mould maker? I asked her one day, and was told what goes into them, she did one better and took me to see them being made, or rather I flew her there in Charlie Tango, we had a great day out and I learned a hell of a lot more about her, and it was amazing to watch, she really is fanatical about her trade. I stare at the tiny cup and smile, it looks like I am a giant as I pick one up by the tiny handle. It's cute. Lord my balls dropped at least a foot then!

"Here it is, and I think I have a winner, what do you think?"

"It's cute and is that a milk on top, you know I like my coffee black Ana." She laughs and it is still amazing to watch her child like laugh, the same laugh that years ago annoyed the shit out of me. Now, it makes my heart swell and the wood rise.

"Yeah, it's a vanilla frosting, with a cinnamon and sugar dusting. The top mould and the bottom are set with the finest milk chocolate we make, then the layering starts with the dark chocolate ganache made with Starbucks coffee, then a milk chocolate disk, then a Seattle's Best flavoured ganache, another disk, a light milk sponge soaked in Tully's coffee, which when in the mould is the base layer, the moulds are sealed and then cooled, turned out and the cups are then dipped in this white chocolate, and the mug has our logo placed on, then we pipe in the vanilla bean paste frosting and the dusting finishes it off, and see it says Grey, and then they are ready for the store, that's if you like it of course? My best tester and most honest one." I should be, would it be wrong to say I hate chocolates right now? Because I do.

"Ana, they are great, are they tiramisu inspired?" I hate the damned dessert, but if it makes her happy, a dessert guy I will become. I will add in more gym time, or start again I should say. Everything has slide down the pole since we got married, thankfully we have great people helping us.

"Yes, very much so. So, it's good?"

"Great actually. Have you eaten many?"

"One, too much coffee isn't good for either me or the babies. No, I have an expert taster sat glued to my station, look, he's here now."

"Hi Bro. Have you had one of those coffee mugs?"

"I have, what are you doing here? Didn't I give you a lengthy snag list?"

"All done, and dusted. It didn't take long. Your house is yours, well almost, Gia is in doing the girlifying of the place. It is looking good for the move in day. Oh and Kate says the baby reveal is on Friday, the folks are all eager to be gathered at the new place for that and the look see at Grey Mansion, and Grams has a book running on their genders. I am in it for three girls." He looks at Ana and she gives nothing away, "Am I close?" She shakes her head.

"Oh really?" Ana says. "What is the buy in?"

"Er no, you know what their little bits are. No parents are allowed to play. Now, the tiny coffee mugs have my seal of approval, so thanks for the snacks, and now I am off to pick up my wife for lunch. See you at the housewarming." He kisses Ana's cheek, rubs his three nieces, punches my shoulder, and leaves.

"Oh lord, he has been eating pastries from the bakery and has made a hole in the bonbons the girls are making. Where does he store all that he eats?" She says as she hugs the kids, she looks adorable when she lovingly rubs her tiny hand over the swell in her midsection. Like she gets a great deal of comfort from it? I know she uses the heart monitor a lot, and that too is great to hear, she needs the comfort that brings, to us both, as it turns out.

"In his feet. Now, is there anything else you need Baby, besides my approval for the Seattle Coffee Cup?"

"No, you had a walk around earlier, but have you seen Uncle Marco and Jose?"

"Yes, they were fawning over Samuel and Isaac. Which reminds me, just how long is Jose taking off as a new parent?"

"They are sharing the home time, but they are in here most of the day, as all they do is sleep and look adorable. They figured they would bring them into work and use the new creche you lovingly had put in, thank you. Ethan is hardly ever out of the place and annoy the nannies in there every two minutes. They all agree that new parents, are the worst part of their day, they are a nightmare, not the babies. I did warn them we will be just as bad, if we actually use the creche, I think I may want to try being a Mommy for a while, now I know the ship runs well with the co-pilots I have." I laugh because I was thinking the same thing too. However, Ros needs her free time too and suggested we do as Ana has and hire new section heads, but I may struggle co-piloting with anyone else but Ros.

"Kate was in there most of yesterday." I say as I stare at my wife, who is gazing at me and smiling, what have I got chocolate on my chin again?

"I knew it, she lied to me Christian, she wasn't searching out files from your storage floor after all. They are cute though."

"My storage rooms have been called a lot Ana, but never cute!"

"You muppet, I meant…" I laugh. "Sorry, I was too slow to catch that, I get it, god baby brain is a pain! Fancy them using the only names we both agreed on. We need our thinking caps on." We were shocked they chose the exact names we had. What could we do but say how great they were? I guess the bible has many more we could use. I like Adam and Paul and Ana likes Zachary and Zebulun. I hope she was joking because I hated them!

Ethan and Jose welcome their twin boys, born via surrogate two weeks ago, and it has been a very touching two weeks for both Ana and I, as we have been asked to be their godparents, we have to share the duty with Elliot and Kate, but for two little bundles they have brought so much joy and chaos to their parents lives. Agnes, Eamon and Kate are spoiling them, as is Jose senior. I myself bought the little guys their first Audi toddler cars. They had everything else including trust funds, the cars were the next best choice, well Ethan and I enjoyed them, though we looked ridiculous, and Ana bit my head off. What she doesn't know is, I ordered the boys one each and a pink one for our girl, I wasn't going to leave her out of the fun.

"Christian. Christian are you listening?"

"Nope, what did you say?"

"Nothing much, I was saying I wondered where Aunt Kate had gone."

"Where she is all the damned time Baby, getting broody at the creche. I swear Elliot will be in baby mode, at Kate's insistence."

"Well, she does want them, but not yet. It not at the top of her list yet. She wants a proper home, she wants Elliot's business to thrive, and she wants him to get the big kid Tonka Truck buying in hand and for him to try to put the surfing to bed for a while and the snowboarding, apparently he goes all Neanderthal, when he's with his surfing and skiing buddies, but most of all she wants, or would like for Elliot to be more grown up too."

"Then poor Katherine is never going to be pregnant. My brother has two things going for him, one he will build her the home of her dreams, and two he will enjoy the practice, but if Kate wants him to be the father to her baby, she needs to lower the expectation concerning Elliot growing up, he is a child and that is by his own admission, his buddies and the trucks will never be forgotten by him and she shouldn't be making him make that choice. Baby, as to the toys he has? He has always wanted the best equipment and to have a great collection of big boy toys, he probably loves his trucks as much as Kate, but it would be a risky move to challenge him..."

"I did say she was only ever going to have the fun Elliot and not to try altering him, he is what she married, and I told her it was not a good reason to make him ditch his friends, she agreed that even she didn't wield that kind of power over him, I told her to embrace the trucks and try riding them."

"Don't tell me you have driven one?"

"One, you insult me, I will have you know, I have driven all sorts of massive trucks, even a combine harvester. I have my farmers badge, though its mainly harvesting the grapes for the wine, but yes, I can spread muck and crud stuff over the vines, dig trenches for irrigation and for new vines, and I am a master with the shovel bucket on the farms tractor."

"You do, what's on the badge then?"

"Nothing, I was kidding, they don't give badges, much like the fabled mile high badge I have yet to get from you Captain Grey."

"I will correct my error. Wow, what shit do you and Kate talk about?"

"Everything and more, we used to get drunk and be far worse, now its Green Tea and soda. I am a much changed woman."

"Ana, would you have asked me to stop the life I had, when we got together Baby?" I ask, knowing the answer will more than likely be no, as she isn't as demanding as Kate, by a long way. Ana and I have this unique bond over the past we have shared, we neither of us need it as we once did, and we both like the scenes we do in private. We, each of us, are capable of switching it about and the life we have together, is an easy one, with virtually no arguments were both dominance and submissiveness, is a shared pleasure for both of us.

"No, never. I wouldn't like you to ask me to change either, luckily, we have the same hobbies, and lifestyle. I got lucky meeting my soul mate again, Christian, we are very lucky to be so compatible in many ways. Like Tom Jones croons, you don't have to be rich to rule my world, just be there to kiss… Sort of, like that. Oh lord, what they hell was that?" Her hands go to her stomach, and I panic, then she laughs, grabs my hand and places it on her belly, I must look worried.

"Ana?"

"Wait a minute, please?" I put both hands on her belly and as she pushes them harder, I feel something like a rumble from within.

"What was that, are you okay Baby?"

"That was the babies moving around, wait a minute." They move again and I swear I have just found something interesting to do when she sleeps, bump hug. "Again…"

"Okay, that was amazing, I have seen them, heard them and felt them. Oh to be you right now Ana."

"That would be nice, pull some strings and carry them for me? Him up there made we women do all the hard work, when adding to the world he created." I am not taking much of what Ana says, because this is so fucking good. She smiles as I kiss them, and tell them I love them so damned much, of course she cries and they stop moving. Spoil sports.

"So, what do you have to do now Ana?"

"Loads, I have loads to do, I am running through the completed stores and running the store managers through their paces. I am still cramming in new chocolates for the new stores, and I am trying to run some sort of script through for the first show. Order stuff for the house and for Kate to get back to me with the figures for the stores revamps, now that they are nearing completion and rebranding."

"Costly rebranding."

"Very, but worth it. I also have the final designs for the restaurant/cafe in Switzerland. I hope it looks as good as the drawings Marco has done, Monsieur, has to be as good as he was, Sir was the greatest teacher I have ever had. I miss him. I also wonder what it would be like if he hadn't died? Would I still be his friend?"

"I would think you would not have so many stores Baby. I think you have done him very proud, and though the company's name has changed, you are still keeping it true to his teachings, and he would be so proud of you, I know James is."

"Thank you. So, will I see you at home time?"

"I will be waiting for you at five. Did I tell you how much I love you today?"

"Yup, you did. I love you too. Now here take some Coffee Cups to Ros and your staff and tell them I need their opinions, please?" She hands me a tray of tiny cups and kisses my cheek. Her presence is required in the bakery, so we head down together. She really is so very good at her chosen career. I am very proud of all she has achieved and how strong and dedicated she is, all of the time. We reach the ground floor and waiting for us are Sawyer and Taylor. They are in cahoots and I wonder what is troubling them.

"Sir…" I stare. "We have intercepted these packages. They were sent to both you and Mrs Grey." He hands me a pair of gloves to put on, and when I have them on, he passes me a padded manila envelope. "Mrs Grey, Ma'am, please do not look at yours."

"Why, and if you said Ma'am, am I to believe this is something to take seriously?"

"Ma'am." I open the envelope and see, what can only be described as very revealing pictures of Ana and I.

"Taylor, where were these taken?"

"They were taken in the garage Sir, we are looking into this and have upped security. So Mrs Grey, please stick close to Sawyer at all times. This is a serious threat, the note that came with them says they want five million pounds for the flash drive, they are stored on." Ana opens her package and she isn't as angry as I am.

"They got my good side. Christian, these photos were taken last week, when I got the sudden need for more. Good god, they must have balls of steel coming here, sending these and are idiots, for trying to blackmailing us. Do not pay for them, we did nothing wrong, we are married, we own the damned car and car park we fucked in. Taylor excuse my bluntness, but these look to have been taken from the camera that faces our spots. How did they get the stills from the feed?"

"Barney and Welch, they think it's one of the guards. We are running all the checks on who was here and who had the opportunity to take them. They want the money by midday tomorrow, or they will go to the press."

"Let them." Ana says.

"Ana? Seriously?" I stare at her. Why would she want the world to see her being fucked against the hood of our car?

"We did nothing wrong, we are married and married people fuck. I happen to be hormonal and pregnant, and my husband was seeing to the itch I had, besides, they are not that bad. There are no fully naked views of either of us, just shots of us going at it like newlyweds. No, we are not paying them. Taylor, are there more on the server?"

I know what she is hinting at, we have christened many of the flat surfaces we have here, and the elevator has been abused a little too. Though I do have the gadget to turn the camera off in there, thank fuck, because some of the things we have done in there, were? They were really good, but kinkey as fuck, being in an elevator with my wife, it does something to me and the need to be as close to her as I can get, it takes over, perhaps I am suddenly claustrophobic, and she is my distraction? No, she just turns me on when she is so close and the thought of somebody seeing us never entered my head, because as soon as our lips meet, the cameras are off, as they should be when Ana and I are alone together, someone has dropped the ball. But who? Barney says the cameras were hacked.

"Yes, yes the whole night was filmed Mrs Grey. We have no idea how they got them. Barney assures me that the firewalls he has in place are the best you can get." I listen and try to come up with a name, any name I come up with I dismiss, because they are either dead or in prison.

"Have you seen the film from the night?" Sawyer is asked, and nods his head. Taylor too replies the same way. "So they have film of me naked, and of us doing more racier things in my office here?" Fuck, we were naked a few nights ago, naked and on her office floor, fucking like teenagers and, fuck… She was flogging me as I bent over her desk. I was her submissive for the day and I forgot, yes forgot to keep my eyes peeled to the floor, my punishment was a very mild flogging with one of her new toys. I have put a complaint in, because I want new toys. I laugh, but it lasts a mere moment. I need, sorry we need answers, and soon.

"Have they got film of Christian handcuffed to my desk?" She asks Taylor.

"Ma'am. No, I was in the security office and noticed you were…"

"…Taylor, there is no need to say anything. When was the feed cut?"

"After I noticed you and the feed was cut, using your remote Sir. I turned the office cameras off when you arrived at your shared office floor. I have security re running the tapes from previous days and nights." Ana goes red.

"Sorry, I am so sorry you have to face this Taylor, Sawyer, I can't help it. We can't help it. We forget sometimes we are being so open and in all honesty, two impatient fools. So, what can we do now the stable door has been shut and the horse has bolted off into the sunset?"

"We are rearranging security procedures, especially when you and Mr Grey are together. Though you both still need protection, it would be better if your 'private meetings' were curtailed to home, at least until we find out how they got to the server for the cameras."

"I hear you Taylor." I say as I look at the fucking photos again. I have the beginnings of a hard on and I am furious with my conduct. "Who do you think it is Taylor, and you too Sawyer, do you have a theory?" I ask.

"Sir, they asked for pounds, not dollars." Sawyer says. Taylor nods.

"I missed that, good catch Sawyer." Ana's face is hard to read.

"Ana, what are you thinking of?"

"Nothing, sorry something. It may be nothing, but do you think Jennifer has something to do with this? She has been in contact again. Saying we should meet up, because we haven't seen each other in a while, she was miffed because she didn't come to the wedding too?" I presume she means Jennifer Price-King and her mother, Marla, the ladies who dated the Saudi prince and his father the King? The woman who used me to make the prince pay for dropping her.

"When? When did she contact you Ana?" I ask.

"A week ago, she wants to run a business idea she has, past me, and she wants my guidance, it's a new club she wants to open, my type of club. She would ask her mother, but poor Marla has cut her off, they haven't spoken since she pulled the con on the prince she was dating and tried to ruin her friendship with the King." How the hell is she penniless, my deal with her made her millions?

"She lost as much as her daughter, could it be the mother?" I ask. "I thought she lost everything, the King said he would deal with her?"

"No, the King she was 'dating' he gave her what he had promised, the movie star's yacht and the house he promised her, and the money she earned, but his son, he cut Jen off without a penny and her mother, much as she loves her, wasn't throwing away what she had. She worked a lifetime for what she got, so was not for giving it to Jen to waste. She eats through money like Elliot getting free reign in my shops."

"Taylor, can you check the King-Price women out, for me please? Sawyer, can you check out the cameras and see if either mother or daughter have been here? Whilst you are on it, check were the Hyde boy is, he was poor after he lost his case against Ana."

"Good thinking, George has friends in all the wrong places and friends who get things for him. Good thinking, I would have said Jack, but he is dead. Thank god."

"Who else have we pissed off Ana?" She shrugs her shoulders.

"I don't know and frankly, I don't care, we were married and having sex. It can only help with the sales of the new range of adult chocolates due to hit the stores soon." How can she be so blasé about this, I am having kittens and she is calm and together and making this, this, this shit storm and mega invasion of our privacy, seem like nothing, other than a marketing tool. How does she keep so level headed, whilst I am out for blood? She looks at me, and she smiles. "I am serious, I have a mighty fine bum, as do you. We look good together, and we are doing what lovers do. If I can get over the photos, so can you. Besides, we look good in this one, this I am having framed for my office. You have a fine bottom, Mr Grey." She smiles and I sulk, I am angry, that despite my amazing security, someone has got photos of us, clearly up close and personal photos, and has me running for the hills. If it is the Price-King woman, I will make her pay. If it is George Hyde, he will be going the same way as his elder brother…

Oh Dear, my ass is huge…

Perhaps, just perhaps I was a little too blasé about the photos, but I saw the sheer look of horror in his face, horror for me I think? So, I did what I do best and played the whole thing down, it didn't have the desired effect as he went batshit crazy. I wonder why we were each sent an envelope? Where they hoping for a double pay day? He has been blowing up the phone for most of the afternoon. I have kept calm and I kept working. We have the best security in place, it's so good in fact that we can see the eyes of a few flies on the tapes we watched, I must ask him too, did my bottom look a little on the huge size? I would joke, but he is in a foul mood and cannot understand why I am not more upset. He rants and he raves and I try to work. It's a little hard to work when he is calling every man jack employee he speaks to, names that would make me blush, had I not heard many of them before.

I am sure it is neither Mara or Jenny, she is a friend. But George is looking good for this right now…

* * *

Thanks for reading, I am on my jollies for another week, Kos is hot. I hope the people in America hit by the storms are keeping themselves safe, it looks hideous and bleak. My prayers for you waiting for the next batch. XXX…


	64. Chapter 64

This story is nowt like fifty shades; I just purloined E.L. James's characters, buildings and some of her other stuff...

* * *

Dreaming of Chocolate and Grey:

Chapter 64:

The Blackmailer's and His Brother:

Things are still a little tense here at work, Luke is my permanent shadow, as Christian and I have decided not to pay the blackmailer and we are now awaiting the publication of the photos with baited breath. Taylor does not, as yet, have a clue who sent them. The Kings were ruled out as they are sailing the Med on the break up boat, as was George, because he was in a hospital ICU ward, in Monaco, for writing a bad cheque to a very powerful person, so his alibi was water tight, as he hasn't woken up from the beating he got two weeks ago.

So, whoever took the photos, did it well enough for us not to be able to chase it further, it was like the person, or persons knew where all the blackspots of the cameras where, I say where as they have been replaced with cameras that come equipped with all the things needed to catch whomever sneaked past the last lot. They have a 360 degree coverage of our car spaces. There are also sensory cameras, night vision cameras and a unit of ex-Special Forces who walk the halls of Grey House and its annex, a very hunky set of guards, who cover each floor of both of our buildings, much to the joy of the females we employ.

Over kill? I guess not, not if it keeps Christian from actually worrying himself towards having a full head of grey hair. He has got a fair few since I walked back into his life, and he suits them. He is not quite at the salt and pepper head of grey stage, just yet, but it does give him a look of elegance he can carry off with ease, but a look that is still far too sexy for him to be allowed out on his own, women literally throw themselves at him, the women who do this, I have found out, do not care if he is married or not. My jealousy, as you can tell is still way over the top.

I have just finished recording the first program which will air sometime soon. The Chocolate House Television Network, the first television franchise of its kind, is going to be a smash hit, or so the executives clambering for a piece of the pie tell me. It has a company name too, Chocolate Tastes from Grey Television, or as the logo says, CTGV, it is being edited for distribution to a few foodie networks, it will also be shown on monitors in all my stores too. I made it simple and it works, though Christian is being a little big headed about me using his initials in the logo.

Thank god for being able to sell my shows to other networks, including the Food Network. My own show is called Chocolate Dreams, what else would I call it? I make something special in chocolate for a special guest charity each week, they can then auction it off to make money for their choses cause, the segment I have just shot, was for the devastation cause in the wake of the brutal hurricanes, and help to repair the damage to large parts of poor America. I made a very large donation to help fund a health care programs in this country, much needed for the poor, the young and the old, and to two animal rescue charities, after breaking my heart seeing a mommy dog and her babies on a life raft. Christian stopped me watching television, because I was hammering my cards like a ninja. I have it, they need it, so I gave, gave, gave. I also cried, cried and cried. Anyway, I can afford it, because The House of D'Acciaio, is now so huge, it is the number one chocolate making company, and has the largest number of stores too. So let the give, give giving carry on I say, besides, much like Midas, everything I touch turns to gold, or rather profit and profit means I get to help more people, and help fund some great and needy causes…

Thankfully, as Kate said it would, the studio, it is already in profit, which will be ploughed back into the university, colleges and schools in the area, who have cooking as part of their curriculum, and to those having an interest in all kinds of media programs too. As Grey Enterprise Holdings, now run their media programs from the floor above my studios, I still have two floors to use, but given we are so damned busy with online orders, they may become the online sales centre for The House of D'Acciaio. It seems we are a well-tempered mix of his and mine, much like my chocolate empire and Christian's ever growing golf club collection.

There are a few more shows being shot at the moment, including promos for the various new lines we are rapidly introducing, I started first with some taste samples. I don't travel much or at all if I can help it. So instead I create in my kitchen, or rather Gail's kitchen. First from the sample list, are the animal cracker chocolates, which help the animal reserve we sponsor. Then from an off the cuff remark about my husband's very expensive liqueur collection, by Elliot, came the Rich Man's Fancy, featuring only the very best of the top brands of booze the world has to offer, a father's day gift for the rich and the pampered men out there, for some reason, Christian has gone of chocolate, even when I paint it on myself? Then there are the skinny mini chocolates for the dieters, why not have a chocolate treat on your diet, though they are far from sweet, they are quite moreish. There are also the new cocktail chocolates which I started when I met up again with Christian, they will be ready for Spring Break and exclusively sold in our airport stores, and like our signature ranges, which I have finally finished creating, for all the new stores, I have decided it will be called Signature, and the whole range will also be sold on line too, another exclusive for the on-line market. Then finally the rude chocolates, yes, we are making mini willies, boobs, and cute jars of some very edible paint on body chocolate, and I went wild and made all manner of rude chocolate treats, for several very high end adult erotic toy shops and a certain sexy lingerie supplier, has also shown an interest in having us make a range of exclusive chocolates for them and for them to be tied to their particular branding, and they want to sell them in all the stores they have!

There will be a children's cooking programme being made too, with you guessed it children being let loose with my very expensive chocolate and pristine new TV studio kitchens. They will be the fun ones to make, kids love playing with chocolate and so does Christian, he spends a lot of time melting the stuff over my body, yummy is all I can say.

The Queen of Chocolate is very tired, knackered would be a better word for how I am feeling, that and weepy. I mean I cry at least once a day, sometimes that once lasts all day though. Typically Christian blames my hormones and I go with the flow, but the tears yesterday were for real and not because of the hormones, no it was for the loss of a good Vita to the horrid one. Only Marco remembered it was Nonna and her sisters birthday, and despite his hatred of her, he had a cry over the good twin. I was so shocked that the birthday had sneaked up, that I actually thought about not doing anything, as I still haven't got over the evil twin. Her not being my actual Nonna helped a lot. She wasn't so I wasn't being harsh. Just a pragmatist. A heartless one. Sunny was her biggest hater, and that was the shock of the century, from Mamma's boy to chief hater. My how the tides are a changing.

"Ana, Bambino, are you ready for home? I cannot wait to see this home I have only seen on drawings." I look up and see my uncle walking towards me.

"Yes, did Uncle Sunny get the cakes to the house?"

"He did, and he may be in love with the Matteo woman too."

"Gia, really? There's me thinking she was still into Christian or even Elliot?"

"No, they were out till early this morning, he got in had a shower and went straight to work."

"He did?"

"Yup, and he looked like he had been hugged by a bear."

"Scratchy back?"

"Scratchy? No, I would say he had been flogged to bare bones." I gasp and then hide the giggle I so badly wanted to let out. My uncle is a whip man, or rather with Gia, he will be a whipped man, she does tend to get what she wants with that fake smile of hers, that and the boobs she barely keeps in her bra, or shirt for that matter, she flaunts it, uses it and gets what she wants, easily.

"Is he okay?"

"Okay? The moron is wandering around like he has won the California State Lottery. All three hundred million of it." Okay, so it seems Gia Matteo is my uncles new lover, after the old one or one of the old ones refused to wait around for him to do my bidding, cheeky cow. He gets paid to work. Well it seems they are all forgotten, because I know Miss Gia does not share or wait for anyone, though I think my husband would have been her primary target, she has settled for Sunny the Wonder Stud! Yes, Uncle Marco invents some crappy names for his brothers, the many cousins, the nephews and new newest of the niece's Ana, his Girl in the Pink Dress, Yes Mariah has got the girl and the girl has a huge amount of dresses. I guess I have a big family to keep on surprising me.

My four cousins and Mia, they have all passed, with flying colours, the hardest test to date and one that any good chocolatier has to pass, and I am very pleased and proud to announce to the world, that they are all now licensed Maître Pâtissiers. They are so good that they will all be heading up departments in whichever store or school they chose. Ray Junior, and Salvador Junior, the eldest three of us, Ray, Salvador and me, we were very surprised when James entered the twins into the competition, a full year ahead of their oldest two brothers, the twins Marco Junior and Santino the Third, or the Turd as he is better known as, are apparently as good as me and are coming to America to live and take on positions in the New York school. I do believe they are amazing at all they do and soak up knowledge and the craft as well as I did. I am very proud of my twin cousins. Ray, or rather RJ as he prefers to be called, he is going to help his father with Australia, where he will set up home with his secret bride and their secret little gift to the world, their daughter. Yes, you heard me right I have a second cousin.

Uncle Ray is a very proud Nonno and Mariah, well she is a very happy new mother and as it goes, she is an even newer and happier Grandmother, she will be this families nicest Nonna, because my sneaky older cousin RJ, has given his mother a granddaughter, he and his wife Heidi's wedding and the birth of their daughter were the biggest of the family secrets that were revealed after our honeymoon. It made the pre honeymoon secrets pale into nothingness.

We only found out when he Skyped me and broke the ice by asking could he use the boat to go on his honeymoon, of course I said he could, but then he smiled and told me about the bruised cheek he had going on! I wondered why he had a red face and asked who had hit him upside of his head, and who had he got in trouble. Call it intuition, but all my cousins are hunky boys and men, so he told me he got it from his poor mother, Mariah. He got the smack firstly for not having a proper hats and flowers sort of church wedding, and then hugged to death when she saw their reason for their hidden secret wedding, an even bigger secret and the best thing to happen to my Uncle and Aunt, since the arrival of Baby Ana, her granddaughter was passed her to stop her going all Mad Italian Mama on his ass, and it worked, the baby was the calming of Storm Mariah.

Why they hid away we may never know, but Uncle Ray, he thinks her family are money mad and do anything to get it, so Heidi I am told, to protect our family from her family, had left them a note and told them she was travelling the world, which she did, because she travelled the world hiding out with Cousin RJ, but why they hid is as clear as mud to me, because this family love kids and babies and we would have made life so much easier for them, but we will thank Heidi later for thinking of the family first and for giving us my second cousin. I may add the new D'Acciaio munchkin, she is called Poppy Mariah, and is just as perfect as my little name sake, Ana, my cousin she and my second cousin are beautiful little angels, they are two perfect little peaches, and I cannot wait for my three perfect babies to join us. They are so lucky, because they will have many, many cousins, and will now be born into a wonderful and loving family. I cannot wait to deliver my babies and have them safe and in my arms and for them to be a large part of this now happy mix of family Christian and I have.

Talking about family, Mia, she has decided to go to Switzerland, and I am thrilled she is following my path in chocolate, though her brothers are not so thrilled, as she has fallen in love with her personal bodyguard, Tom Ryan. Poor Mia, but I shouldn't say poor Mia, because she handled her brothers just fine, when the ugly sight and sound of two grown assed men tackled her head on, when the subject of her dating him arose. She listened calmly to their rants and then covered them in the delicious chocolate cake she had made to sooth them over with. Elliot and Christian were covered in it and it tasted mighty fine too and was great at soothing me. Not so Elliot or Christian, but then again, she knows her own mind and I told them this too. Oh and the Ramone and Uncle Marco thing? That too is going great, they complement each other perfectly and are setting up a home in New York, as Ramone loves his school too much to follow Marco around the globe. Like me, Uncle Marco is going to have to hire in a few more Mini Marcos. He does the job of five men as it is. I sigh and thank god that the people who matter to me are happy and that the fairy who keeps dusting me with happy dust, had better keep flinging it my way, at least for a few more months that is!

"Ana…" I am stirred from my thoughts by Luke. "Ana…"

"Sorry, what did you want Luke?"

"Did you order more cake and treats from Howards? You know, Howard's, the little bakery come café across the way, ran by Jon Howard?"

"Nope, why?" He looks closely at something on our parking level, it looks like a man. "Luke?"

"Ma'am. Get in the car, now…" Okay, Ma'am and now. I do just that and get in the SUV.

"Luke?" I say and then I hear him scream.

"Put the gun down, you have had the only warning you are getting. Put it down…" I hear a voice saying something in return, I hear a shot and a thud as if Luke had fallen against the car.

"Luke… What the fuck, Luke…" I hear another shot and another thud. Luke slides down the SUV and I scream at Taylor down my phone for help, and then as if in slow motion, I see the face of the man I thought was Jon Howard, at my side window, he puts his blooded hand on the glass and it is then I see the blood, as it runs down his face, a face that I do not know, this man was different from the photos I saw of Jon Howard, similar, but still different. The photos I saw when we returned from honeymoon were a lot different to the actual face I am seeing right now. He looks familiar, but I don't know where I know him from? I am about to scream when I see Luke behind him, and I try to relax. Who shot who, I do not know and whose is the damned blood splattered on my window? Luke has the guy hogtied and on the floor of the parking space. I look down at the man, just as Holly and Taylor head our way. I then see the eyes of a worried Christian at the other side window. I open the door and in he climbs. I stare. I stare at Christian and the tears start to fall.

"Ana…"

"He tried to kill me, but why? Christian, why did he want me dead?" He has me in his arms and hoists me out of the car as I say blood, over and over, **_but there is so much blood_**. He carries me towards his car, and I continue to stare at the guy on the floor and all of a sudden, I stop Christian from taking me anywhere, I ask him, the man on the floor for answers, before Taylor, Holly and Luke kill the fucker. They pull him to his feet and loosen the leg shackles. He stands and looks at me like I am the spawn of Satan. Why does he look so familiar?

"One move towards Mrs Grey and you will not live to make your parole date." Taylor shoves his shoulder and the man cusses.

"Are you the owner of the café over the road from us?" I ask. He looks at me with a loathing, nope I can say, with surety, it is a look of hate. It was a look Vita had when she spoke to me, in those last few weeks. "Do I know you? Are you Jon Howard, I mean you look like him, but you aren't him, are you?"

"No, a round of applause for your observational skills Mrs Grey. I am Francis Howard, Jon is my younger brother the baker, sorry, I should say he was another of your families bakers." My family? He is claiming to be a relative? I stare and see the face of my father staring back at me. Oh god… He is my father's kid, he is my brother, the face is familiar because he looks like my father.

"Okay, now we are getting somewhere." Christian shouts. "Why are you here, we do not order from you anymore?" The guy laughs and spits out a mouthful of blood towards Christian, is he a fool and why did he keep saying was? Oh crap was his brother dead? Christian is about to lay a smack on the guy with the bad attitude, I mean my would be brother, with the bad attitude. He looks like my dad. I mean he sort of does, but he has had work done on his face, and it looks like he will need more after the pounding it got from Holly. I stare.

"I am not the baker. The baker is dead. He took his own sorry life whilst you were in hospital after being shot at, and then just as I was figuring it all out, I find he had a letter arrive a week before he copped out of the mess he made, he took the easy way out, when his markers were being called in by your hotshot husband here, I had to figure out how and why he had lied to me, but the why was the most important reason to search out answers to."

"I never lend money." Christian says. "Have you the paperwork?"

"Yes, and it all points to you, Mr and Mrs Grey, you were both to blame for the mess he was in, you were not content in breaking him in one store, but to do it to all ten of the stores, that was despicable Mrs Grey, he worked damned hard, or so I thought, to finance and set up and get running his stores."

"I did not back him. Loan him the money, or have anything to do with him."

"Really, then why did your team do a work up of my kid brother then?" He stare Christian straight in the face.

"I had it done when we realised he was opening a shop to be set up in competition with my wife. I did not do it for financial gain, or to 'keep an eye' on my supposed investment. I assure you, it was a business threat assessment, and nothing more."

"Okay, for now, let's say I believe you. I don't, but let's pretend I do. When he called me to tell me he would be up and running in no time, and that his stores were opening one by one and he was killing the competition, I doubted him, and I mean really doubted him, he was never that organised, ever. I knew it was too much for him to handle, ten stores all at once? I knew that, but he said he had to do it huge and not to do it, would mean he would live to regret it. Which he did anyway. He was too stupid to ask for my help, in case I called him a loser, a failure and an idiot loser like our mother, I might add I would not have belittled my brother like our mother had. I wouldn't have done, because he was my brother."

"Why did he take his life?" I ask, "was it because of my stores, really?" He nods his head and sniffs up and spits more blood at me.

"Yes, and on the very day your hotshot husband here told him the first balloon payment of a million was due. He asked for more time and it was refused, so he hung himself, because he couldn't face the shame of losing everything and failing."

"Once again I did not lend him any money…" Christian shouted.

"Christian, shush please. Why would he fail, he seemed to be doing so well over there?" I ask.

"He was, until he realised the shops across here would open, and like the rest of his stores, this one would go the same way as the other nine. When yours opened up, his trade dropped, he couldn't compete with your huge set up, even if he was a brainy money freak, and he was neither, he was an easily led fool and a great baker, he should have stuck to what he knew, bread making. He should have stopped and thrown in the towel, and asked for help whilst he was still breathing, and before all the stores started to lose money hand over fist, when all your new and revamped stores opened their doors, make note, I am saying not just this one Mrs Grey, but all of the stores he bought over here in a America, stores right opposite where his old boss's had his stores."

"Old Boss?" I ask.

"Yes his old boss. He called me one night very upset and confused, he was drunk, that much I can tell you, he was probably on pills too, he was very like our mother for the vices he used, he said he couldn't face it, the humiliation, not when he saw who was their new owner. The Frost men he could have gone head to head with, but you, Anastasia D'Acciaio, he knew he would lose the customers he had, to your new stores. For a month before his death though, he was so pleased when your staff and clients flocked to his last store, then the signs went up, about your new super store head office was opening up, and across that very road. He panicked about making the next payment to Mr Grey here. He thought he could put back my money before I knew it was missing, and that's why he borrowed the money from you Mr Grey."

"He opened up ten stores near to John Hyde's stores, not the Frosts, they were Hydes not Frosts!" I say like a petulant child,"but he did it using your money, money he stole from you?"

"There is nothing wrong with your hearing Ms Grey." Christian is getting angrier by the minute. "He lost five million pounds of the money Daddy left in trust for me with my scatty mother, the she whore of a groupie who dropped her knickers around the same time your mother dropped hers for him too. Money, I might add, I never knew I had. Not until he took out this loan with your husband and I went through his damned papers. He tried to get the money back into the account, the five million he borrowed from me, and he only did that because I was coming to see him, because I was so sure he was up to his old tricks and needed help. The thing is I never knew about my trust fund, and if I had I would have sent it you back, had I known about it you would be even richer still."

"Why do you think he said he had borrowed the money from my husband? He is not a banker."

"He is though a money lender, he is a dark hearted man, and a the thief who loans money to the desperate people the banks have said no to, and yes, my brother was desperate, so Mr Grey here, lent him five million, to replace the money he stole from me. It doesn't get you much five mill, not when you have to start from scratch Ms Grey, unlike you, the offspring who have had everything handed to her on a silver platter. Daddy and Grandpa Dearest saw to it that you were never to know poverty or starvation and live in crappy roach infested pits, not like we did."

"Why did you not use the money you were left, if it was so damned bad." I ask, and ignore the fact that he could be my brother, really ignore it. I watch him though and stare at him.

"Why did he get you involved in all this, knowing he had robbed you?" He laughs, at Christian's question.

"He called me in to help sort out the problem, with the money lender. Apparently, he wanted to first replace the money he had stolen from me, my inheritance, which I had in the bank, fuck off money from my father, and believe it or not, unbeknownst to me as it was, I knew nothing about the inheritance I was left? Yes, it was in my name and my mother was the one who was supposedly looking out for me, but had I known about it, I would have refused to touch it. I wanted nothing from the man who had sent my mother packing, when she told him of my impending arrival."

"Really?"I ask.

"Yes really! His lawyers set me up with an account and or tried to pay my mother off. I was to have got it when I was twenty five, but by then my mother had 'forgotten about it' all that money sitting in the damned bank. Easy to do when she was in and out of mental asylums and hospital and clinics. Then, in the early part of the year, my brother opened a letter sent to my mother by a solicitor, reminding her that the trust money was then available. However she was dead by this time, she'd drank herself into an early death and as I was away seeing to the business of defending my country. England, I might add. Seeing the huge amount available to me, he decided to fund his new bakeries with it. He used my father's hush money to open his failing businesses. You may recognise the name of my father, seeing as we shared the same sperm donor, one Mr F Lambert?" I sit bolt upright. Please do not confirm it to be true, my already suspicious mind was right, he is my brother. I say it over and over in my head repeatedly.

"You are claiming to be my brother? Really?" I laugh, actually I cackle like a witch. "You are one of the possible siblings my father warned would come for his fortune?"

"One in the same Sis, and I am not claiming it, I know I am, we look alike don't you think?" He calls me Sis and it makes me want to punch him, and hard. It sounds nothing like when Elliot says it.

"You can't be, all the kids he thought could have been his, they were tested and all were proven not to be related to me. Why are you coming forward now?"

"Your husband here, as I said, he wanted his money back." I stare at Christian.

"I never lend money to people, so I never called in any loans, I did not make, how many more times must I tell you this, I am never a borrower and I am never a lender, as the old saying says, the two get you in trouble and my money is accounted for, all of it I have no loans nor are there debts owed to me, my accountants know how I roll about debt, check if needs be?" He eyeballs Christian, as do I.

"So you don't hold the titles to his ten stores then?" I ask and watch his face, he is not lying to Francis Howard, or to me. I sigh, because for a moment I doubted my husband.

"No, I do not Ana, as I said I am not a money lender, your brother Jon, is it? He actually said I lent him the cash to finance his business, knowing full well my wife had businesses pretty much selling the same lines? Why would I lend anything to my wife's competitors?" Francis Howard, looks at me, he looks pale.

"Will you undergo a DNA test. To either rule you out or in, as a sibling?" I whisper, unsure of how this game of his will play out.

"No. I just want answers to why I was abandoned, I never knew about the money my idiot brother stole, he must have put this farcical plan of his together, for me to bound over here and get more money from you, which I am not doing by the way.

I only found out what had really happened with the trust money today, when I finally searched through his minefield of paperwork. He told me he had a loan from a big investor, and the investor was you Mr Grey, a loan with interest rates that he was never going to be able to repay. So, it seems he was even going to blackmail you with some saucy photos he took of you whilst delivering your order upstairs?

I mean I think he took the photos, but as I cannot find out who posted them for the already dead brother of mine, and no it was not me, I am far too busy with my own life, to play the heavy baddie and hitman for my dumb brother, the brother was dead when we got the photos!" Just when I had thought I worked out how and why we were blackmailed, or tried I mean to blackmail us, it may not now have been the unhappy baker across the road. Go figure? "It seems he was played, again, but by whom?"

"Interesting. So your brother was the guy demanding money from us?" Christian bellows.

"He was dead by the time you got the first demand, so it wasn't him, unless the dead do walk again? Like I said, he was a great baker, but a crap guy with finances, and it seems at blackmail. I mean, if I'd have known that's what he was going to do to my sister, I may have helped him get the money shot. Like I did when I found out who I was for certain, I had her checked out and then had you both checked out when you got married. My dead, deadbeat mother always said I looked like Daddy, but until the bands reunion and people I work with started to say I was his double, I never believed any of her insane ramblings…" He gloats, and I can see he means business. I hear a thud of a car door closing, it is Barney. He hands Taylor a package. "I see the next part of my brothers plan has arrived." Taylor hands Christian the manila envelope. "As I said, as soon as I found out who may have been my father, when my crack whore and alcoholic mother died, some six months ago, she left a dear sons letter to my idiot brother, and me the son who hated her, Jon then read the letter to me and like the doubting Thomas I was, I disbelieved everything she had written, and then all this publicity started about the bands reunion concert, and my work mates began pulling my leg, I decided to do my research on you Sis."

"What research?" I squeak. Like a timid house mouse.

"I got to know the real Lambert girl. My supposed sister the billionaire bondage whore. Oh yes Ana I know a lot about you. In my game it's not what you know, but it's who you know and I have a colleague, of sorts, here in America, one of whom was following a despicable woman and her companions. You it seems knew her very well Mr Grey, you know, your friend Mrs Lincoln? Mrs Elena Lincoln?" I see the colour wash from Christians face.

"How did you get a camera into Satin and Steel?" Is all I can manage to say, as I flick through the photos he has of me, and of Christian at other Satin and Steel clubs. It is a crazy mess or a strange coincidence, that he has photos of us both in my differing clubs?

"Easily, I did not, is the simple answer, but as I said I knew a man, who knew a lady, who knew of your shared depravity Mr and Mrs Grey. She is a lady who wants revenge, and I was to be the harbinger of doom, working with or for my brother. I do this in my line of work, with my team, oh I forgot to tell you, I am with the British Secret Service. You might want to get Mr Sullivan here to get that checked out Taylor. Jason Taylor. Former marine corps veteran? It was my job, actually it is my job I should say to uncover things buried so deep they would never be found. I am on a few months leave to sort out this shit pile my dumb fucking brother caused. So, if you can help me out a little here, because all I have are the spoken lies and the ramblings of a crack whore, please can you at least help me, and you of course, find out who was pulling the idiots strings, if you did not give him the money, then help me find out who did and why did he say you had lent it him? I know he took all of my money, my trust money, but why lie about where he got it from?" Is he for real?

"I could ask you the same thing. Why come here with a gun, to attack me or to get answers?" I ask. He smiles.

"Your man here didn't want to let me near you, I did not draw my weapon, my gun was still holstered, and I said I didn't want to harm you, and that all I wanted to do was talk to you, I have asked many times for a sit down with you, to discuss this Ana, but every request was met with a no... Besides, I did not shoot first, he did, when I had only reached in my pocket for my ID card, and he then shot at my hand. Good shooting by the way." Luke stares him out. I try to make sense of this crap fess. I can't though.

"When did you find out you were my father's son?"

"My drunk of a mother told us who our fathers were when she was about to hand us over to the nuns in the local church orphanage, in London. I first found out when I was about five, and it was a tale she kept giving them when we went to holiday twice a year with them. I remember the last time as clearly as I do the first time we went to visit the nasty nuns. My younger brother, he was an ugly and marked baby, he had a port wine stain all over his face, so nobody wanted him, to me he was like all the other babies, ugly, but he was a baby and my brother who I sort of loved.

It was in registering us that she let loose with the possible names of our fathers to the nuns, those dreaded fucking nuns. The other bane in my life, the fucking evil god infested nuns we lived with for years, I, sorry we, we stopped there regularly, in fact on and off for fucking most of our childhood it seems. Ana, the scars I could show you, from the beatings and the whippings those penguin trolls dished out, when my brother fucking wet the bed or did something wrong, are too horrid to show anyone. Mother the whore, she was too drunk to care for us, and was hooked on drugs for as long as I can remember.

She told the nuns and us, that we both had different, but famous fathers, and to try to get money from them. Mine was supposed to be Lenny Lamb, and his was meant to be this baker she met when she was a backing singer for a rock band, a wolf and a lamb figured in the band's name, figure that one out Ana, who do you think she slept with, Andrew or Frank? Jon's father was supposed to be called John Hyde." I am stunned and shocked. "He died too, not knowing he possibly had a son and not too long ago either. Granted he was a moron of a son to claim and a sorry mess of a brother, but a hell of a baker, a messed up baker and the son of a crack whore, washed up singer and a chocolate master, John Hyde, of London, Paris and Switzerland, who never knew he had a son."

"Sir, he only had two sons and a daughter. He was not the type of man to cheat on his wife either. Please believe me we were very close and he was like a father to me. He told me everything there was to know about him, and never did he say he had cheated on his wife, whom he loved and cared for deeply, it was a pet peeve of his, how his sons both treated women so badly, when all they had seen was the love their parents shared, he was a wonderful and faithful man. Could your mother have lied to you, both?" I sob and wipe a tear from my cheek. I miss Sir, now more than ever. God what a mess, and talk about six degrees of separation, its only three here, me, sir and him.

"I know she did with Jon's father, because she never had a passport. So was very unlikely to have met him in Switzerland as she claimed. Though I do remember my mother's trading ground was at the back of his place in London, I remember that because we did eat from their rubbish bins when tricks for my mother were thin on the ground, she would take me inside the store to get me a drink, and the ladies in his store would fill the pram she had me in and we would go back and eat well on cakes and bread for the next couple of days. It's amazing what a child can remember, but you remember fighting with rats for food." I shiver.

"Yet you believed her telling you my father was your father, to be a truthful thing?"

"I do now, as I said she was a backing singer for your fathers band, when they toured England. Facts I have had confirmed. She got into the drink and the drugs back then too thanks to your father, and mine as it turns out, his roadies and his tour manager passed them about like sweets. I was conceived around the same time as you too Ana, I was to have got my money a few weeks ago, after the reunion concert as it turns out.

Alas I didn't get the memo, Jon did. I am led to believe he, Lenny took her photo and put it in a book he had, or so she wrote at least. She wrote that he gave her a handful of cash and flung her out of the door, but only after he had his way with her, and he fired her, and as he did that to her, he brought the next lamb to the slaughter from another room. Yes, and I was born to a drug taking whore, nine months later. My brother too was born hooked on drugs, like me. That was three years later, yes, my brother came to live with us in the rat and roach infested cellar we lived in, happy times egh for the brothers Howard and the rats and roaches we grew up wiith?"

"I'm sorry," I say as Christian holds me tight. "What do you want?" He smiles as I ask him that stupid question.

"I thought I wanted revenge, I thought I wanted to break you, I guess I just wanted you to know I existed. I don't really want anything from you, Not now and not ever, I made my way to the light in later life and it's been good to me. I would have given you back the money, had my tosser of a brother not lost it all. Sorry it seems to have been pillaged by someone way cleaver than Jon. He was not great at figures and conning folks, I am, he isn't. sorry I mean wasn't."

"I want to know the truth, do you not want to know if we are related?" He shrugged his shoulders. Taylor takes off the cuffs and cuts the cable ties from his legs. Apparently, his story checks out, he is a sort of spy. "Thanks for that. As to knowing who I am? Ana, I am fine with being Francis Howard. I don't need to know more."

"Well I do. I also want to know who was helping your brother to blackmail me."

"Sorry, I only know her as Chloe. She and I have never met, but Jon talked about her all the time. He asked me to help get more photos and I said that was not how I rolled, and there was no way I was wrecking my career for him, not on one of his stupid get rich schemes. It's all that I have, that and my good name. She however, this Chloe woman, she was a bad ass at hacking, and whilst we were Skyping, my brother and I, she somehow got into my laptop via a photo of him he sent to my laptop and one I stupidly opened because a master crook he was not, she must have done it and found my file on my sister, you Ana."

"Chloe, you said Chloe?" Christian asked. "Chloe, think, it's really important you try to remember."

"Yes, Chloe, her last name was never spoken, but she was hanging around with Jon for a couple of years, as I said I had my own life and only heard from Jon when he needed seed money for his next big thing. Apparently, his next and last big thing was going head to head with the Frost guy, an old teacher of his. He, Jon, he was his prodigy, and was sent to the school in New York on a scholarship. How ironic it was that he was at the school his supposed father was to later take over when he fired the Frost man from his school and business. He took Jon with him, of course, did you never meet the brother from my mother? and I only heard from my brother when, as I said, he needed money."

"Holy shit."

"Indeed. So, can I leave? I still have to find out where the rest of his missing money is, he did get a loan off someone using the name Christian Grey, and if it wasn't you then who did he get it from and where is it? There is no way he blew ten million on those poxy shops, they were not worth a fraction of what he paid for them. I also need to find this Chloe girl too."

"I have her contact details, Taylor will forward you them, and be aware she is a conniving computer wizard, so if it is anywhere she has it."

"Christian?"

"Not now Ana. She was also in league with Elena Lincoln and possibly syphoned money from Elena's accounts and she did have some paperwork, written on my letterheads and she was fired if you will, when it became apparent that she wanted more than I could offer her, she left bearing a real grudge against me and Elena, for setting us up. I would say look there and please let me know what you find?" Christian asks, like this guy, my brother, will share. He is my brother of that I am sure, and I don't know how I feel about it.

"So, I think this is where we say goodbye, I have work to do and Ana, you may very well want to know who I am, but leave it. I only came to give you the money back. Money, I no longer have to give you back, as it seems Jon lost it or blew it. I don't need complications a family will lead to. The one brother I did have was fucking hard work and I don't need more family shit."

"Okay. If that's what you want. Then I will honour your wishes. I guess I know deep down who you are, and that will have to be enough. If you need me, reach out and I will be there for you. Brother or not."

"Okay, oh do you want ten shops, I owe a bomb on?"

"No, but I will sort them out for you!" I say and I meant it too.

"I was joking, they are not mine to give away Ana. He gave them to the Christian guy, as surety for the five million. So look out for the for sale sign going up and find out who got them!"

"Oh, okay." He walked to a blacked out SUV and drove out of the garage, like a man on a mission. Was he in fact my brother? Taylor stepped forward with a handkerchief and dabbed it in the blood. I guess I have my way of finding out one way or another, if I do have a brother. Christian also has some answers on this Chloe girl, because I thought Leila, was the only girl with a hankering to be Mrs Grey? He puts me down in the seat of his car.

"I see the look Ana, and it's a tale for another time. We have a house warming and a baby naming to go to. If you still want to that is?"

"I do, and I look forward to the show and tell of our own Mr Grey."

"Taylor, could you please check everything Francis Howard said. Test the blood, and have Chloe Marshall's whereabouts found, and check out everything, even her connection to Elena. I knew Elena had more money, we just couldn't find it. It seems the brothers Howard had some connections to Ana and me, I want the T's and the I's crossing Barney, and use any method you need to do it, any method, Put on one of the many coloured hats you and your hacker friends need. Please?"

"Yes Boss, and I have a girl and two boys in the sweepstake, keep an eye out for me. I also have Oliver Francis, Noah Carrick and Emily Grace Grey as their names." I smile, that man is a cunning man to have on your side. He has read an email, one of many to Christian about name choices I have sent him.

"We will, right everyone, let's get that car cleaned and we will see you all back at Grey Meadows." Christian shouts as he gets in the blood free car. We drive off tailed by Luke, Holly and Taylor. My bloody head hurts and my heart aches to know if the man I have just met is in fact my brother or not. I have a feeling he is, a deep rooted feeling he is, who he says he is. My half-brother. Christian and I talk on the way to our new home, and he agrees, despite his bravado, we each think Francis needs to know the truth about us too. My brother the spy, how cool would that be?

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I know, it's another complicated chapter, with all the who the what's and the where's. I do that a lot in my over fucking complicated stories, what? I have been very good lately. Almost… So Ana may have a brother, there could also be another sub out for blood and a missing amount of millions to find, and another set of mysteries to be solved. Poor Taylor… Read and review. I have not checked this chapter and I am sure there is a mess up in Ana's family of many of Ray's kids and the cousins names, this is why I should keep it simple, but I never learn lol… Perhaps with the next story I will even stick to the original story more, after all Freed is almost upon us… Yeah…


	65. Chapter 65

This story is nowt like fifty shades; I just purloined E.L. James's characters, buildings and some of her other stuff...

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Dreaming of Chocolate and Grey:

Chapter 65:

Welcome to our home:

Christian and I head to our Sound House, at the moment it's called Grey Meadows, as the earth and the clay are still to be seen around the place, from the excavation, it makes it look like an upchuck in a potters pit. They are massive clay quarries in certain parts of Southern England. Cornwall actually and this is what our new homes garden looks like, for now. My absently thinking about clay pits is way better than thinking about the past hour of my life.

I mean as soon as I saw the shadow of a man in the garage and heading towards me, it was eerie, like I knew he would do me no harm? Even when he was against the car, blooded and battered, by Luke, I saw the same look in his eyes, that I see every day. My eyes, my father's eyes and Papa Franks eyes. That was the first of the many things I found oddly familiar about Francis? He looked like my father and though his English voice was a little more, a little more, god I don't know, less 'Brummier' than my fathers, (the Birmingham accent was nowhere to be heard) I guess because he was brought up, or dragged up as it goes, in or around London, is the reason for that. I am sad too, that if we are siblings, then he is right with what he said about me being pampered, we are the same age and I have had it way easier than he did, he seems to have struggled, and I had my life handed to me on a billion dollar plate.

"Ana?" Christian nudges my arm. "Ana, Baby, are you okay?"

"Yes, oddly enough, I am. Will you explain this Chloe? Was she was one of the others?"

"Yes, she was the girl I saw after Leila, for a few months."

"She fell for you too?"

"No, she wanted my money and was a little light handed. I would say she loved the money more than the man."

"As in she stole from you?"

"She did. All the time. I lost a few good watches and a stack of cash. Taylor caught her and I ended it."

"What did she do, besides you?" He laughs and so did I when I realise what I had said. "You know, for a job?"

"She was a computer technologist. She could build them, program them and do anything internet and computer related. She was, I would say, on a par with Barney, or even better. He rated her work and now he knows who he is dealing with, he will know how to find her."

"She is going to be a problem, that much I have figured out for myself, and just when I thought all your Subs and Dom's were dealt too. Now, let's address the elephant in the car."

"When did he sneak in?" He laughs to break the tension. "Is it Dumbo and his feather or the spy you may or may not have as a brother?" Cute, he is being cute!

"Seriously, I think he is my half-brother, I don't need to see the tests, he was my father's son."

"Do you believe he doesn't want any of his rightful money?"

"Yes, I think he is an honest man, who had a dishonest brother. He was dragged up, not brought up, and his life was worse I think, than yours. You both had a rotten start in life and where both tormented by your mothers. If Francis had been adopted into a nice home, with a nice family, he too could have been put on the right path."

"I heard the similarities, and I think he had it worse than me. Not that it is a competition Baby, but I felt the tug on my heart when he described his tender age. We were not that different as young boys."

"I thought he was a great brother, not leaving his brother to the nuns."

"How did you work that out?"

"He said nobody wanted his brother, from that I gleamed he was wanted. He instead chose to stop with Jon."

"Oh, I didn't catch that. Do you think he knows who is his brothers father?"

"Possibly, but I know it wasn't John Hyde. He loved his wife. Very much."

"So, do you want the test ran?"

"Yes, and someday I will make him want to see me as his sister. I always knew I had someone, a sibling out there. I know Papa Frank knew there was too. I know Uncle Andrew said there was a good chance some of his man stuff had made another beautiful baby. I am going to hunt out the damned book from Grey House's secure rooms. I think my own father words will tell me if the story he told me was true or not."

"You are handling this better than I would. I am still livid about Elena and now Chloe messing with our relationship." He looks at me.

"Nobody is messing with us Christian, nobody. Now, here we are, doesn't it look nice?" We stop the car and look at the beautiful old building, lighting up the shoreline. I would think the basements are light to the max, judging from the near perfect view of the sandy shore and water we are seeing.

"Wow, it is stunning. I bow to your better judgement, keeping it as it was and adding to it the glass modern basement rooms. Elliot has built us our forever home Baby. Our babies first home."

"He did. Did the specialist team make good our fun room?"

"Yes, and it looks good. It's not quite the red room, but the swing and the equipment that they installed makes it a fun place to explore, and use."

"So who knows it is there?" I ask.

"Taylor, Sawyer, the equipment guys, Gail for cleaning, and Elliot knows there is a room there, but not what is in it."

"How did he not know what was in it?"

"Taylor had the specialist teams go in at the night. They were in and out and tided away before his guys started work. He thinks it is a safe room, one of three we have."

"I think three is over kill."

"I don't, and less arguing. Too safe is better than not safe enough, you and our babies are too much to lose, plus we have friends and staff whom will need the rooms too." He laughs and we head through the gates, they are massive wrought iron gates, that guard the entrance to our new home. A curly C and A stand side by side, announcing to the people of the Sound, who use the private road, that we are here to stay. I think it actually tells people where we are. There is no hiding a three foot brass C and A after all. We are followed down the road to the entrance and see the rest of the family, gathered on the porch to greet us. Typical, we are late to our own house warming. How rude of us? I think they know why because Grace and my mother are rushing to see if I am okay. I see Christian smile as the onslaught begins… Kate is here with Elliot and she is stomping her foot at me. What? Like my brother coming to deal with my husband was my fault?

"Ana…"

"Annie…" Oh lord, Uncle Andrew looks pissed with me too, and Holly wow she has steam coming from her ears. Why god only knows, because I did as I was told, I adhered to the Ma'am and instructions Luke bellowed at me. perfectly and without a word of a complaint.

"Hold the front page, who died? Mum, put me down, Grace we are fine and Uncle Andrew, I did as I was told, no back chatting or anything. He was there to ask me questions, not shoot me. Although, yes, Luke shot his hand though, I don't think it was needed. Now thanks to Cool Hand Luke, he has a hole in it like Jesus, and a lump on his head from diving out of the path of another bullet."

"Is it true Ana…" My mother asks, and I know she means the Francis thing. "Ana, is he… Is he…"

"I think he is Mum. Do you happen to know who a Nancy Howard was?"

"She was another of your fathers on hand sex buddies, she was a backing singer. Not a very good one, but his type. Is that his mother?"

"He says so. He also said there are only a week or two between out birthdates, and she was given a handshake and nothing more, she was destitute and he knew, because she told him about Francis, why would he lie? What is in it for him?"

"I don't doubt him. I had your Papa Frank and Grannie Mimi on my side, she wasn't as lucky I guess?"

"So she was who she said she was and she was in the tour they did of England?"

"She was dismissed when they got to London. She wasn't going to America, something about a passport being denied her, a thing about a drugs charge and a cancelled visa? I never knew why she wasn't there, in America, not really, but your father replaced her easily enough and the group were no help when I asked them. I just figured she had been used. I was just glad his band fuck buddie was not there anymore, selfish of me I know!" I sigh as Christian kisses my neck. It seems the pieces are slotting together in my brothers family jigsaw. He is more than likely the one kid he knew was going to come after me, and he did, but not for the money. Which I find is one of the many things I liked about him, his honesty and his not wanting the money, money I know is his. I just have to convince him he needs a great sister on his side, and I won't stop pestering him until he gives in and accepts that we are going to get along. Whether he likes it or not. After all Christian didn't like me very much at first. It only took him eighteen years to see me as a vamp and twenty five to make him mine properly. I grow on folks like Ivy, slowly. Oh I like Ivy as a name, but it's been used already by Beyoncé, that and Blue? Lord help me I am wandering, again.

"Ana." I see my uncles as I turn around. "Are you okay? Really Babe, are you?" Uncle Marco hugs me tightly. "We heard from security and I wanted to rush right there and shield you. Didn't I Sunny?"

"We both did. Is he a good guy? Do we have to see to it he gets a horse's head in his bed?" I laugh and Christian, he neighs like a horse. He thought we were Mafia when I met him.

"Why have you got over the fear of blood and horses Uncle Sunny?" Christian asks.

"Nope, I was going to let Merry Marco loose with his pink pinking sheers." Summy is joking around with his brother.

"I still have the pills to knock you out for a week Thunder Cloud. Now, let me see you." Marco out stares Uncle Sunny, and turns me to the light.

"You saw me an hour ago and I haven't changed, I wasn't hurt, just shocked, wonderfully shocked as it goes. Now are the other Ozzy's here?" I say as I try to escape Uncle Marco's death grip.

"No, they are not coming to this little family do, the babies are too small to travel and they are getting fed up of flying for a day, there and back, though we have been graced with the twins, they are about somewhere? They are based over here so they came to eat drink and grab a local girl or two."

"Well, that's good too. Mum, Mum can you please get the waiters to dish out the drinks, I have a funny feeling my husband needs several stiff ones. Gail are the caters here?"

"They are, and I could have done it."

"Then Gail you would not have been a guest. Is that Sophie over there?"

"Yes, she is on her first weekend stop over and Jason is beyond happy. She loves her room and thinks the garden needs her. She was with Gwen designing you a new one. I think she is a born gardener. She has green fingers and a very good eye for colour." I smile hearing Gail talk about Sophie, it has been long overdue, her being a mother, all be it a step mother, she is happy. Taylor too looks like he is happy to be with her. Christian is on the phone to god knows who, then he and Cary, they go towards his office, and I bet I know what that is all about. Protecting me from my brother and or this Chloe woman, is the answer, or possible answer. I mingle and I show people around Elliot's master piece and tell everyone of Gia's plans for the place. She is on the decking with Uncle Sunny. It seems they are being a little more than friendly.

I watch as the people come and go and talk about the house we will be calling home from today. I am sat drinking orange juice when Christian and Marco bring in three large boxes and three large cakes. He taps his whiskey glass…

"Ladies, gentlemen friends and above all family. I gather you love the house? Well so do we. All we need are three little ones to be here to and it will then be a home. I am sure you all would love to give my very talented brother and his great work force a well-deserved round of applause." We hear the claps and whistles and Elliot takes a bow. He thanks us. Why, he did all the hard work? Christian hands him a box and as he opens it, he says a few bad words. He has just given him the keys to a brand new Mobile Crusher, it is a Metso's Lokotrak LT160? That was as clear as mud when the man who sold it to Christian told us what it was and why every building and demo crew had it on their wish list, to me it looks like a thing from Transformers, the movie. For the cost of it, it should come with one of the lead actors driving it. I lost the will to live when we went to the plant hire place. I truly thought we were going to a place for plants for the garden, at least Taylor and Christian had a good laugh at my lack of building machinery knowledge and no, no plants were bought. Apparently, he, Elliot hires them when he demolishes a building, now he has his own and I swear he is that big kid at Christmas getting another Dump Truck.

"Ana and I, as you know, are a little over half way into our pregnancy. We have had a very harsh few weeks too, and we have had some very high mountains to climb to get us where we are today. We were ordered by our mothers to do a gender reveal. So, after much umming and arghing, we went with both the cake and the box, just so we didn't upset anyone, cough, cough, Mia and Kate!"

"Hey, I want to know if we need pink or blue clothes, and that's in either one, two or three cases. So, hurry up already." Kate bellows.

"We would like Sophie to come and open the middle box for us, Elliot and I will open the other, as Kate, Mia and Ana cut into the cakes." The room does a count down and as the lids come off the boxes, balloons in both pink and blue head out of all of them. The girls cut into the perfectly marbled blue and pink cakes, all are the same and from the silence in the room, nobody has noticed we are not revealing their sexes.

"That is not fair…" Mia says.

"Damn right Grey." Kate shouts.

"Christian, Ana…" We smile and take out three teddies from their carrier bags. Two are wearing a blue outfit and one has a pink tutu on. Each has their chosen names on the front. As we place them on the cake table, we could hear a pin drop.

"We are having identical twin boys, who will be called Mark Grey and Thomas Grey. Our little girl, will be called Olivia Grey. We are breaking the tradition of naming them after our parents and extended family, not because we didn't want to honour the people who we love madly, because we do. We thought long and hard about it and decided on giving the family a boost of new names. I might add the Italian's are mad keen on it and we are not saying it is wrong, it is far from it, but with a family as large as this, we would be bound to upset some if one name is used and another is not, and to be honest with you, they all said, when questioned, they wished they were given their own names and not carrying on the tradition of being a second, a third or a junior, a tradition started by she who will not be named. Uncle Ray, he agreed to our plan, but only after they called their little one Ana. Ana, take a look on the big screen Baby…"

There on the massive screen are the Australian branch of my family, complete with Poppy and Ana. Not Anastasia, but Ana. I am brought to tears as Freddie stands up and tells me he has been told he has to sing me a song. He smiles and winks, I then know this is not a thing he wanted to do. So what's betting he is going to be in bed early? The room is silent and he grins as the music starts, I am already laughing, I shouldn't but it is so funny… Why? He is singing a Rhianna song. Bitch better got my money… Needless to say he only managed to sing bitch bedder ave ma money the once before the feed was cut and we got a call to say sorry. I laughed so much I cried, as did Granny T.

"That kid has got a good voice. What was he saying? Whose has his money, a bitch?" Granny T laughed and winked. They did get on at the BBQ, the kid and the big kid, Grammy T. I bet his bum is sore and he is in bed for that stunt he pulled. Great kid that he is.

"Mother, I think we know he was made to sing, Christian used to show us up too when he was made to play the piano for our guests, in fact didn't he once say he wasn't a performing monkey to the head of the board of the hospital, when he asked him for a show tune instead of the classical piece he had been working on for weeks?"

"He did, now that you mention it. Son, are you going to follow your mothers mantra, a language an instrument, and be a follower and a practice one physically challenging sport?"

"Nope, I want it to be fun, fun and a little more fun and if they want to speak French, play the drums or go all Ninja, then so be it. I actually played him a show tune mother."

"The theme for the stripper is not a show tune, as well you know Christian Trevelyan Grey." Oops, he got the full Sunday name. He is in trouble. I laugh as I see the playful ness this family missed from Christian.

"He liked it. Grammy stripped and the crowd jeered when Dad pulled me and Grammy off the stage."

"Good god, I remember that. Good playing Grandson."

"Good stripping Grammy." Our family is laughing. When Gail comes in and tells us dinner is served. Lord this family does wacky like no other. Dinner is a noisy affair and the caters have out done themselves, it is eaten and goes down well. The pots are cleared and the evening continues with the tour of the home Christian and I are happy to be in. The drinks flow as the family slowly gather on the decked area facing the Sound. Fireworks are to be seen from across Elliot's Bay, someone is having the party of all parties as we can hear it all the way over here.

The air is a little chilly and I ask Christian to get me a jacket, which he willingly does. Though he seems to have been away for a while, so I go and see what is keeping him. The sight I see when I get to our bedroom, is something I never want to see again. My mother in law and her mate stuck in the sex swing in our safe room. How the hell they got in there is a mystery. Christian is in the bathroom and is being sick. I think I am about to lose my dinner too.

"What the hell is going on?" I ask, with my back turned to the grunting pair of adults, neigh parents stuck in the damned swing, Carrick is naked and has his feet stuck in the feet harnesses, there to stop you escaping he is locked in and definitely loaded and ready for battle. Why they are here is the least of our worries, Grace has a whip, which is caught in the mechanics of the chairs motorised unit, a damned hard thing to manage getting stuck within the coils, and as she, or they had it on the automated function of slow turning, she too is caught up in the swings intricate bondage settings, how I wish we'd had the simple sling that was simply tethered to the celling with carabiner hooks clipped on to the steel frame work on the celling, but no, we had to have the all singing dancing one, so this one has its own track, much like a disabled hoist works, you use to take the person between rooms, this one takes the user to the differing zones in the room, a room I had as yet not seen. Now, Jesus H Christ, now I have seen far too much of the in-laws.

"Ana, be an angel and turn off the swing, I may be feeling a little light headed Dear." I bet! I reverse backwards and wish to god we had not now mirrored the room, I can see my husband's father's rude bits in the wall mirrors. Too much, I have seen too much. I hit the wrong switch and we ended up stuck. I cannot free the whip, so it needs to be cut." I look at the workings and reverse the machine and it works, Grace and her whip are freed and her poor naked body looks like she has been hugged by a skinny bower constrictor. Not a good look to pull off at a pool party, the thin line circles around her whole body, and her boobs look like they are in bondage gear. Had it been anyone in my club, I would have been quicker at freeing them, but as my hands fumble, I see more of how they are stuck together, and cringe.

"Mom, Dad, care to explain one, how you got in here and two, why, why this room and why do this?" His flinger flicks between the sling, at the room and his parents. "How folks, did you manage to do all this in what ten minutes?"

"More like thirty Son, but we were finishing up when my foot hit the automated swing thing it does, just as your mother was using the whip, and the rest you saw. As to it being open? We saw Kate coming out of here with a grin on her face and then Elliot too came out like the cat who had the cream, so we thought we would investigate. Now, can you explain why you have a secure dungeon, in what we thought was a safe room?" I go red as both of then slide out of the sling swing and I hand them a robe.

"Well, if you must know, it's a fun room for Ana and I, or it was until you two ruined it for Ana and I, we could never use it knowing your bare ass was in that sear Dad, and Mom, that whip is hand woven whip which cost a lot of money, it too will never be able to be used by us again."

"Sorry, but it's been a while since we indulged in a little role play, a long while actually. We may have to buy this off you? If that's all, can we get dressed Christian?" Grace asks. We leave the room and close the wardrobe door.

"Christian, get rid of it." He smiles, and we both smile and then laugh.

"On it already. Perhaps we should keep Escala for the fun stuff?"

"Okay. Reinstate the dungeon there, we are not having one here. Kate and Elliot, do you think they saw it too?" He scrunchies his nose.

"Please, please never talk about this again. I am traumatised for life Ana."

"You are? I can tell you it didn't do wonders for my eyes either Sunshine." We both laugh and head to fins Kate and Elliot. If they used it, I will kill her. Him too, or better still we will tell them in detail what we had to endure because they forgot to shut the bloody door.

"Christian."

"Yes Baby?"

"Not another word, please?"

"My lips are sealed. And Ana?"

"Yes?"

"Let's get that same set up for Escala, my mother had my father in an interesting position."

"Christian…" He laughs as we return to our guests. They haven't missed us as they are dancing on the decking and enjoying themselves, "no words are to be had with Elliot. Your mother and father will be pretty embarrassed as it is. Fancy them being, you know, practicing kinks?"

"Nope, no, please Ana, no way I want to think about it Ana. My mom and dad are not in to the same stuff as me, it's so wrong and on so many levels Baby." He is acting like a much wronged child right now. Although I am glad it wasn't my mother and Bobby doing the dirty, I am relaxing and finding it so damned funny. I bet there are a few people here who are into their own sexual preferences. It seems you are never too old to get your kink on, perhaps next time, Grace and Cary will not be getting it on under our roof. I mean I never, ever thought I would hear the same words Nonna used about me in London, or as is the case, under my own roof… My god today has been interesting, to say the least, and the day is not over, I wonder what will happen tomorrow to top tonight?

* * *

Here are the names and Ray's kids explained… I have confused a few more people, sorry...

Ray, is married to Mariah, he has eight children… Ray JR, 25, Salvador JR, 24. Twins, Marco JR and Santino the 3rd, or turd who are 22, there is a gap between the four eldest and the youngest four. The second lot of twins Franco JR and Lorenzo JR, (Nonna's brothers names) They are ten. Then Freddie 7 and finally their baby girl Ana. Ray JR married Heidi and they have their baby Poppy.

Marco, Sunny are Ana's uncles.

Chloe is an ex sub of Christian's. as you know one of fifteen.

Francis, is Ana's half-brother, and his brother Jon Howard, both have a different fathers and share same mother Nancy Howard, whose name they have. Jon is a too trusting man, is a kind of simpleton and very naive, it was because of this he was easily led by Christian's former sub Chloe. How that came around is for another another chapter. How Francis came into the story was because he has only just found out everything there was to know about his supposed sister. He was lied to all his life and unlike Jon was determined to crawl out of the sewer he had as a boy and make something for himself.

* * *

I do complicated stories because I like complication. Those who have read my other stories already know this… There are about ten chapters left, and as with my other stories, all will come good in the end! Sorry if my plot is putting you off, but it's how I write, sorry… read and review please..


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